Heroin - by Boyd (Paperback)

About the Book

The only book-length Canadian history of the harm done from criminalizing heroin users and addicts, the most horrendous being overdose epidemics caused by poisoned drugs.

Book Synopsis

Heroin is an illustrated history of Canadian heroin regulation over two centuries. Susan Boyd points to our failure to address the overdose death epidemic caused by criminalizing drug users and to the decades of resistance to harm-reduction policies. Heroin, discovered in 1898, was heralded as an important medicine and successfully marketed as a pain reliever and cough suppressant. Until the early 1950s, heroin was prescribed for therapeutic use in Canada. Yet, illegal heroin use became the focus of drug prohibition advocates and law enforcement, who painted it as highly addictive and destructive. Systemic racism was the impetus for our first anti-heroin laws; the race, gender and class of users influenced drug control, which, by the 1930s, became the focus of law enforcement. Flawed ideas about heroin and people who use the drug have shaped drug law and policy for decades. This book is informed by documentary evidence and the experiences of people who use/used heroin, drug user unions and harm-reduction advocates. These sources highlight the structural violence of drug policy that uses prohibition and criminalization as the main response to drug use.

Review Quotes

Provides excellent background for those trying to understand how Canada's historical drug strategy shaped our present reality.

--Shannon Sampert "Winnipeg Free Press"

"In Heroin: An Illustrated History, Susan Boyd traces a compelling and damning portrait of the longstanding harms of drug criminalization in Canada. The work highlights the necessity of following drug-user led movements ... to create a society geared toward collective health and well-being rather than punishment."--Robyn Maynard, author of Policing Black Lives

"Susan Boyd's book Heroin provides great insight into the early days of drug prohibition whilst also delving into questions of modern-day drug laws. Susan carefully articulates the history of drug user activism with a great understanding of racial and gender disparities that plague our community. The Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs fully endorses Heroin and believes its a must-read."--Natasha Touesnard and Frank Crichlow, Executive Director and President of the Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs (CAPUD)

Amply illustrated and well-argued, Heroin charts centuries-long efforts to demonize both hard drugs and those who use them. Boyd condemns the racism and colonization that fueled these efforts and urges both governments and Canadian society as a whole to rethink drug policies before more lives are lost to the illicit drug trade--M.C. Reid "Canada History"

Susan Boyd's Heroin: An Illustrated History acts as a necessary starting point for those who wonder how we got ourselves into this crisis today.--Connor Robinson "The British Columbia Review"

Susan Boyd's comprehensive and compassionate Illustrated History of Heroin is a welcome addition to the growing wave of scholarship on drug use, drug addiction, and the role of drugs in social culture.--Kathleen Adamson "The Charity Report"

This book should be required reading for us all.--Tom Sandborn "Vancouver Sun"

About the Author

Susan C. Boyd is a scholar/activist and distinguished professor at the University of Victoria. She has authored several articles and books on drug issues, including Busted: An Illustrated History of Drug Prohibition in Canada. She was a member of the federal Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation. She is a long-time activist who collaborates with groups that advocate for the end of drug prohibition and for the establishment of diverse services.