|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The phenomenon of recreational drug use, especially among younger crowds, has defined generational culture for the past few decades. However, society’s attitudes toward specific drugs and their usage have undergone drastic shifts over different periods of time.
For instance, the 1980s War on Drugs and the start of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) programs highlighted specific attitudes toward the crack cocaine epidemic and addiction crisis of the period. Contrastingly, the rise of Gen Z vaping and fentanyl dangers shows a new wave of drug use in the 21st century.
This data poses the question of why drug use shifts in the first place. Is it because of societal influences, for example, the Baby Boomers’ counterculture movement, or could the media be to blame? Is the continuous normalization of drug use causing the rise in overdoses and addiction rates?
Perhaps society’s relaxed attitudes toward drug use is fueling the opioid crisis seen today.
The decreased traditionalism of the 21st century brings new, modern opinions and attitudes toward previously controversial topics, one of which is drug use. The hippies’ use of LSD and millennials’ use of OxyContin has laid the groundwork for Gen Z drugs, the most popular of which is vapes.
It’s important to note that although other factors could have played a role in the minimal drug use in the early 20th century, conservative, traditional attitudes may have been the most impactful in keeping user rates low.
The majority of generations before the Baby Boomers condemned drug use for religious reasons, but with the 1960s counterculture, these attitudes were abandoned, allowing for the impact of this onto future generations, including the current Gen Z.
Increasingly relaxed attitudes toward drug use have allowed this practice to become almost normal for younger crowds. This pushes the assumption that this must correlate to the rise in overdose-related death rates and addiction rates among Millennials and Gen Z.
The physiological effects of society’s approval of certain actions allow this situation to unfold, leaving us to ponder whether we’ve gone too far in normalizing controversial actions and distancing ourselves from “old-fashioned” views.
If modern attitudes toward drug use weren’t as relaxed, maybe the opioid crisis of the 21st century would come to a resolution.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
