Drugs and Alcohol
For nearly 85 years, the government has prohibited pscychoactive drugs. American leaders attempted to do the same to alcohol with Prohibition in the 1920?s. In any society, drug use plays a part in the people?s culture. Whether it be a native taking hallucinogens for a religious ceremony, a destitute alcoholic drinking on a city street, or a group of teenagers smoking marijuana, drugs and alcohol have the same effects in any culture. The question of ?why do people use drugs? has been a dilemma which American medical experts and government leaders have fought to answer for years. Recently, many institutions and organizations have formed in order to fight the war on drugs and help diminish the percent of Americans who use dangerous drugs and excessive amounts of alcohol.
Drugs and alcohol have been part of cultural recreation for thousands of years. Ancient China and India used marijuan thousands of years ago, and Herodotus wrote in the fifth century B.C.
An Alcoholics Anonymous Regional Service Center in...
A Kranz (wreath) of Kölsch beer.
English: Total recorded alcohol per capita consump...of the Scythians? ?burning marijuana on hot rocks and producing a vapor that made them shout out loud?(Duke and Gross 44). Over 7,000 years ago, Peruvian legend attests that llamas which lacked sources of food ate the leafs of the coca plant. The result was increased energy, which led the Peruvians to eat the plant for the same reason (Duke and Gross 66). It is also a well-known fact that ancient tribes still use psychoactive drugs and drink homemade alcohol to enhance religious ceremonies. All of these examples point out that drugs have been around a long, long time, and no solution can possibly wipe out drug use totally.
Before being capable of fighting the use of drugs and alchol, one must come to an understanding of why some people use drugs. The decision to ultimately use drugs...