The parent commenter is overly mood-affiliated, but Eric Schlosser's book Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market is good on this topic (http://www.amazon.com/Reefer-Madness-Drugs-American-Market/d...). I don't have a copy of it at hand, but making weed and other drugs illegal was wrapped up in racial fear and fears of what become known as counterculture.
Wade Davis's One River is about many things, including the ways hallucinogens came to the U.S., how they fit many indigenous religions, and why they're far more legitimate than the US makes them out to be. It's also an adventure story about the exploration of the deep Amazon and other South American rivers.
The parent commenter is overly mood-affiliated, but Eric Schlosser's book Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market is good on this topic (http://www.amazon.com/Reefer-Madness-Drugs-American-Market/d...). I don't have a copy of it at hand, but making weed and other drugs illegal was wrapped up in racial fear and fears of what become known as counterculture.
Wade Davis's One River is about many things, including the ways hallucinogens came to the U.S., how they fit many indigenous religions, and why they're far more legitimate than the US makes them out to be. It's also an adventure story about the exploration of the deep Amazon and other South American rivers.