"Today the international trade in illicit drugs generates annually as much money as the oil industry, about $400 billion worldwide. In this history of drugs and their role in society, award-winning historian Richard Davenport-Hines examines how licit medicines developed into the commodity of this huge illicit business.". "Melding social, political, and cultural history, The Pursuit of Oblivion illustrates that intoxication is neither unnatural nor deviant, and it describes how for thousands of years human beings have taken substances to change their physical or emotional state. Davenport-Hines argues persuasively that drug use is a necessary part of human experience, recounting how many drugs that are controlled or prohibited nowadays were freely available until the early twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.