Drug Effects

"This ambitious book succeeds effectively in both of its distinctive aims. First, it offers a clear understanding of khat, a shrub with leaves that are chewed for psychoactive effects by limited populations around the world. This account is richly detailed for Madagascar, where khat has been grown for only a few decades, and there are excellent summaries about Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and a few other areas where it has been popular. Secondly, Gezon hews faithfully to her aim to exemplify "...critical medical anthropology,"... an approach that combines meticulous ethnographic description of a local health issue (with full economic, political, and historical context) with an emphasis on relations that involve wealth and power on the global scene. The clearly written and well organized result nicely summarizes the peculiar but impressive ways that this "...green gold"... (mistakenly presumed by some to be illegal) supports economic development, female entrepreneurship, and ethnic identity without interfering with diet, work, health, or the local ecology. Impressive on both counts. Summing up:Highly Recommended. All levels/libraries." --CHOICE