Noted Historian: Cultural Trance Behind Our Drug Paranoia

In her popular 2007 book, The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Wrong, historian Jennifer Michael Hecht calls our current demonization of drugs a “cultural trance.” (p. 71) Just like past irrational attitudes the modern view of drugs may eventually reveal itself as, “bossy, shaming, controlling nonsense.” (p. 2)

People follow the conventional wisdom of their era in pursuing happiness. Hecht points out that experts have been proven wrong throughout history and that there is no reason to believe the current batch will fare any better. She reveals numerous “nonsensical cultural assumptions” about drugs, the primary one being that drug induced happiness is inferior to sober happiness. (p. 7)

It wasn’t until the early 20th century that pleasure via drugs was characterized as “naughty.” All cultures have had favorite chemicals to feel better. (The Bible repeatedly advocates using alcohol for joy.) This history has been whitewashed in America. For example, few know that marijuana has been smoked from braziers in Europe since the onset of agriculture roughly 5,000 years ago or that the French Renaissance literary character, the giant Pantagruel, was named after marijuana and smoked it constantly.

Hecht dares to point out that even addiction can be pleasurable. Much of America is addicted to caffeine and looks forward to their “boosts.” They do not suffer because caffeine is freely available. In other cultures and times opiates and cocaine were used in a similarly benign fashion, i.e. laudanum in the West and coca chewing in South America.

Hecht explains how easily our drug attitudes could have been formed differently and how arbitrary our drug categories are. If coca leaves transported easier, chewing may have caught on in Europe and there may have been more resistance to the cocaine prohibitionists. Likewise if caffeine is “chemically goosed” to provide an intense high, caffeine might become a target of the drug war. (p. 92)

In Native American culture there were periodic festivals involving dancing and the closely supervised administration of drugs which brought about spiritual revelation and euphoria. Teenagers participated. A longing for these experiences still exists as, “many people, especially young people, say they are never happier than when they are a little high and listening to live music, or dancing.” (p. 118) However, in current American culture this behavior has been criminalized due to our “pharmacological Calvinism” so young adults who persist must get their substances from the black market and consume them without supervision. (p. 119)

Hecht lists circumstances in which she suggests one consider using drugs. Some of them are:

1. If you long for a break from your “symptoms” or merely from your personality.
2. If you want to know more about the nature of reality and how the mind creates it.
3. If you want to have an intense communing experience with someone.
4. If you want to have a good time on a given evening.
5. If you want to dance and be social, but you are too inhibited.

Hecht cautions people against using illegal drugs in the current environment and recognizes their dangers. However, she writes that life is full of risky behaviors, e.g. driving cars, mountain climbing, living a sedentary life. The risks and benefits are balanced when deciding whether to regulate or criminalize these activities, but with drugs modern policy makers completely discount the happiness that drugs bring.

Modern pundits who claim we are dosing ourselves too freely are not speaking with historical knowledge or philosophical sense. Keeping your mind in only one place is not a very assertive way to relate to life, to search it for happiness, or for truth. (p. 127)

The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Wrong also covers false cultural assumptions in the areas of wisdom, money, bodies, and celebration.

Billy Mays’ Corpse Gets Trampled by Cocaine Hype

Billy Mays is not alone. This scapegoating of cocaine goes on all the time. One review of 935 cocaine related deaths in New York City found that less than 12% were even possibly related to the pharmacological effects of cocaine. (Morgan, p. 140)

Billy Mays’ family was “extremely disappointed” with the autopsy report of the Hillsborough County medical examiner’s office (Florida). The family’s statement said that the report contained, “speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension, which only demonstrates how important it is to regularly monitor one’s health.”

To see how cocaine was similarly blamed for Ike Turner’s death go to “Cocaine Did Not Kill Ike Turner,” and for a post on the actual deadliness of cocaine go to “Drug War Myth #726,001: Cocaine Is Deadlier Than Aspirin.”

Addendum (October 18, 2009) – An independent medical examiner’s review of the autopsy results made public on October 15, 2009 found they, “do not support the conclusion that cocaine was a contributory cause of Billy`s death.” (Mays)

Sources:

1. Robert Arthur, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos (2008).
2. Deborah Mays, “Independent Evaluation Finds that Billy Mays’ Death Was not Attributable to Cocaine Usage,” Reuters, 15 Oct. 2009. LINK
3. John Morgan & Lynn Zimmer, Crack in America (1997).
4. Mitch Stacy, “Billy Mays’ Family: Never Saw Signs of Cocaine Use,” San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Aug. 2009. LINK

Drug War Myth #726,001: Cocaine Is Deadlier Than Aspirin

Our government and the mainstream media implicitly and explicitly justify the war on drugs by perpetuating the myth that drugs are extremely deadly. Illegal drugs do kill (just like ladders, cars, and swimming pools kill) but (1) most of the fatalities stem from the criminalization that forces drugs into the black market (see heroin example at this post), and (2) even this risk is greatly exaggerated.

For example, the deadliness of cocaine and Aspirin are in fact comparable. A survey of intranasal cocaine administrations during surgery (in amounts comparable to recreational use) found it to be fatal .005% of the time. A study found that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, e.g. Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Aleve, will be fatal to .08% of patients taking them for at least two months.

Critics will point out that these are two different metrics that do not provide proper comparison (two months of usage vs. one administration). My response is that (1) these are the only metrics available and (2) my point is not to establish one is safer than the other but to show that – contrary to popular perception – their deadliness is similar.

To see how cocaine fatality statistics are inflated go to “Billy Mays’ Corpse Gets Trampled by Cocaine Hype.”

Sources:

1. Robert Arthur, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos (2008), p. 333.
2. Martin Tramer, et al., “Quantitative Estimation of Rare Adverse Events Which Follow A Biological Progression: A New Model Applied to Chronic NSAID Use,” Pain, 2000, 85:169-182.
3. Linda Wong & Bruce Alexander, “‘Cocaine-Related’ Deaths,” Journal of Drug Issues, Winter 1991.