Booze, dope, smokes, and weed. Mind-altering, mood-changing substances have been part of human society for millennia. And the history of drugs and alcohol is infused with what we understand as their proper and improper use.

Pleasure and Panic reveals how cultural fears and social, political, and economic disparities have always been deeply embedded in attitudes about drugs and alcohol. Long before John Lennon testified at Canada’s Le Dain Commission in favour of marijuana decriminalization, social movements existed to challenge the view that consumption of mind-altering substances, especially by young people, posed a danger to society. The contributors to this collection explore how drugs and alcohol intersect with diverse histories, including gender, medicine, popular culture, and business.

Pleasure and Panic brings a dispassionate voice to current debates about liberalizing drug and alcohol laws and challenges existing ideas about how to deal with the so-called problems of drug and alcohol use.

Dan Malleck's profile page

Cheryl Krasnick Warsh's profile page

Dan Malleck is a professor of health sciences at Brock University, where he also serves as director of the Centre for Canadian Studies. He is the former editor-in-chief of The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal for over a decade. Cheryl Krasnick Warsh is a professor of history at Vancouver Island University. She is currently the co-editor of Gender & History. Dan Malleck and Cheryl Krasnick Warsh are also the co-editors of Consuming Modernity: Gendered Behaviour and Consumerism before the Baby Boom.

Contributors: Cynthia Belaskie, Mathew J. Bellamy, Christian Elcock, Eric Fillion, Sarah Hamill, Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, Renée Lafferty-Salhany, Dan Malleck, Greg Marquis, Jonathan Reinarz.

"Despite the primarily Canadian focus and origins of this collection, there is much here for anyone broadly interested in the history of intoxicants."

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs

[Pleasure and Panic] is a compilation of fascinating studies that examine how the regulation and use of addictive substances have informed social movements, medical innovations, marketing, and even cultural identity.

Literary Review of Canada

Taken together, this collection [of essays] provides a valuable "state of the field," especially with regards to the history of drugs and alcohol in the Canadian context.

Canadian Journal of Health History