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Publishers Weekly10/28/2013 Historian of public health Berridge untangles complex perceptions of drugs, drink, and tobaccoproducts ubiquitous in the 1800s that are now mass-produced and regulated. Economics and technology played a major role in shaping their futures, she argues. For alcohol and cigarettes, technological changes would mean "a mass product for a mass market." For drugs, "the product was for a more restricted and medicalized market." Focusing primarily on the U.K., Berridge follows how drugs were "reconceptualized" after WWII, analyzing why some are legal now and others not. The fascinating evolution is also tracked through first-hand accounts that include a 19th-century pharmacist's ordering techniques for snuff; the startling conclusion that opium dens were far less objectionable than public drunkenness; the scientific call for a public health response to drug users spreading the virus causing AIDS; and the sensationalist headlines chronicling the uptick in binge drinking by teenagers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
About the Author
Richard J. Miller is the Alfred Newton Richards Professor of PharmacologyProfessor in Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry at Northwestern University. Dr. Miller's research has concerned the properties of neurotransmitters and their receptors in nerve cell function. This has included work on dopamine receptors, opiate receptors and cytokine receptors. Dr. Miller has also worked extensively on understanding the structure and function of calcium channels. The influx of calcium into neurons through these channels is important for many reasons, including the release of neurotransmitters. His laboratory has analyzed the properties of these molecules by examining their electrophysiological properties and has generated calcium channel knockout mice. Other projects in his lab aim to understand the molecular basis of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) , HIV-1-related dementia and other neuropathological conditions. Dr. Miller obtained his Ph. D. at Cambridge University. Prior to joining Northwestern, he was Assistant Professor and Professor at the University of Chicago.
