In her new book, Discovering Addiction: The Science and Politics
of Substance Abuse Research (University of Michigan, 2007),
Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies Nancy
Campbell traces the history of addiction research and the ethics
associated with the field of study in the United States.
Introducing readers to the nation’s first scientific efforts to
understand addiction, Campbell’s book takes a critical look at
two research sites a federal lab in a prison-hospital in
Lexington, Ky., and a monkey colony at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor that emerged in the 1930s and 1940s.
Discovering Addiction is based partly on interviews with
addiction researchers or clinicians who worked at the first
site, which was run by the U.S. Public Health Service.
Officially called the Addiction Research Center, the prison-
hospital lab was housed inside an institution nicknamed “the
narcotic farm.” Residents of this drug treatment facility which
could total as many as 1,500 were fed with food grown and cook