Substance Use Exam 2

What were some qualities post world war 2?

• economic boom

• traditional family- female home maker- male breadwinner

• healthcare/ rx drugs- new and popular

• babyboom

• pharmaceutical companies are advertising more

• drugs ads

• medicalization (particularly women)

what were some reasons for drug use post WW2?

• opioids- the turn of century solution

• tranquilizers (barbituates)- used to calm people down and make them happier

• miltown-used in 1955

• benzoataprus- valium- used in 1963

• alcohol

• amphetamines- used by women and soldiers - very functional

These drugs are seen as medical solutions, viewed as appropriate, and normalized because of ads and tv shows

the drug use was not penalized because it was prescription drug use.

What did drugs in the 1960s look like?

one of the major social changes brought about by the sixties was the widespread use of illicit drugs, primarily the hacllucinogens, marijuana and LSD.

what was the counterculture of the 1960s?

anti-establishment cultural phenomenon and political movement that developed in the western world during the mid 20th century

from the 1960s through the 1970s

Tell me about drug use in the 1960s/1970s

• urban poverty- disadvantaged groups became even more disadvantaged

• civil rights- push for the end of segregation

• feminism movement

• vietnam war

• merry pranksters and hippies- introduced more recreational drug use (hallucinogens)

• marijuana is largely being used, as well as heroin (primarily young urbanized groups), LSD and amphetatmines

what did the framing of drugs look like in the 1960s and 70s?

framing drugs as the problem took the pressure off of the people in power and put blame on the soldiers (vietnam)

by associating drug use with any group, you can dismiss them. (anti-war groups and soldiers)

what did lawmakers do about drugs from the 1940s to the 1970s?

lawmakers began transitioning the war on drugs from a tax and regulate model to a criminalization approach

What happened in 1970?

the controlled substances act- created schedules

Nixon’s drug war was largely a public health crusade - he saw illicit drug use by young people as a form of social rot and as something that weakened america.

What happened in the 1980s?

Under the Reagan administration, the true war on drugs began:

• prison sentences for drugs went way up, especially through mandatory minimums

• more funding went to the law enforcement and interdiction side of the drug war than prevention and treatment

• black Americans were much more likely to be arrested for drugs - even though they were not more likely to use or sell them.

Harrison Narcotics Tax Act

required narcotics manufacturers, sellers, and distributors to register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue under the U.S Treasury Department and pay a small tax

Marijuana Tax Act

marijuana essentially became illegal in 1937 pursuant to the Marijuana Tax Act. The use of marijuana required the payment of a tax for usage; failure to pay the tax resulted in a large fine or stiff prison time for tax evasion.

overturned in 1969 by Tim Leary

what drugs were being used the most in the 1940s-60s?

amphetamines, tranquilizers, and barbiturates

what drugs were being used the most in the 1960s and 70s?

heroin and hallucinogens

what drugs were being used most in the 70s and 80s?

crack and cocaine

what drug was being used the most in the 1990s-2000s?

methamphetamines

what is the significance of 2006 in relation to methamphetamines?

access to pseudoephedrine was limited and it was moved behind-the counter. People are now ID’d for purchasing these and they can only purchase a small amount per day. this is all because pseudoephedrine is an important ingredient used in making meth

what are the components of a drug scare?

1. a kernel of truth

2. media magnification

3. politico-moral entrepreneurs

4. professional interest groups

5. historical context of conflict

6. linking a form of drug use to a “dangerous class”

7. scapegoating a drug for a wide array of public problems

how were crack babies, crack mothers, and the crack epidemic framed?

why was the framing of the crack scare successful?

what did enforcement of the war on drugs (especially crack) look like?

Reagan escalated the war on drugs in 1981

In 1986, he passed the anti-drug abuse act which added penalties specific to crack

5 grams of crack = 5 years in prison

500 grams of cocaine= 5 years in prison

has the legality of these drugs changed? if so, why?

how is the war on drugs shaped by public perception (crack scare) and by political/social power?

what are the immediate and long term consequences of the drug war and enforcement?

why is cocaine being used in the late 70s/ early 80s?

• organized smugglers who imported cocaine from latin america

• romanticized by music and media

• framed positively as party drug

• viewed as relatively harmless and non addictive

• associated with the upper class

• CIA did not stop the importation of cocaine from cuba

• retail price of cocaine goes down from 1977 to 1987, but the purity goes up.

• cocaine becomes less popular in the late 80s.

why did cocaine become less popular in the 1980s?

people switched to other drugs

the downsides of using cocaine became more apparent

war on drugs

associated with violence

everyone can afford it now making lower SES people use more

what did meth use in the early 1990s look like?

• urban, gay men were mostly using

• started on the west coast and spread to the east coast

• circuit parties, club drug (Party N Play)

• crystal

what did meth look like in the late 90s and early 2000s?

small scale, domestic production

faces of meth

montana meth project - anti meth organization

midwest, rural, white

change in access to pseudoephedrine (2006)

what has meth looked like from the mid 2010s- now?

• largely produced in Mexico

• more pure

• cheaper

• US border seizures have increased

• meth use, overdoses, SUD, and arrests have increased

what are some risk factors of meth use?

• lower education levels

• lower income

• no health insurance

• unstable housing

• prior engagement with criminal justice system

• mental illness

what happened in the second half of the twentieth century?

• the market for prescription drugs grew rapidly

• postwar boom in novel synthetic pharmaceutical products

• general rise in the consumption of health care

• new federal regulations that required a prescription for the sale of ethical pharmaceuticals.

when did the FDA receive explicit regulatory authority over advertisements for prescription-only drugs?

1962

why did policymakers of the war on drugs period ramp up their anti-drug efforts?

as a means of building the government’s power

to legitimize increased police authority at home

to justify new international incursions abroad.