Drugging the Poor: Legal and Illegal Drugs and Social Inequality

Merrill Singer's Drugging the Poor is part of a body of work that forwards a particular point of view: Critical Medical Anthropology. This point of view requires the reader to think about the relationship between what they may encounter in the streets and the political economic processes that drive streetside behavior. The poor do not simply choose to use crack cocaine or heroin, although personal volition has a part in the overall process. The policies of businesses and national, state and local governments place people in life circumstances that offer few options, and among those, a career in illicit drug use and trafficking is relatively attractive. Singer's book delineates the combination of factors that lead to unhealthy outcomes and weaves them into a readable, useful narrative. Clearly, it is intended for a reading level above eleventh grade, but even bright high-schoolers and well-read laypersons might find it edifying and challenging.