Drugs were not always illegal in the USA. For a good deal of our history you could walk into your local pharmacy and buy cocaine, heroin or cannabis right off the shelf, without a prescription. But something changed around the turn of the century (1900), and by the 1930s the War on Drugs was in full swing.
Opium was outlawed by associating it with Chinese immigrants.
Cannabis was outlawed by associating it with Mexican immigrants.
Cocaine was outlawed by associating it with Black men.
Later, amphetamines would be criminalized by associating them with poverty.
DMT (Ayahuasca) & Peyote were outlawed by associating them with non-Christian religions.
There is a long history of racism in this country. Without it, the War on Drugs would never have existed.
In this episode, I also talk about LSD, MDMA, Methamphetamine, challenging trips, Communication as a field of study, Bicycle Day, set and setting, the origins of the DEA, Harry Anslinger, PSA campaigns, Junkie Bonds/Junkie Unions, and the name of the show, "The Dr. Junkie Show."
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146: Life in Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle (pt 2)
#145: Addiction, Ideology & the Society of the Spectacle
Episode 144: C. Dreams Free at Last (Dr. Christina Perez)
#143: Cults, Drugs & The 12-Step Success Story
#142: Where's my Adderall, Ritalin & Opioids?
#141: The Panopticon
#140: Captured Words/Free Thoughts, 20th Anniversary
#139: We Couldn't Build it Worse if we Tried
#138: Drugs and Addiction in a Neoliberal Oligarchy
#137: Foucault on Drugs
#136: Heroin with Adorno, Marx, Marcuse & Nietzsche
#135: Capitalism and the War on Drugs (Benjamin Fong)
#134: What's Wrong with Prison? (Christie Donner)
#133: Attachment, Authenticity & Addiction (Dr. Erin Boyce)
#132: Prisons on TV and the Spectacle of Punishment
#131: The US War on Drugs 1970-2020
#130: The US War on Drugs 1920-1970
#129: The US War on Drugs 1870-1920
#128: What Prison Should Be Like (Dr. Ashley Hamilton)
#127: Poetry from Prison—Captured Words/Free Thoughts 19
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