Why are street drugs so much more in use now than they were in previous decades? nt

There are more than twice as many people living in the United States today as there were on the day I was born.

Many seek to numb or escape it. Fortunately, help is available.

The question in my mind is who brings them in and who profits besides the drug pusher. During rayguns administration it was the bush, and raygun to a lesser degree, black ops who were profiting. I suspect since the money is being scrutinized a little closer for those black ops operations now that maybe they are the ones who are responsible for the reason I stated earlier, readily availability.

Cite, please.

white collar, gainfully employed person using cocaine. at least not in most of the US.

When I was in high school (1960's, small town) you didn't hear of kids selling drugs in the parking lot or wherever.

Not saying those times were better (No air conditioning, for one thing), but street drugs weren't as mainstream as now.

without a prescription - truck drivers and shift workers lived on them - three drinks after dinner was expected, and it was easy to get prescriptions for your 'nerves'.

It all changed in the late sixties, and in the 70s the drug 'problem' was worse than today - people really didn't know that cocaine was dangerous, EVERYBODY smoked pot, and because of decades of lies about soft drugs nobody really believed what the government was saying about hard drugs.

So far as I can tell there is much less of a drug problem today than 30 years ago. Its just that today it is much more street drugs because there is so much less 'legitimate' drug use.

"No, we just drank like fish."

Smaller government = Cruelty to your fellow man

...some folks seem to really go out their way and outside the bounds of defensible logic to blame the other side.

How about simply that there are more people, more drugs that are more available and better reporting?

I mean...the exact same thing (OP question) could be said about Rape. Times change and attitudes\reporting of situations change perception.

You're citing MSM stats, which of course are skewed to make the problem look worse than it is.

IMO the biggest drug problems we have right now are meth in rural America and Oxycontin abuse all across the country.

I forgot the name. Like code levels 1 2 3 4...

I think the year was 1984. What happened was everyone who was taking bennies or diet pills switched to coke and everybody who was taking valium or codine switched to heroin.

That's why there was a drug boom in 1984/85.....

There was actually an article about this in Penthouse magazine. In the winter of 84 I think.

And in the 1950's abuse of transquilizers was rampant.

The youth today go for alcohol and prescription drugs.

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/archives/A/hhs2069.html

I grew up in southern Arizona in the late 60's and early 70's and we had a significant "street drugs" issue then. Of course, being near the border certainly could have meant that the street drug issue I saw during that time was there, but had not yet spread across the country to the same degree.

But the one thing that has mushroomed of late is meth, so if there is an incredible increase it probably is fueled in large part by that.

nt

I went to college from 1969-1973. People openly smoked pot outside their dorm rooms, at concerts, etc often with police looking on. They weren't interested in busting people for that. It seemed like everybody took acid and mushrooms, and amphetamines were as common as aspirin. I had a girlfriend that weighed about 110 pounds; she went to the doctor saying she wanted to lose 5-10 pounds and he gave her black beauties, which would keep you up for 12 hours. Granted, these aren't street drugs, but they were used to study, not for their prescribed purpose.

Plus, recreational drug use has always and will always be around one way or the other, and isn't a black/white unhealthy thing physically or spiritually - quite the contrary, actually, depending upon the substance.

http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/qual01.htm

Quaalude (Methaqualone)

Quaalude Information

History

Quaalude (Methaqualone, Sopor) was first synthesised in India in 1955 by M.L.Gujral and was soon introduced to Japanese and European consumers as a safe barbiturate substitute.

But experience has shown that its excessive use leads to tolerance, dependence and withdrawal symptoms similar to those of barbiturates.

By 1965 it was the most commonly prescribed sedative in Britain.

In England, it has been sold legally under the names Malsed, Malsedin, and Renoval. In 1965 Methaqualone and an antihistamine combination were sold as the sedative drug Mandrax by Rousell Laboratories.

At about the same time (1965) it was starting to become a popular recreational drug named mandies or mandrake.

In 1972 it was the sixth best selling sedative on the market in the United States, where it was legally sold by the name of Quaalude, and luding out, was a popular college pastime.

Because of its alleged aphrodisiac and euphoric qualities it was known as the love drug at that time (the 70s). Guys would say to girls "Let's do some ludes and fuck". Some girls would say "Yes" and others would say "No".

It has been used as a hypnotic in the short term management of insomnia and as a sedative but has been withdrawn from the market due to problems with abuse.

Dose: THERAPEUTIC RANGE: 150mg - 300mg at night OR 75mg four times a day.

Before drugs were criminalized it wasn't lucrative to sell them. Now it's big business. Same as alcohol during prohibition.

pot.