The dangers of illegal drugs are well known and rarely disputed, but how harmful are alcohol and tobacco by comparison? 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? 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. Accessibly written, this much-awaited second edition is an important book for everyone that brings us all up to date with the 'war of drugs'.

For students old and new, Brain and Mind Made Simple makes sense of the brain, mind and consciousness. The book is packed with examples, patient histories and explanations, exploring for instance the strange case of Phineas Gage who survived brain injury but with a new personality. An expert, scientific and highly accessible guide. Most people know David Nutt as the UK’s sacked Drug Czar – ‘kicked out’ for speaking truth to power i.e. that UK policy on drugs and alcohol was not fit for purpose, driven by politics not science. But in a life outside politics Nutt is an academic, psychiatrist and researcher who studies the brain to help understand how it goes awry in mental and neurological illnesses. A few years ago, before Covid, he started giving public lectures explaining how the brain works and how alterations of the mind can occur as a result of changes in brain function. They were extremely popular — usually over 150 people at each — with lots of questions. So, he decided to write up the lectures in this book for the general public, and anyone else with an interest in the field, especially university students of psychology, medicine and neuroscience. As well as educating these groups, all royalties from Brain and Mind Made Simple will help support the charity Drug Science that David Nutt set-up after his sacking to continue to promote the cause of bringing scientific evidence to improve drug policy.

Does Ecstasy cause brain damage? Why is crack more addictive than cocaine? What questions regarding drugs are legal to ask in a job interview? When does marijuana possession carry a greater prison sentence than murder? Illegal Drugs is the first comprehensive reference to offer timely, pertinent information on every drug currently prohibited by law in the United States. It includes their histories, chemical properties and effects, medical uses and recreational abuses, and associated health problems, as well as addiction and treatment information. Additional survey chapters discuss general and historical information on illegal drug use, the effect of drugs on the brain, the war on drugs, drugs in the workplace, the economy and culture of illegal drugs, and information on thirty-three psychoactive drugs that are legal in the United States, from caffeine, alcohol and tobacco to betel nuts and kava kava.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO CANNABIS AND YOUR HEALTH Underpinned by his two-year research trial in partnership with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, involving up to 20,000 patients, which will create Europe's largest body of evidence on the plant's medicinal qualities - Professor David Nutt and his team of scientists will break the mould on the way we use Cannabis for our health in the future. In David's first ground-breaking book on the subject, he will cover its impact of all areas of the body and the brain and its effective use for treatment of illness from chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and PTSD, to anxiety and depression. This is the essential knowledge that cuts through the noise and give us evidence-based information that will change people's lives.

A direct challenge to politicians and others by a world expert on drugs. David Nutt regularly hit the headlines as the UK’s forthright Drugs Czar (Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs), not least when fired by the Home Secretary in 2009 for his ‘inconvenient’ views. In Nutt Uncut he explains how he survived ill-judged political and media vilification to establish the respected charity Drug Science, with the aim of telling the truth about drugs. The book 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. 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. Nutt Uncut contains far, far more about the usually hidden world of drugs, their use, abuse and role as a political bargaining counter — making it of interest not just to the many experts and others who already support the author’s campaign for a frank, evidence-based approach to drugs but also anyone who wishes to learn about what he describes in Chapter 11 as ‘policy madness.’

Journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling Unbroken Brain tackles the revolutionary concept of harm reduction, how it can transform the treatment of addiction, and how it holds the potential to revolutionize our treatment of behavioral and societal issues. In her New York Times bestseller Unbroken Brain, journalist Maia Szalavitz took an unflinching look at addiction, challenging the idea of the "broken brain" to offer a groundbreaking perspective on addiction as a learning disorder. Now she turns her keen eye and narrative powers to the surprisingly simple--and extremely divisive--practice of harm reduction, which is a revolutionary means to solving the drug addiction crisis. Drug overdoses now kill more Americans annually than guns, cars or breast cancer. But in the name of "sending the right message," we have criminalized drug addiction, denied those who are addicted medical care, housing and other benefits, and have deliberately allowed the spread of fatal diseases. Yet there is an alternative to our present system, one that has been proven to work, but which runs counter to the received wisdom of our criminal and medical industrial complexes. It is called harm reduction. A surprisingly simple idea with enormous power, harm reduction takes the focus off of drug use and instead works to minimize associated damage. It represents the philosophy behind needle exchange programs and providing heroin addicts with the overdose medication naloxone instead of arresting them. It is focused not on punishing pleasure but on minimizing harm; in essence, it is a wholesale refutation of the American way of justice. Undoing Drugs tells the story of harm reduction. It will show how this concept has begun to transform the treatment of addiction and how it holds the potential to revolutionize how we deal with a range of other urgent behavioral and societal issues. Harm reduction challenges people to prioritize radical empathy and kindness over punishment as a way of not only dealing with drug use, but also in questions related to racism, sexism, disability and inequality. And, as Szalavitz shows, it says unequivocally that we must be more concerned about saving lives and health than about criminalizing quality-of-life crimes. Szalavitz argues for a practical application of the Hippocratic oath to "First, do no harm" beyond medicine and to those who urgently need it most.