David Musto

Professor of Child Psychiatry & History of Medicine (School of Medicine)

Dr. David F. Musto is the leading historian of drug policy in the United States. He is the author of four major works on drug regulation in America: The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control (Oxford 3d ed. 1999), One Hundred Years of Heroin (Auburn 2002), Drugs In America: A Documentary History (NYU 2002), and The Quest for Drug Control (Yale 2002). He has been a member of the Yale Medical School faculty since 1969. His research has centered on social history, particularly the development of policies involving alcohol, narcotics, AIDS, the family and mental health.

Dr. Musto has investigated many areas touching on history and medicine and has been called upon to serve the nation in various capacities including membership on the White House Strategy Council on Drug Abuse Policy during the Carter administration, membership from 1981 to 1990 on the National Council of the Smithsonian Institution and as historical consultant to the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic.

Dr. Musto is a charter Fellow of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, and a member of the alcohol advisory committee of the National Association of Broadcasters. Dr. Musto has published widely in professional journals and is particularly noted for his study of drug policy. His essays on social issues have appeared in the general media such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post and he has been featured as a commentator on social policy by news magazines and television networks. In 1992 he hosted and narrated the NOVA (public television science series) program, "Can You Stop People from Drinking?" Dr. Musto received the B.A. in classical languages in 1956 and in 1963 the M.D. degree from the University of Washington, and the M.A. from Yale in 1961.

Email: david.musto@yale.edu