Chapter 1 of Drugs and Society

Variety of States: Drugs can provide states of relaxation, ecstatic happiness, negation of suffering, transformed perceptions, or alertness (Walton, 2002).

Statistics from SAMHSA (2018):
- 30.5 million Americans aged 12+ used illegal drugs in the past month (11.2% of this age group).
- 140.6 million current alcohol users and 48.7 million current cigarette smokers.
- 55% of the US population took at least one prescription medicine in 2016.
- 4.5 billion prescriptions were filled in the US (2016).
- US medicine spending reached $450 billion (2016).
Global Perspective:
- UNODC (2018) reported 275 million users of illegal drugs worldwide (5.6% of population aged 15–64).
- Revenue from illicit drug trade estimated between $426 billion and $652 billion (Tharoor, 2017).

Commentators argue that intoxication may represent a basic human appetite, questioning sobriety as a norm (Weil, 1986).

Examples of non-human drug use:
- Elephants enjoy fermented beverages (rice beer).
- Howler monkeys consume overripe palm fruit.
- Flies use alcohol scents for procreation (Bilger, 2009).

Legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol are associated with significant harm:
- Nearly 6 million deaths per year linked to tobacco (CDC, 2017).
- 88,000 alcohol-related deaths annually in the US (NIAAA, 2017).
- 17,000 deaths from prescription opioids (NIDA, 2019).

Question arises: Why are legal substances with high harm accepted while certain less harmful drugs (e.g., marijuana) remain illegal?
- Because people tend to demonize certain drugs for money and power
Highlighted mass incarceration for drug offenses in the US:
- 435,000 drug offense incarcerations in the US, versus 574,469 across 28 EU nations (Wagner & Sawyer, 2018).

Widespread use of psychoactive substances necessitates a narrative around addiction and crime (O'Grady, 2010).
Government and media create heroes and villains through the lens of drug use.
Drug addiction often scapegoated as a cause for broader social issues.

Alleged correlations drawn without empirical evidence:
- Nixon's claim that heroin users were responsible for $2 billion in property crimes is questionable against the actual property crime total.
Claims of drugs inducing bizarre or violent behavior (termed "voodoo pharmacology" Sullum, 2003a).
Racial and societal prejudices amplified by attributing drug use to minorities and foreign traffickers (Musto, 1999).

Emergence of glue-sniffing largely attributed to media panic following a few arrests.
Claims of bizarre behaviors and violent acts associated with glue were sensationalized by media reports.
Investigations later revealed many deaths associated with glue were misattributed to actual glue use.

Historical perception of marijuana as a drug for minorities fueling violence and crime.
Propaganda campaigns in the 1930s led to exaggerated fears of marijuana users (e.g., "Reefer Madness").
Claims of marijuana leading to violent crimes and sexual deviance dominated early narratives.

Media campaigns framed crack as a national crisis linked to social issues in the 1980s (Brownstein, 1996).
Contrasts between crack and powder cocaine were exaggerated to frame crack as more dangerous.

Initially explored for therapeutic benefits, later demonized as it became popular in youth culture during the late 1990s.
Media panic resulted from alleged increases in ecstasy users causing violent crime.

Statistically, opioid overdose deaths became the leading cause of death among Americans under 50 by 2017.
- Significant evident rise in prescription opioid use correlating with synthetic opioid issues like fentanyl.
Vulnerability and systemic issues in opioid prescription practices initiated the crisis.

The chapter reflects the historical and current perceptions of drug use as socially constructed epidemics, influenced heavily by government and media narratives.
Drugs, legal and illegal, invoke societal reactions that oscillate between moral panic and public health considerations.