Overview

From 1935 until 1975, just about every junkie busted for dope went to the Narcotic Farm. Equal parts federal prison, treatment center, farm, and research laboratory, the Farm was designed to rehabilitate addicts and help researchers discover a cure for drug addiction. Although it began as a bold and ambitious public works project, and became famous as a rehabilitation center frequented by great jazz musicians among others, the Farm was shut down forty years after it opened amid scandal over its drug-testing program, which involved experiments where inmates were being used as human guinea pigs and rewarded with heroin and cocaine for their efforts. Published to coincide with a documentary to be aired on PBS, The Narcotic Farm includes rare and unpublished photographs, film stills, newspaper and magazine clippings, government documents, as well as interviews, writings, and anecdotes from the prisoners, doctors, and guards that trace the Farm's noble rise and tumultuous fall, revealing the compelling story of what really happened inside the prison walls.

Full Product Details

9781949669244

Table of Contents

Reviews

The authors are to be commended for an accessible text and high-quality images that vividly convey the history of the Narcotic Farm. -- Eric Schneider, author of Smack: Heroin and the American City Profound.... Narco's inception and life shines a light on how US drug policy has developed today, as well as offers insights and cautionary tales when it comes to addressing drug addiction nationally in the wake of what is essentially America's second opioid epidemic. -- Forbes Its text interspersed with hundreds of photographs, the book keeps one eye on the details of daily life -- haircuts and manicures, farm work, golf, and music -- and another on the befuddlements of American drug policy embodied by the farm. The farm's doctors had a more humane approach to human weakness than cops did, but both shared the flawed assumption that allows the war on drugs to continue: that America can be drug free. -- Mother Jones Everyone who cares about addiction and recovery in this country should look at these pictures and read this book. -- Susan Cheever, author of My Name Is Bill Wilson: His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous Compelling. Fascinating. -- Richard Stratton, founder of Prison Life Beautiful, fascinating. The story brings an important moment in history vividly to life. It's a stunning work. -- Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps A wealth of revealing photographs and documents that speaks volumes about what it was like to be a junkie in the mid-twentieth century. -- Luc Sante, author of Low Life and Evidence A fascinating photo essay lovingly saved from obscurity. -- Errol Morris, Academy Award--winning documentary filmmaker The Narcotic Farm works its magic by recapturing, in images and words, a lost world. -- David Courtwright, author of Dark Paradise, Addicts Who Survived, and Forces of Habit

Author Information

Nancy D. Campbell, professor of science and technology studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, is a historian and author of OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose. JP Olsen is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and composer, director of original programming at HBO, and a teacher of journalism at Columbia University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Luke Walden is assistant professor of communication arts at Mitchell College in New London, Connecticut, and a documentary filmmaker. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

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