Editors’ Note: Next week we begin a new series introducing our readers to other interesting and/or useful blogs. From the beginnings of the Points blog, we have been conscious–and appreciative–of the work of our fellow bloggers, but have spent precious little time acknowledging that work. Dedicated readers of Points will remember this early exchange with Mikelis Beitiks of the Mexican Opium blog, including his thoughtful response. There’s certainly more worthy blogging to be discussed here. We don’t include a blogroll on this site (we’re happy whenever Points turns up on other blogrolls, of course), so this series will serve as our guide to the engaging and provocative world beyond. We’ll begin the series next week. This post is something of a call to action for our readers. If you have suggestions for blogs to be reviewed in this series, please let us know! Bear in mind that blogs do not have to be purely academic, or historical–we’ve happy to feature work that speaks to drug and alcohol issues from any number of perspectives. Send your suggestions via a comment on this post, or write directly to Joe Spillane (spillane at ufl dot edu). Thanks.
Joe Spillane is Professor of History at the University of Florida. He has authored Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States (Johns Hopkins Press, 2000) and co-edited Federal Drug Control: The Evolution of Policy and Practice (Haworth Press, 2004). More recently, he authored Coxsackie: The Life and Death of Prison Reform (Johns Hopkins Press, 2014). His current drug-related research agenda includes: the history and development of drug abuse liability assessment; reflections on the nature of drug epidemics; and examinations of drug war “harms” in historical context.