The Nature of Drugs: History, Pharmacology, and Social Impact, Volume 2, presents lectures from Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin’s popular course on what drugs are, how they work, how they are processed by the body, and how they affect our society.

Transcribed from the original lectures recorded at San Francisco State University in 1987, The Nature of Drugsseries highlight Shulgins’s engaging lecture style peppered with illuminating anecdotes and amusing asides. Ostensibly taught as an introductory course on drugs and biochemistry, these books serve as both a historical record of Shulgin’s teaching style and the culmination of his philosophy on drugs, psychopharmacology, states of consciousness, and societal and individual freedoms pertaining to their use, both medicinal and exploratory.

Building on the introductory lectures in The Nature of Drugs, Volume 1, this second volume contains extensive examinations of dozens of compounds, featuring lectures 9 through 23 of the course.

The Nature of Drugs series presents the story of humanity’s relationship with psychoactive substances from the perspective of a master psychopharmacologist and beloved luminary in the study of chemistry, pharmacology and consciousness.