Coconut Grove, FL: Up Front, Inc., 1978-1982. Edited by Caroline J. Ciancutti, et al. 20 vols. Variously paginated; most 12-16pp. Saddle-stapled in wraps, 11 x 8-3/8 in. All issues with three-hole binding punches on left side; some holes splitting and/or sticker-repaired. Three issues disbound (two with all leaves separated). Occasional pen checks to covers and throughout. Good to very good on the whole. All issues complete save Vol. 1, No. 1, which lacks pp. 5 & 6; as the table of contents gives nothing for these pages, we presume the leaf consisted of a subscription slip, present in small form in other early issues. OCLC reports nine libraries with holdings of this title.
A broken twenty-issue run of this newsletter published by Up Front, a Miami non-profit drug information center with the stated mission of sharing of "information about drugs and health in ways designed to minimize problems people encounter in our chemically-oriented society." The content of the newsletter is informed and progressive, scholarly but accessible, with a range best attested by a partial list of articles: "Holistic Alternatives for Drug Addicts," "An Ecological View of Drug Policy," "Hallucinogens and Ecology: Reindeer and Mushrooms in Siberian Tribal Culture," "Amphetamines: Manufacturing Quotas and the Street Market," "Stress, Gays and Drug Abuse," "Acetaminophen: Is It Safe???" "Three Men and a Drug: Peyote Research in the 1890's," etc. Elsewhere a drug anthropologist smartly reviews the 1979 film Cocaine Cowboys, co-starring Andy Warhol (calling it "what every young white coke scene strives to be: rock and roll"); Andrew Weil takes aim at a researcher's faulty claim regarding cocaine and brain damage; Haight Ashbury Free Clinic founder David E. Smith reports on the known facts about Mexican marijuana contaminated with the herbicide Parquat; psychedelics activist Bruce Eisner recaps the benefits of LSD in treating addiction; etc. Excellent book reviews punctuate the issues as well (in one issue alone: reviews of Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives by Joan Halifax, The Witch's Garden by Harold A. Hansen, and Blade Runner (a movie) by William S. Burroughs). According to "Whence Street Pharmacologist," in Vol. 4, No. 7, Up Front offered a number of public services, among them a free street drug analysis lab, a telephone information line, open access to their extensive library of drug literature, and various education programs. Though the organization apparently still exists today, we find little information about the scope of their current activities.
