There’s a lifetime’s worth of knowledge and research to dig into here but thanks to Nutt’s direct, no nonsense writing style the book also serves as a masterclass in science communication. – BBC Science Focus magazine Drugs without the hot air covers a wide range of topics, from addiction and whether addictive personalities exist to the role of cannabis in treating epilepsy, an overview on the opioid crisis, and an assessment of how harmful vaping is. This new expanded and revised second edition includes even more details on international policies, particularly in the US. David's research has won international support, reducing drug-related harm by introducing policies that are founded on scientific evidence. But there is still a lot to be done. The amazing Professor David Nutt has done it again. The must-read second edition has even more drugs and even less hot air! * Prof Val Curran, Director UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit * If you don't want to read it you might give it to your teenage children. A little knowledge (to misquote Pope) is a dangerous thing and most teenagers who try drugs are at best only partly informed. If they might be tempted by illicit drugs a little truth-telling from someone who knows and cares might help. Knowledge is empowering. Chapters 6 and 7 were almost enough to give this book two stars. Six presented the problems associated with alcohol better than any other place I've seen, and did a really good job to succinctly make the case for why we should think about it differently than we do. Seven did a good job at looking at the specific evolution of British policy on Mephedrone, and did a much better job to analyze something specific with a granularity that actually she some light on the issue.

This is excellent and exactly what it says. Highly informed, caring, social-minded. Drugs without the hot air; without uninformed opinion parading as fact. This became a bit of a cause celèbre in the geekosphere. Because we all know that politicians will ignore the evidence if it’s politically inconvenient, but it’s rarely quite so blatant as firing someone for saying what the evidence is. For half a century the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 has dominated ill-conceived approaches to the prohibition of drugs and the criminalisation of many offenders. Wilful blindness to scientific facts has distorted the dispensation of justice, prevented lifesaving investigation, sidelined critics and thwarted advocates of politically inconvenient drugs law reform.The worst part about this book is that I came out feeling only marginally more informed about what we can do to minimize the harms going forward, what policies I should support and what practices I should adopt. I would have even accepted a book that taught me a lot about the history, or that gave me a lot of anecdotal accounts that weaved stories both from the regulatory and user side of things. But instead I got none of this. Perhaps I'm not the target audience, maybe it's for people who haven't though much about the issue before. But there are still major issues (see Chapter 12) and insufficient summaries (see Chapter 13) to contend with, leading me to think I probably wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. Overall, I'd say about 5% of the book was new, useful material for me, another 5% a worthwhile read, and the rest either introductory or poor quality material that didn't help me grow at all. I'll proceed with a chapter by chapter breakdown (grouping similar ones together) to shine some further light. Start telling your kids about drugs from an early age and be prepared to discuss your drinking and smoking with them.

The issue of what a drug is and how we should live with them affects us all: parents, teachers, users – anyone who has taken a painkiller or drunk a glass of wine. Written by renowned psychiatrist, Professor David Nutt, Drugs without the hot air casts a refreshingly honest light on drugs and answers crucial questions that are rarely ever disputed. What are we missing by banning medical research into magic mushrooms, LSD and cannabis? Can they be sources of valuable treatments? How can psychedelics treat depression? For me, the real strength of this book is in the sharing of the author's depth of knowledge in the science and political history of the subject, along with his clinical perspective and a passionate desire to reduce the harm caused by all substances including alcohol and tobacco. The autobiography of Professor David Nutt describes his life, distinguished career and scientific achievements, including his research into the human brain and the effects that both lawful and criminally illegal substances (including psychedelics) have on the brain and behaviour. It also catalogues with expert precision the risks of harm to drug users and others of a range of well-known drugs.David Nutt ήταν σύμβουλος της Βρετανικής κυβέρνησης μέχρι που δημοσίευσε ένα άρθρο σε επιστημονική δημοσίευση που -ω, βλασφήμια!- σύγκρινε ελαφρώς χιουμοριστικά τους κινδύνους της λήψης MDMA, γνωστού και ως Ecstasy, με αυτούς της ιππασίας. Όπως ήταν αναμενόμενο, έχασε την θέση του -- μια θέση σ' ένα συμβούλιο που υποτίθεται πως ήταν υπεύθυνο για να ενημερώνει την κυβέρνηση γι�� το ποιες ουσίες είναι επικίνδυνες σε ποιον βαθμό και να αλλάζει την κοινή γνώμη γι' αυτές σύμφωνα με νέα επιστημονικά δεδομένα που τις αφορούν. Chapters 3, 4, 5 & 16 all felt incredibly introductory, so if you have even a basic familiarity I recommend to skip them entirely. Note: the chronicling of how perception of cannibas changed from medicine to drug in chapter 5 was a notable exception here that was something new for me. I don't think you could ask for a more sensible, clear-eyed, and useful book about drugs, from the ones your doctor prescribes to the ones your bartender serves you to the ones you can go to jail for possessing. Nutt is not just a great and principled campaigner, nor merely a talented and dedicated scientist - he's also a superb communicator. * Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing * It’s interesting to read because it simultaneously seems radical and rather obvious. Radical because if all the evidence in the book was taken seriously it would involve a top-to-bottom rewriting of UK drug laws; and obvious because actually not much of this stuff should come as a surprise. Having enjoyed a Hay-Festival talk involving David Nutt among others, which discussed the current attitude towards drugs, and whether the "War on Drugs" had failed, I immediately bought and read this book. In that one hour's discussion, I'd found that my attitude towards drug laws had changed significantly from supporting the current emphasis of strong prosecution and imprisonment, to the recognition that if drug abuse was thought of as purely a health issue, the world could be a much better place. Reading this book helped me understand these concepts further, and taught me a great deal I hadn't known about drugs and the consequences of our approach to their use.

Nutt (ταιριαστό όνομα!) ξεκίνησε μια αρκετά ενδιαφέρουσα έρευνα επάνω στις βλαβερές συνέπειες των "ναρκωτικών" (όπως τις αποκαλούμε εδώ) ουσιών μ' ένα σύστημα 16 κατηγοριών βλάβης, και άφθονα από τα συμπεράσματά του αφορούν τόσο εμένα όσο και την νανιάκατη γιαγιά μου που πέρα από το αλκοόλ (το χειρότερο διεθνώς, ομολογουμένως, ναρκωτικό), την νικοτίνη και την πίσσα (τα δεύτερα χειρότερα), και την καφεΐνη ("δεν είναι ναρκωτικό, απλά δεν ξυπνάω αν δεν την λάβω!") δεν αναγν��ρίζει οποιαδήποτε άλλη ουσία ως "αποδεκτή και μη-σατανική" για την ηθική της. Επίσης αρνείται να μου πουλήσει τσιγάρα, αλλά αυτό είναι άλλο αστείο. Drugs with the Hot Air is the perfect book for anyone who wants to understand drugs, their risks and benefits. David avoids all the prejudices and misinformation, common in too many documents in this field. He writes simply. He is a pleasure to read. * Baroness Meacher, House of Lords * Surveying the state of medical knowledge around various currently prohibited substances – from hard drugs to LSD, cannabis, ecstasy, magic mushrooms and poppers – Professor Nutt ranks their potential harms and benefits (e.g. in treating anxiety, depression or pain) leading him to challenge the distorted logic of a blanket ban on anything psychoactive except alcohol, tobacco and caffeine. It’s interesting though, and very readable. It helps that, although the book takes a ‘liberal’ stance compared to the current law, it’s not derived from a naive libertarianism. Nutt is not arguing for loosening the drug laws on the basis of increased personal liberty; he wants the law to be better at managing harms and risks. So he supports the ban on smoking in public places and would tighten some of the rules on alcohol sales. And although treating addiction to heroin and cocaine as a primarily medical problem could be seen as ‘soft on drugs’, he’s arguing for it on the basis that it is the best way to minimise harm. Praise for the Book: I don’t think you could ask for a more sensible, clear-eyed, and useful book about drugs, from the ones your doctor prescribes to the ones your bartender serves you to the ones you can go to jail for possessing. Nutt is not just a great and principled campaigner, nor merely a talented and dedicated scientist – he’s also a superb communicator. – Cory Doctorow, Boing BoingIt’s easy to assume that the author has a chip on his shoulder after being controversially removed from his governmental position. It’s much harder to read this book and not feel frustrated at the drug policies adopted by the UK government and others, which are neither sophisticated nor evidence-based. The chapter evaluating the success or failure of the War on Drugs is particularly damning – no prizes for guessing which way the evidence would seem to point. This book covers various aspects of drug use: how drugs work, how harmful they are, what addiction is, what treatments are available and so on. It covers alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs as well as the illegal ones. The dangers of illegal drugs are well known and rarely disputed, but how harmful are alcohol and tobacco by comparison?

My only real negative is that the book does get somewhat repetitive near the end. While I'd still recommend reading the whole thing through, it does feel a bit like each chapter is it's own separate essay; i.e. if a point has been made in one chapter, it will still be made again, two chapters later.

urn:lcp:drugswithouthota0000nutt:epub:17a9ae39-0965-4e63-88f9-bde811cb128c Foldoutcount 0 Identifier drugswithouthota0000nutt Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t6r04tb1p Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781906860165 Chapters 1 & 2 felt like a long ego trip. Don't get me wrong, the events are worth writing about, but Nutt doesn't give much substance here, he just gives you a sort of tabloid overview of the situation that felt like it was about 95% filler and 5% content. I would have loved to have learned more about the traditional relationship between the ACMD and the government, he gives something like a paragraph on this topic that I think had to be far richer and would either paint a picture of a relationship that has grown fraught recently or one that has been flawed from the start, each of which suggestion we should take different actions about the problem.