Human beings like to feel good and drugs are used to help this happen. It can be legally done with a range of drugs such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine and anti-depressants. It can be done illegally with an equally wide range of illicit drugs, including amphetamines, heroin benzos, or ecstasy.
The interesting thing is drugs are seen as a modern phenomenon. But down throughout known history, human beings used drugs to play with the pleasure centres of the brain.
Booze
Today’s most widespread recreational drug is alcohol, and it appears to have been first on the scene. Beer and wine were produced in Persia and in the Mediterranean before recorded history. Chances are it was discovered when rotten fruit was eaten by the first human not overly concerned with freshness. Even animals can be observed getting drunk out in the wild, having discovered the alcohol that can arise from fermented fruit. It is interesting to note that in many prisons, alcohol is brewed in buckets of rotting fruit or by leaving fruit juice out in the sun for a few days.
Nicotine
Nicotine is the psychoactive constituent of tobacco and although first used by Europeans in the sixteenth century, it was also used ritually in the Americas for centuries. Experts believe the tobacco plant began growing there around 6000 BC, with American inhabitants smoking and chewing tobacco from around 1000 BC.
Grass
Cannabis, like alcohol, has been used by virtually every culture in recorded history. The earliest record of cannabis being used is around 6000 BC when cannabis seeds were used as food in China. The first recorded use of cannabis as medicine also arises in China in 2727 BC. Over time cannabis spreads across every part of the world as humankind uses it for recreational, religious or medicinal purposes.
In 500 BC, it is introduced into Northern Europe by the Scythians. An urn containing leaves and seeds of the Cannabis plant, unearthed near Berlin, is dated to about this time. Around the same time, the Jewish Talmud mentions the euphoriant properties of cannabis. In the 12th century, hashish smoking becomes very popular throughout the Middle East. In the 17th century, use of hashish, alcohol, and opium spreads among the population of what is now Turkey, while the French and British cultivate cannabis for hemp at their colonies in America. From this point on, it is used increasingly as a source of fibre for textiles and medicinally.
In 1936, a film called ‘Reefer Madness’ is produced in America, showing young people murdering and raping under the ‘evil influence’ of grass.
Opiates: opium, morphine & heroin
Evidence suggests that around 30 centuries ago, neanderthals may have used poppy seeds as food, and possibly their psychoactive effects as well. In 1300 BC, the Egyptians cultivate opium poppies and trade the item across the Mediterranean into Greece and Europe. Around 300 BC, opium is used by Arabs, Greeks, and Romans as a sedative and soporific.
In India around 1000 BC, opium is cultivated, eaten, and drunk by all classes as a household remedy, used by rulers as an indulgence, and given to soldiers to increase their courage.
In 1527, opium is reintroduced into European medical literature by Paracelsus as laudanum (opium mixed with alcohol). These black pills or “Stones of Immortality” were made of opium thebaicum, citrus juice and quintessence of gold and prescribed as painkillers.
In the 18th century, the British are making money out of trading opium from India to China. The Chinese Emperor prohibits this trade to stem the increase of dependent users, so the British actually go to war and force China to keep the flood of opium coming in. Meanwhile, in Europe, medicines and opium preparations were available without restrictions. Laudanum was cheaper than beer or wine and readily within the means of the lowest-paid worker.
The 19th century sees the use of opium as a patent medicine increasing steadily in England, Europe and the United States, for a wide variety of ailments. Working-class medicinal use of opiates as sedatives for children was quite high in England. Advertisements told of the benefits of helping cranky young ones off to sleep. Writers such as Byron, Shelley, Coleridge, De Quincey and Dickens use opium recreationally, with some well known results such as Kubla Kahn and Confessions of an Opium Eater being read by the public.
In 1803, morphine is isolated from poppies by 20 year old German pharmacist
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner. Morphine is lauded as “God’s
own medicine” for its reliability, long-lasting effects and safety.
1898 sees The Bayer Company introducing heroin as a substitute for weaning
addicts off morphine. It does not take long for some doctors to realise
that heroin appears to be at least as addictive as morphine.
The 20th century sees opiates being steadily restricted or made illegal. World War 2 sees production and trade drop to a historic low. After the war, both production and use of heroin grow. By the early 1990s, heroin is a leading illicit narcotic and becomes something of a world drug. Expansion of established opium areas in Burma and Afghanistan, combined with introduction of the crop into Central Asia and Latin America, lead to a steady increase in world supply.
Cocaine
Derived from coca leaves, this drug has a long history as medicine and
local anaesthetic. From 3000 BC, coca leaves were used by the Incan Empire
of Peru. In Europe, however, its medical usefulness was not fully recognised
until the late 1800s when it was used as an anaesthetic.
In 1886, a new soft drink called Coca Cola is released, containing both
cocaine and nicotine. The first snorting of cocaine for recreational use
started around 1905. Cocaine quickly became a popular medicine and tonic
in Europe and America, where it was credited with curing a wide variety
of diseases and illnesses. However, reports soon started to appear claiming
that cocaine was a drug with a high social abuse potential and in America
it seemed to underpin growing crime figures.
Freebase cocaine was first developed in the 1970s and was popularised by dealers and glamorised by Hollywood media. Today, cocaine and its derivatives are still popular local anaesthetics in operations of the ear, nose and throat. Although cocaine has a high public profile as a drug of addictive potential, this drug has also had a long and distinguished history as a medicine and local anaesthetic.
Speed (amphetamines)
Amphetamines were first synthesised in 1887 in Germany. Although of interest to chemists, nothing was done at first as no medicinal purpose could be found. In the 1920s, research began to see if it could help with problems such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, alcoholism, opiate addiction, migraine, head injuries, and irradiation sickness. It was found to raise blood pressure, enlarge nasal and bronchial passages, and stimulate the central nervous system, so it was first sold over-the-counter as Benzedrine to treat nasal congestion.
Methamphetamine was discovered in Japan in 1919. Soluble in water, it was eventually to become ideal for shooting up. In the 1930s, doctors successfully used it to treat narcolepsy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in small children. When given amphetamine, some people with ADHD notably improve their concentration and performance. During World War 2, amphetamines were commonly used by the military to keep soldiers awake and energetic over long periods.
In the United States in the 1950s, legally manufactured tablets were widely
available and used by college students, truck drivers, and athletes. Medically,
they were used increasingly for weight control and mild depression. Recreationally
the drug steadily gained popularity as it was much cheaper than cocaine
and easy to obtain.
The 1990s saw amphetamines gain popularity in the dance scene as a cheap
alternative to ecstasy, and home labs turning the drug out as easy access
was restricted.
In the lab: designer drugs
The past century has seen a huge variety of drugs synthesised in laboratories around the world. Although done in the name of science and medicine, where a psychoactive effect occurs the drug will often then be used recreationally. This trend has seen the emergence drugs such as ecstasy, ketamine, LSD, and more recently, a wide variety of “research chemicals”. Space doesn’t permit a history of all these hybrids or prescription drugs that are used recreationally.
How governments respond to drug use
The 20th century largely saw governments initially responding to many drugs by banning them and making their use, supply or trade a criminal offence. During the prohibition era in America, even alcohol had this approach used for some years. However, globalisation has made many governments realise that the use of illicit drugs can no longer truly be eradicated. In many countries such as Australia, there has been a move toward ‘harm reduction’, where the use of illicit drugs is neither condoned nor promoted, but services and support are provided to ensure users have the negative effects of their illicit drug use minimised. This has led to the introduction of supplying needle and syringes, information on blood-borne viruses and a gradual move from treating drug dependency as a health issue instead of a legal issue.
A history of drug use shows clearly that humans have not only used drugs for a long time, but will continue to do so — an important fact that all governments need to take into account when forming responses to this complex issue. It is interesting to note that the only governments that ever manage to substantially eradicate illicit drug use were repressive authoritarian regimes, a working solution that few in the West would accept. Any democracy that respects human rights and freedoms will need a multi-faceted, equally complex response to illicit drugs.
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