Licit & Illicit Drugs A century of “drug wars” 1800s America - a “drug fiend’s paradise”...

Licit & Illicit Drugs

A century of “drug wars”

1800s America - a “drug fiend’s paradise” (opiates, alcohol, tobacco, etc.)

1906 The Pure Food and Drugs Act1914 The Harrison Act Criminalization of some drugs


“The first casualty of war is truth”

Myths/Propaganda are a constant part of the drug wars.

Most drug “education” today is still saturated with myths and propaganda.


The American link to racism (the key difference??)

• Chinese immigrants and opium• Urban/immigrants and alcohol• Urban poor - minorities and heroin• The “counter-culture” and drugs• Current “search and destroy” practices


Two processes that spread drug use and also make drug use more dangerous:

1. Scare publicity (e.g., glue sniffing)

2. “Crackdowns” (e.g., marijuana)


Chapter 44 “How to Launch a nationwide drug menace”

Glue sniffing started as accidental intoxication

Spread into a drug menace as media and police continued to publicize it, even “educating” kids about how to do it “right”


Myths about Heroin

• a “deadly drug” (vs. actual physical effects)• heroin addiction myths• “overdose” death myth

Scare propaganda makes problems worse - nobody knows what to believe!


Crackdowns -- esp. marijuana

• Vietnam War - heroin, speed, etc.• San Francisco - LSD, speed, etc.

• This is the “normal pattern”


“The drug problem problem”

Recommendations:


(1) Stop emphasizing measures designed to keep illegal drugs away from people.

Prohibition doesn’t work!


(2) Stop publicizing the horrors of the "drug menace”

Scare publicity popularizes drugs!


(3) Stop increasing the damage done by illegal drugs.

e.g., misinformation, needle policies

No imprisonment binge back then!


(4) Stop mis-classifying drugs.

Marijuana, drugs/non-drugs


(5) Stop viewing the illegal drug problem as primarily a national problem, to be solved on a national scale.

Local problems, local approaches


(6) Stop pursuing the goal of stamping out illicit drug use.

Increases both use and damage


Comment -

The growing problem of legal drug use

-- a much bigger problem!

Licit & Illicit Drugs A century of “drug wars” 1800s America - a “drug fiend’s paradise”...

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