The Narcotic Farm

"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

"A fascinating photo essay lovingly saved from obscurity."—Errol Morris, Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker

"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

"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

"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

"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