CHRN Newsletter - Books! Books! Books!

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Jan 9, 2014, 12:40:51 PM1/9/14

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Newsletter of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network

January 2014

BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!

Books I read, re-read and/or am planning to read

Plus a brief wish list
...

The holiday season and the lead-up to it never seem to have enough days. This year was no exception. I had planned to put out a book issue of our Newsletter before the holidays ... but that project never took flight - at least not on time for gift giving.

Here it is none-the less: a list of some of the books I have read over the past year, some new and some old, in some cases with information on how to find them; some books I continuously find useful or inspiring; some books I haven’t read yet but am looking forward to reading; plus a few items yet to be written that are on my wish list.

New / New to Me:
High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society
- Carl Hart
Drug Warriors and their Prey: from Police Power to Police State
- Richard Lawrence Miller (1996)

I was introduced to Carl Hart and Richard Lawrence Miller in the outstanding drug documentary "The House I Live In". Hart’s credentials are impeccable. He speaks from his experience both as a youth in the Florida Ghetto and as a scientist / professor. His book not only increases knowledge but is useful in addressing drug myths and stigma. Miller blew my mind in the documentary with his description of how people who use drugs have become victims of genocide. If you don’t believe this, your mind might be changed by reading his well-researched and authoritative 1996 book on the subject.

Deadly Tricks
- Kimberley Mansfield

At the moment when the Canadian Supreme Court has struck down Canada’s prostitution laws, this heart-beat novel gives you an informed insider’s perspective on the lives of working girls and the risks they face to survive. Disclaimer: I have known Kimberley Mansfield since the mid 1990s. She is my friend. She is also a friend to people who work in the sex trades, to people who use illicit drugs and to the field of harm reduction. She goes the extra mile for all of us ... https://www.facebook.com/noharmcanada

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
- Michelle Alexander.

This well researched book is a hard-to-face but necessary read for people who may still believe that the race wars are over in the USA (and in other places, for that matter). For black men in particular, imprisonment has become the new slavery, and the prisons themselves the new plantations. This is happening in Canada now, though to a lesser extent than in the USA - but it is increasing. For us, it is the imprisonment of Aboriginal people that is our larger concern ... as prisons of today equate the residential schools of yesterday.

Drugs Without the Hot Air: Minimising the Harm of Legal and Illegal Drugs
- David Nutt

This has already become my go-to book for information on the relative risks of a wide swath of illegal drugs. Nutt is a scientist, and an honest one, who got fired from his job as the UK’s Drug Czar for telling the truth: that horseback riding has a higher level of risk than taking ecstasy

Trauma Matters: Guidelines for Trauma-Informed Practices in Women’s Substance Use Services
- Jean Tweed Centre

There is compelling evidence that women’s substance use is linked to their experiences of trauma and violence. The same might be said of men. Though this manual will be of greatest value to work directed towards women, there is much in it that is generally useful for work with anyone with substance issues. Reading it, I was struck by the similarities between trauma-informed therapy and harm reduction therapy. Clearly this is something to explore.

http://www.jeantweed.com/Resources/Knowledge.aspx

Re-read and Referred to:

Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide for Managing Drugs and Alcohol
- Patt Denning, Jeannie Little & Adina Glickman
Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (2^nd Edition)
- Patt Denning & Jeannie Little

I have been mentoring some University of Toronto students on harm reduction this year, and I have referred these books to all of them. Well written and practical, with extensive references, they provide clear and useful information in an accessible manner about harm reduction therapy and self help - and about harm reduction in general.

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
- Gabor Maté

Maté is a physician who has years of experience working with people on the streets of Vancouver. His book is a well-observed response to what he has seen and what he learned from his clients. Clearly he loves his work and the people he works with. An inspiring book

Synthetic Panics: The Symbolic Politics of Designer Drugs
- Philip Jenkins

Any time a new drug - and a new panic - arises, locally, nationally or internationally, I return to this book which helps me regain perspective and respond to the nonsense of the mob.

A Plague of Prisoners : The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America
- Ernest Drucker

This is the most valuable book I have read about the prison madness that swept the USA and is now sweeping Canada, thanks to our Prime Minister of Ideologies: Steven Harper. It also offers a way out.

Righteous Dopefiend
- Philippe Bourgois & Jeff Schonberg

This is far and away the best piece of ethnographic research I have ever read. Beautifully written, it is both scientific and humane Considering the people researched and the amount of time the researchers spent with them, how could it be otherwise? We need more research like this, but funding is simply not there, since for the most part we - in Canada at least - have to depend (shamelessly?) on Big Pharma to support what we do.

Waiting To Be Read:

Recover!: A Revolutionary Guide to Reclaiming Your Life from Addiction Smoke Signals
- Stanton Peele
Recover!: Stop Thinking Like an Addict and Reclaim Your Life with The PERFECT Program
- Stanton Peele

Both books have been announced as coming out this winter. Are they one and the same? Everything by Peele deserves attention. He was one of my early heros, and he still enjoys that status. I was introduced to Peele’s writing by one of my street-based clients when I was just starting out in harm reduction.

Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution
- Doug Fine

I have not read enough about the struggle to revoke marijuana’s illicit status. This book seems a good place to start. Though American in perspective, it shines light on both the universal obstacles and how Americans are bringing about changes. These lessons will apply to what we face in Canada, when the current government either wises up or gets voted out. 　

Canadian Recommendation
:

Everything by Susan Boyd deserves to be read and read again. Her writings on women and drug use are the best anywhere. Two that I read a couple of years ago, and especially recommend to you, are With Child: Substance Use During Pregnancy, a Woman-Centred Approach and From Witches to Crack Moms: Women, Drug Use and Policy.

A Thousand Dreams
- Neil Boyd, Larry Campbell and Lori Culbert should actually be on my must-read list. Not about drugs per se, this is a study of the deleterious impact of short-sighted government policies on cities, using Vancouver’s downtown east side as a template for it.

Though Bruce Alexander’s study "Rat Park" is not a book, it is an essential piece of research for everyone working in the field of drug use and addiction. Too bad its influence has not been greater, though this may be changing. At least it has a Wikipedia entry ... and a comic book!

http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comics_en/rat-park/

My Wish List
:
Patricia Erikson
- a book about marijuana policy
Eugene Oscapella & Diane Riley
- jointly or singly, a book on Canadian drug policy
Andrew Tatarsky
- a new book about his latest thinking and practice of harm reduction psychotherapy. Long overdue!!!

Blowing My Own Horn:

Learning from Each Other: Enhancing community-Based Harm Reduction Programs and Practices in Canada

This is research that Lynne Belle-Isle and I, along with photo journalist Lisa Fleischmann, did across the country several years ago - and it is still a one-off. The harm reduction work in smaller cities deserves better recognition. http://www.canadianharmreduction.com/projects

Harm Reduction in Substance Use and High-Risk Behaviour: International Policy and Practice
- Edited by Richard Pates & Diane Riley

An excellent overview of the state of harm reduction around the world. Diane Riley and I wrote the chapter on Canada - "Harm Reduction in Canada: The Many Faces of Regression".

Getting to Tomorrow: A Report on Canadian Drug Policy
.

This publication by the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is the best analysis of current drug policy in Canada. I was on the steering committee which reviewed this document while it was in process. My regret about this report is the "tomorrow" aspect. It recommends decriminalisation of drugs, which I have come to see as insufficient. It leaves the manufacture and distribution of illicit drugs in the hands of dishonourable and venal criminals, with the result that drugs are impure, of uncertain strength, often mislabeled, and sometimes harmful to health and unexpectedly lethal. Sorry, decriminalisation is just not good enough! Regulation and control is the best solution.

http://drugpolicy.ca/progress/getting-to-tomorrow/

This year, let’s work together for positive change for drug policies and laws. Too many people are needlessly getting sick. Too many people are needlessly dying. And too many people are being needlessly incarcerated.

Walter Cavalieri

Director

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