Drugs Past and Current

Drugs Past and Current

Substance abuse is not new; throughout human history human beings have used and abused everything from alcohol to food to chemical and pharmaceutical substances. In fact, one of the main reasons for the nineteenth century progressivism movement to enact prohibition laws was to preserve the public health and to curtail the alcoholism problems rampant throughout the nation and especially on the Western frontier. Only a prohibition on narcotics remains, but these attempts to limit the sale and distribution of mind-altering substances has not at all limited use and abuse of those substances. In fact, recent substance abuse statistics and trends in the United States have become particularly severe. It seems that substance abuse is entrenched in North American society. Especially among adolescents, substance abuse can cause terrible mental and physical health problems and in many cases leads to accidental or deliberate drug-related deaths. In some cases, substance abuse is linked with other sociological and socioeconomic factors. Substance abuse is also related to underlying mental health issues, but direct causal relationships between such mitigating factors are difficult to establish. While substance abuse is a worldwide phenomenon, American culture in particular seems to stimulate drug use and abuse. Potential reasons for the trend of substance abuse in American culture include glamorization of intoxication in film, music, and television, the erosion of communities and family structures across the nation, and increased amounts of leisure time that inhibit the creation of constructive habits and lifestyles. Other factors influencing the proliferation of substance abuse problems in the United States could be related to existential factors and psychological problems due to generalized anxiety and dissatisfaction with and disillusionment in the modern world.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the most commonly used illegal substance is marijuana. Use of cocaine, crack, heroin, and synthetic drugs like ecstasy are also common and in some cases, abuse rates are increasing. However, the NIDA found that from 2003-2004, abuse rates among youth decreased except for the use of inhalants, which increased. Some positive trends in perceived harmfulness of illicit substances such as disapproval for illegal drug use have been noted among adolescents ("High School and Youth Trends" 2004). In addition to abuse of illicit substances, teens have consistently demonstrated tendencies toward the use and abuse of tobacco and alcohol products.

The use of mind-altering substances increased considerably during the 1960s, when recreational drug use became "fashionable among young, white, middle class Americans," ("Thirty Years of America's Drug War," 2000). Prior to the 1960s, American mainstream culture did not encourage or support the use of drugs; since then, drugs have been glamorized and even promoted as a tool to enhance self-image. Drugs have also been touted as a means by which to rebel against established authorities. American culture continues to support, even encourage drug use by the ways it is portrayed in the media. The government's so-called "war on drugs" has not helped prevent drug abuse. In fact, "many blame the war on drugs for a host of societal ills, including racial profiling, violation of privacy and civil liberties and a burgeoning prison population," ("The War on Drugs" 2000).