JasonUnbound

No left turn unstoned

In 1971, Harvard University Press published Lester Grinspoon's Marihuana Reconsidered. The book contained a great essay, a personal perspective on some of the positive aspects of marijuana use, by a scientist identified only as Mr. X. In recent years, it has been revealed that the author of that essay was none other than astronomer Carl Sagan. (Read the piece, and enjoy imagining a stoned Sagan, like a latter-day Archimedes, having epiphanies in the shower.)

Anyway, looking up the record for the book reminds me of one of the most irksome Library of Congress subject headings out there: The heading Drug abuse. Like Terence McKenna's Food of the Gods — which has also been tarred with the Drug abuse heading — this book is clearly about use (and usefulness!), not abuse. And choosing to not recognize the difference between the two is a value judgment that really doesn't belong in LCSH.