Cocaine Fiends and Reefer Madness
Cocaine Fiends and Reefer Madness

Author: Michael Starks

Publisher: Ronin Publishing

Published: 2015-04-28

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1579511899

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From the very beginning, filmmakers have struggled to free themselves from censorship and manipulation by special-interest groups, and this struggle is clearly evident in the history of drug films. Cocaine Fiends and Reefer Madness is an exhaustive exploration of the history of the depiction of psychoactive drugs in motion pictures from Thomas Edison's Opium Smoker (1894) to Cocaine Cowboys (1978), Included are over 400 silent and 1,000 sound films as well as nearly 500 drug-abuse films, 85 experimental films, and 135 television programs. More than 150 stills, most never before published and many extremely rare, illustrate the text. Arranged chronologically as well as by drug type and often by country, this book shows that, far from being a recent phenomenon, drug films were made in nearly every country and period that produced a significant body of films. Visit Edison's first film studio, reflect on the filmic consequences of Cocteau's opium addiction with Kenneth Anger's early experiences with magic mushrooms, see Charles Laughton smuggling cocaine inside a statute of the Buddha, and watch Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., consuming vast quantities of opium and cocaine in a World War I Sherlock Holmes parody.

Before I Let You Go
Before I Let You Go

Author: Kelly Rimmer

Publisher: Harlequin

Published: 2018-04-03

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 1488029385

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From the author of The Things We Cannot Say, Before I Let You Go explores a hotly divisive topic and asks how far the ties of family love can be stretched before they finally break. “Kelly Rimmer skillfully takes us deep inside a world where love must make choices that logic cannot. Ripped from the headlines and from the heart, Before I Let You Go is an unforgettable novel that will amaze and startle you with its impact and insight.” —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop at Water’s End “Before I Let You Go is a heartbreaking book about an impossible decision. Kelly Rimmer writes with wisdom and compassion about the relationships between sisters, mother and daughter…. She captures the anguish of addiction, the agonizing conflict between an addict’s best and worst selves. Above all, this is a novel about the deepest love possible.” —Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author The 2:00 a.m. call is the first time Lexie Vidler has heard her sister’s voice in years. Annie is a drug addict, a thief, a liar—and in trouble, again. Lexie has always bailed Annie out, given her money, a place to sleep, sent her to every kind of rehab. But this time, she’s not just strung out—she’s pregnant and in premature labor. If she goes to the hospital, she’ll lose custody of her baby—maybe even go to prison. But the alternative is unthinkable. As the weeks unfold, Lexie finds herself caring for her fragile newborn niece while her carefully ordered life is collapsing around her. She’s in danger of losing her job, and her fiancé only has so much patience for Annie’s drama. In court-ordered rehab, Annie attempts to halt her downward spiral by confronting long-buried secrets from the sisters’ childhoods, ghosts that Lexie doesn’t want to face. But will the journey heal Annie, or lead her down a darker path? Don’t miss Kelly Rimmer’s next historical suspense, The Paris Agent, coming July 2023! For more by Kelly Rimmer, look for The Things We Cannot Say Truths I Never Told You The Warsaw Orphan The German Wife

Confessions of a Cartel Hit Man
Confessions of a Cartel Hit Man

Author: Martin Corona

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-07-25

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1101984627

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The true confession of an assassin, a sicario, who rose through the ranks of the Southern California gang world to become a respected leader in an elite, cruelly efficient crew of hit men for Mexico's "most vicious drug cartel," and eventually found a way out and an (almost) normal life. Martin Corona, a US citizen, fell into the outlaw life at twelve and worked for a crew run by the Arellano brothers, founders of the the Tijuana drug cartel that dominated the Southern California drug trade and much bloody gang warfare for decades. Corona's crew would cross into the United States from their luxurious hideout in Mexico, kill whoever needed to be killed north of the border, and return home in the afternoon. That work continued until the arrest of Javier Arellano-Félix in 2006 in a huge coordinated DEA operation. Martin Corona played a key role in the downfall of the cartel when he turned state's evidence. He confessed to multiple murders. Special Agent of the California Department of Justice Steve Duncan, who wrote the foreword, says Martin Corona is the only former cartel hit man he knows who is truly remorseful. Martin's father was a US Marine. The family had many solid middle-class advantages, including the good fortune to be posted in Hawaii for a time during which a teenage Martin thought he might be able to turn away from the outlaw life of theft, drug dealing, gun play, and prostitution. He briefly quit drugs and held down a job, but a die had been cast. He soon returned to a gangbanging life he now deeply regrets. How does someone become evil, a murderer who can kill without hesitation? This story is an insight into how it happened to one human being and how he now lives with himself. He is no longer a killer; he has asked for forgiveness; he has made a kind of peace for himself. He wrote letters to family members of his victims. Some of them not only wrote back but came to support him at his parole hearings. It is a cautionary tale, but also one that shows that evil doesn't have to be forever.

Never Enough
Never Enough

Author: Judith Grisel

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2019-02-19

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 0385542852

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From a renowned behavioral neuroscientist and recovering addict, a rare page-turning work of science that draws on personal insights to reveal how drugs work, the dangerous hold they can take on the brain, and the surprising way to combat today's epidemic of addiction. Judith Grisel was a daily drug user and college dropout when she began to consider that her addiction might have a cure, one that she herself could perhaps discover by studying the brain. Now, after twenty-five years as a neuroscientist, she shares what she and other scientists have learned about addiction, enriched by captivating glimpses of her personal journey. In Never Enough, Grisel reveals the unfortunate bottom line of all regular drug use: there is no such thing as a free lunch. All drugs act on the brain in a way that diminishes their enjoyable effects and creates unpleasant ones with repeated use. Yet they have their appeal, and Grisel draws on anecdotes both comic and tragic from her own days of using as she limns the science behind the love of various drugs, from marijuana to alcohol, opiates to psychedelics, speed to spice. With more than one in five people over the age of fourteen addicted, drug abuse has been called the most formidable health problem worldwide, and Grisel delves with compassion into the science of this scourge. She points to what is different about the brains of addicts even before they first pick up a drink or drug, highlights the changes that take place in the brain and behavior as a result of chronic using, and shares the surprising hidden gifts of personality that addiction can expose. She describes what drove her to addiction, what helped her recover, and her belief that a “cure” for addiction will not be found in our individual brains but in the way we interact with our communities. Set apart by its color, candor, and bell-clear writing, Never Enough is a revelatory look at the roles drugs play in all of our lives and offers crucial new insight into how we can solve the epidemic of abuse.

Dirty
Dirty

Author: MC Flux

Publisher: Mereo Books, mereobook, mereobooks

Published: 2015-03-02

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 1861513577

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ÿMC Flux, AKA Carl Rodney Thomas, is a top drum and bass MC, a UK pioneer in this type of dance music. Inspired in his teens by reggae, back in the 90s he became Youth Champion of the Reggae Young Sounds competition. Talent-spotted for top clubs, he was soon the MC of choice for raves such as Innovation, Desire, Dreamscape, World Dance, Innocence and Helter Skelter. He even formed his own clothing company. But Flux has spent plenty of time on the dark side and dicing with the law ? he has often been in the front line during violent clashes at soccer matches, and his involvement with drugs led to him serving a prison sentence for false imprisonment and demanding money with menaces. This is his raw, colourful story, written with the help of his close friend Peter Spence, better known in the dance world as Pete Nice. Vivid and explicit, this is not a story for the faint-hearted.

Pill Head
Pill Head

Author: Joshua Lyon

Publisher: Hachette Books

Published: 2009-07-07

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1401394493

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This compelling, honest book investigates the growing epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse among today's Generation Rx. Through gripping profiles and heartbreaking confessions, this memoir dares to uncover the reality -- the addiction, the withdrawal, and the recovery -- of this newest generation of pill poppers. Joshua Lyon was no stranger to substance abuse. By the time he was seventeen, he had already found sanctuary in pot, cocaine, Ecstasy, and mushrooms -- just to name a few. Ten years later, on assignment for Jane magazine, he found himself with a two-inch-thick bottle of Vicodin in his hands and only one decision to make: dispose of the bottle or give in to his curiosity. He chose the latter. In a matter of weeks he'd found his perfect drug. In the early half of this decade, purchasing painkillers without a doctor was as easy as going online and checking the spam filter in your inbox. The accessibility of these drugs -- paired with a false perception of their safety -- contributed to their epidemic-like spread throughout America's twenty-something youth, a group dubbed Generation Rx. Pill Head is Joshua Lyon's harrowing and bold account of this generation, and it's also a memoir about his own struggle to recover from his addiction to painkillers. The story of so many who have shared this experience--from discovery to addiction to rehabilitation -- Pill Head follows the lives of several young people much like Joshua and dares to blow open the cultural phenomena of America's newest pill-popping generation. Marrying the journalist's eye with the addict's mind, Joshua takes readers through the shocking and often painful profiles of recreational users and suffering addicts as they fight to recover. Pill Head is not only a memoir of descent, but of endurance and of determination. Ultimately, it is a story of encouragement for anyone who is wrestling to overcome addiction, and anyone who is looking for the strength to heal.

Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
Memoirs of an Addicted Brain

Author: Marc Lewis

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

Published: 2011-10-04

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0385669267

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A gripping, ultimately triumphant memoir that's also the most comprehensive and comprehensible study of the neuroscience of addiction written for the general public. FROM THE INTRODUCTION: "We are prone to a cycle of craving what we don't have, finding it, using it up or losing it, and then craving it all the more. This cycle is at the root of all addictions, addictions to drugs, sex, love, cigarettes, soap operas, wealth, and wisdom itself. But why should this be so? Why are we desperate for what we don't have, or can't have, often at great cost to what we do have, thereby risking our peace and contentment, our safety, and even our lives?" The answer, says Dr. Marc Lewis, lies in the structure and function of the human brain. Marc Lewis is a distinguished neuroscientist. And, for many years, he was a drug addict himself, dependent on a series of dangerous substances, from LSD to heroin. His narrative moves back and forth between the often dark, compellingly recounted story of his relationship with drugs and a revelatory analysis of what was going on in his brain. He shows how drugs speak to the brain - which is designed to seek rewards and soothe pain - in its own language. He shows in detail the neural mechanics of a variety of powerful drugs and of the onset of addiction, itself a distortion of normal perception. Dr. Lewis freed himself from addiction and ended up studying it. At the age of 30 he traded in his pharmaceutical supplies for the life of a graduate student, eventually becoming a professor of developmental psychology, and then of neuroscience - his field for the last 12 years. This is the story of his journey, seen from the inside out.

Punished for Purpose
Punished for Purpose

Author: Burns Lauri

Publisher: WingSpan Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 1595943730

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Punished for Purpose is a compelling true-life story of abuse, hardship and inspiration-the vivid tale of a beaten child turned prostitute and heroin addict who could only reconcile her tragic existence as punishment for sins committed in a past life. Close to the ultimate self destruction, she is guided by thirteen people, virtual angels, each of whom crosses her path at exactly the right moment to lead her back to the light. Far beyond coincidence, she can only view it as a sign that her life was meant to be, that she was returned from the darkness for a purpose: To rescue those left behind, to save as many of America's throwaway children as her time on earth will allow.

Clean
Clean

Author: David Sheff

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 054784865X

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The author of the #1 "New York Times"-bestseller "Beautiful Boy" offers a new paradigm for dealing with addiction based on cutting-edge research and stories of his own and other families' struggles with--and triumphs over--drug abuse.

Confessions of a Female Vigilante
Confessions of a Female Vigilante

Author: A. L. Sutter

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2015-09-18

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1514405547

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Confessions is a psychological thriller, page-turning revelation about misplaced trust and the irreparable harm to the female psyche caused by relationships with men. Lane Stone has been a twenty-five year prosecutor for the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office, and now practices criminal defense. Claiming justice after a devastating experience of erotic transference with her psychologist of thirty years, she takes justice into her own hands. Through the encouragement of the only true love Lane has ever known - Christopher, she seems to be redeemed. Doubt as to Lanes motives is raised by Chris best friend, Jimmy, an LAPD cop, but the mature unbreakable bond Lane shares with Christopher seems strong enough to put Lanes demons to rest. Can the obsessive need for revenge ever be satiated? Only you, the readers can hand down the verdict on Lane Stone.