Alcohol and Drugs History Society

The Alcohol and Drugs History Society is a scholarly organization whose members study the history of a variety of illegal, regulated, and unregulated drugs such as opium, alcohol, and coffee. Organized in 2004, the ADHS is the successor to a society with a more limited scope, the Alcohol and Temperance History Group, which existed for 25 years. The last ATHG president and the first ADHS president was Ian R. Tyrrell, Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, in Australia. In July 2006 he was succeeded by W.J. Rorabaugh, Professor of History at the University of Washington. In July, 2008, David T. Courtwright, Professor of History at the University of North Florida became president. In 2011 Joseph Spillane, Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida, succeeded him as president. Although most ADHS members are English speakers, there are a few members in Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, and elsewhere.

The ADHS sponsors the academic journal The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: an Interdisciplinary Journal (SHAD), a website that provides bibliographical news and contemporary stories, a listserv group, and a blog called Points. SHAD appears in both printed and electronic formats, published twice a year, in the Winter and the Summer. Its editor-in-chief is Dan Malleck, from Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada, with editors Jim Mills, from University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland; W. Scott Haine, from California, and the Reviews Editors are James Nicholls, from Bath Spa University, England and Alex Mold, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In November, 2009 it created an editorial board, which is populated by some of the most prominent alcohol and drugs history scholars in the world. The website and listserv are managed by Cynthia Belaskie, York University, Ontario, Canada.

The ADHS is affiliated with the American Historical Association and sponsors sessions at the January meetings of the AHA.

The ADHS held an international conference in Canada in August 2007, with Guelph University (Ontario) as the host The next international conference was in  2009 at Glasgow, Scotland, with the University of Strathclyde as the host. In 2011 an international conference was held at the State University of New York, Buffalo. The organization subsequently plans to meet at the Sun Yat Sen University in China.