Synopses & Reviews
Khat, marijuana, peyote—are these dangerous drugs or vilified plants with rich cultural and medical values? In this book, Lisa Gezon brings the drug debate into the 21st century, proposing criteria for evaluating psychotropic substances. Focusing on khat, whose bushy leaves are an increasingly popular stimulant and the target of vehement anti-drug campaigns, she explores biocultural and socioeconomic contexts on local, national, and global levels. Gezon provides a multi-disciplinary examination of the plant’s direct physical and psychological effects, as well as indirect social and structural effects on income and labor productivity, identity, gendered relationships, global drug discourses, and food security. This sophisticated, multileveled analysis cuts through the traditional battle lines of the drug debate and is a model for understanding and evaluating psychotropic substances around the world.
Synopsis
Lisa Gezon cuts through traditional battle lines of the drug debate, proposing criteria for evaluating psychotropic substances that account for biocultural and socioeconomics contexts on local, national, and global levels.
About the Author
Lisa L. Gezon is Professor and Chair in the Department of Anthropology, University of West Georgia. Her previous books include Culture (with Conrad Kottak, 2010), Global Visions, Local Landscapes (2006), Political Ecology (with Susan Paulson, eds., 2005).
Table of Contents
1: Introduction
Part I: Consumption, Identity, and Health
2: Patterns of Consumption
3: Leaf of Paradise or Scourge?: Drug Effects, Health and Legalization
Part II: Indirect Effects: Production and Trade
4: Growing and Selling Khat
5: Implications for Food Security and Conservation
6: Intimate Livelihoods: Gender and Survival on the Margins
Part III: The Silence of Green Gold: Drug Effects in Economies on the Margins
7: Khat on the Global Margins: Wars on Drugs, State Silence, and Alternative Development Drugs on the Global Margins
8: Tying It Together
References
Index
About the Author