The Nature of Drugs, Volume 2: Alexander Shulgin's Lectures on Pharmacology, Consciousness, and Social Impact

Volume 2 of The Nature of Drugs presents transcribed lectures 9 through 23 from Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin's 1987 course at San Francisco State University. The 368-page book examines what drugs are, how they act in the body, and how psychoactive substances affect consciousness, behavior, culture, and society. It combines pharmacological explanation with anecdotes, humor, and reflections on medicinal use, individual and societal freedoms, ethics, and human awareness. The volume is positioned both as an educational resource on psychoactive-substance science and as a historical record of Shulgin's teaching and philosophy. The supplied material describes coverage of dozens of compounds and their pharmacological effects, but does not identify specific compounds or provide details of the individual lectures.