Drugs in the Past and Today

 I.       History: From War for Drugs to War on Drugs

A.    Historic use of Opium and Morphine

B.    Europe's War for Drugs - China's War on Drugs (1842)

II.    Attitude Change

III. Drug Use

A.      Psychoactivity

B.      Recreational Dimension

C.      Illegality

D.       Public Definition

          E.      Drug Addiction

Medical Addiction in the case of heroin

(1) Positive reinforcement theory

(2) Negative reinforcement Theory

(3) Combination of both

(4) Psychological addiction

 IV.    The Drug Panic

 

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Information on Drugs on the Internet: 

NORML      

EROWID   

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Opium "is the dried juice from the immature seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is a narcotic drug called opium. Used as a medicine, opium deadens pain. Taken indiscriminately, however, it eventually damages physical health, causes mental deterioration, and may result in addiction.

Opium poppies, with their fragile flowers of red, white, or purple, thrive in a hot climate. After they bloom, field workers collect the milky juice from cuts in the pods. The white juice coagulates and turns brown after exposure to air. Raw opium is marketed as lumps, cakes, or bricks that may be powdered or further treated.

Because each plant yields little juice and the fields must be weeded often, the poppies usually can be grown profitably only where land and labor are cheap, as in Asia. The cultivation of opium, both licit and illicit, is carried on chiefly in Asia. The two major opium-producing and opium-exporting countries in the world are India and Turkey. The medical needs of the world exceeded 1,700 tons by the 1980s, in spite of the advent of synthetic drugs such as methadone that often can be substituted for opium and its derivatives.

The active principles of opium reside in its alkaloids, or organic bases. These alkaloids are of two types: one may be addictive and acts upon the nervous system; the other is not addictive and acts to relax the involuntary, or smooth, muscles of the body. The legitimate uses of opium are medical and include purified alkaloids such as morphine and codeine and alkaloid derivatives such as laudanum, dilaudid, and apomorphine. (Compton's Encyclopedia)

 

I.  History: From War for Drugs to War on Drugs 

In the Opium Wars Europe made a war for Drugs.

 

I. A.  Historic use of Opium and Morphine

Medical use

Teething pains of children

Menstrual cramps, toothaches, rheumatism

Heroin came on the market as a cough medicine

 

Demographics of addicts in nineteenth-century versus today

More women, less man

African Americans were under represented

=>   As I would phrase it: the typical American middle class housewife who today is on tranquilizers or other prescription drugs.

 

I. B. Europe's War for Drugs - China's War on Drugs (1842)

China trying to outlaw the trade of opium conflicted with the interests of the Western world in opium trade.

The First Opium War stemmed from China's efforts to ban the illegal importation of opium by British merchants.

Britain scored an easy military victory.  By the treaties of Nanjing (Nanking) in 1842 and the Bogue in 1843, China opened the ports of Guangzhou (Canton), Xiamen (Amoy), Fuzhou (Foochow), Ningbo (Ning'po), and Shanghai to British trade and residence, ceded Hong Kong to Britain, and granted Britain EXTRATERRITORIALITY, that is, the right to try British citizens in China in British courts.  The other Western powers soon received similar privileges.

 The Second Opium War, or Anglo French War, in China also resulted from China's objections to the opium trade.

A joint offensive by Britain and France secured another victory.  The Treaty of Tianjin (Tientsin) was signed in 1858, but the Chinese refused to ratify it.  Hostilities resumed, and Beijing (Peking) was captured by the Western allies.

  

Interpretation using the Conflict Approach

1. people are using their power to gain benefits

2. power here is the possibility of strong Western countries to impose trade rules on the weaker China

Basic Questions:

A) Who benefits?            Western merchants who are powerful enough to influence their governments to use their power.

B)  Who governs?           The corporate Western world

C) Who wins?                The Western capitalistic countries and their corporate power elite  

 

1914 Harrison Narcotics Act outlawed opiates and cocaine

1937 Marihuana Tax Act

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Historic Importance of Drugs

Ritualistic Use of Hallucinogenic Drugs

           

Example of Europe, in the Middle Ages:

The "Fliegenpilz" Amanita muscaria

was a very important drug.

Translated as "agaric". I think this translation is wrong for a simple reason: The name Fliegenpilz is misunderstood in Europe, where it came form. A large mushroom, the upper side red with white dots.

Two words put together Fliegen (flies or flying) + Pilz (mushroom)

The Fliegenpilz is misinterpreted today as the mushroom of flies.

Originally it was the mushroom for flying.

 

Consumption:

• It was used by pagans in the medieval times and rooted in the ancient Nordic culture.

• The mushroom was cooked for hours in water. Mushrooms were then eaten and people drank the water as well.

• In another application the mushroom was smashed and mixed with other ingredients in lotions or crèmes.

• The consumption of the mushroom caused hallucinations. Most of them with the theme of flying. This is the origin of the saga that witches are flying on their brooms. They really had this experiences. They were flying to the Boxberg to meet Satan and engage in wild orgies

Drug use was an indicator of witchcraft.

Value: In some remote areas of Russia where the Fliegenpilz did not grew one basket of mushrooms was exchanged for 5 donkeys.

Since large portions of the active substance is released from the body though urine, people drank their urine to recycle the substance.

In the U.S. : Peyote

Legal for American Indians

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Historic Parallels

 

Actors	Witch Graze	Drug Panic
The Press
The Public
Agents of Social Control
Politicians and Legislators
Action Groups

 

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II.    Attitude Change  Attitudes of high school students: "Private marijuana use should be illegal@ 1979     28%  yes 1988      52 % yes   "Marijuana consumption is harmful@ 1979     45%  yes 1988      81 % yes

 

The American Moral Crusade on Drugs initiated a Moral Panic in the 1980s

Interpretation as a Moral Crusade

 

What happened in the 1980's ?

• Media Attention in the 1980's

• Media bias

• Political Attention

• Moral Entrepreneurs

• Interest Groups Organizations

• 1980s Opinions

What happened in the 1990's?  

Drug Use

Drugs are defined in using several dimensions:

 

Psychoactivity

Recreational Dimension

Public Definition

Illegality

Addiction

• physiological

• psychological

A.      Psychoactivity

• Influence on human mind, mood, emotion, thinking, or cognition.

• Any substance that creates a change in the physiological state of a human.

 

B.      Recreational Dimension

• Excludes the proper use of pharmaceuticals.

• Some illicit drugs are seen as being appropriate for recreation. Fashions of mushrooms,  poppers, heroine, cocaine, crack...

• Public stereotype about substance and their users.

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Heroin Addiction

Understanding the Heroin Problem