REVIEWS, EXCERPTS, & COMMENTS #
EROWID'S REVIEW #
This book has two different titles, The Menace of Narcotics as printed on the dust jacket (usually missing from copies these days) and The Menace of Narcotic Drugs as printed on the front hard cover of the book itself.It's interesting to note that this 1931 book avoids the error introduced and so often repeated since then, of using the term "narcotic" to mean any illegal or disapproved recreationally used drug. Payne clearly defines "narcotics" for the purposes of his book as meaning "drugs causing a reversible depression of the cells, principally the cells of the central nervous system, involving the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, paralyzing sensory and motor areas, producing complete unconsciousness".