Previously, there were a lot of myths and lies in American culture and society. Like today, people did not understand, denied, and aggressively attacked everything they did not understand. As a result, drugs became the main subject of hatred, mythologization, and outright lies. Starting from the very beginning of the twentieth century and ending even today, drugs as a topic have been surrounded by a mass of myths and misconceptions.
The first myth that concerns skeptical citizens and the users themselves is that everyone uses them. The media may portray things differently, but youngest people have never used illicit drugs (Heidt & Wheeldon, 2021). The misconception about ubiquitous use is just one myth created by the media, citizens, and users themselves, but it is indicative. Generalizations, ignorance, a predisposition to rumors, and panic always give unreasonable judgments. However, one should also focus on more specific misconceptions about drugs generated by the media and popular culture.
It is no myth or secret that alcohol is ubiquitous throughout Western culture. For a Westerner, alcohol is an integral part of cultural identity, traditions, and rituals. Often this position leads to the myth that alcohol is not a drug at all. Many alcoholics do not perceive their addiction as a disease, considering themselves better than drug addicts sitting on other substances (Axley et al., 2019). Alcohol is associated with celebrations, good times, and pleasure, yet it is also linked to murder, suicide, unemployment, and child abuse. These links are never made in advertisements. Of course, that is not what one would anticipate. Advertisers are marketing a product, and it is their responsibility to minimize any unfavorable features while emphasizing the good. However, when the product is the nation’s top-selling medicine, some ramifications reach far beyond product sales.
The next in line in the variety of common drugs is marijuana. Since the beginning of the last century, many myths have been formed about it. The American Drug Enforcement Administration began with attempts to stop the increasing consumption of marijuana in the middle of the 20th century (Moyle et al., 2019). Mexican drug cartels, which became the main enemy of the United States in the war on drugs, began their activities with marijuana (Goode, 2019). Also, marijuana is one of the elements of racial segregation in the past, as it was attributed to the status of a drug of African Americans. Looking at all these high-profile statements, one would think that marijuana is almost more terrifying than heroin and methamphetamine combined.
Realizing the experience of the past, its myths, and prejudices, one can calmly look at the actual position of marijuana in the life of modern society. Marijuana has proven to be one of the least dangerous and often valuable drugs (Goode, 2019). When controlled and regulated by the state, cannabinoids become effective physiological and mental health medicines in small quantities (Schlag et al., 2022). Myths about racial, social, or other correlations with marijuana turned out to be just myths (Siff, 2018). Thus, marijuana, from the main enemy and scarecrow for the media of the past, becomes a ubiquitous, low-dangerous remedy.
Based on my own experience studying the topic and the objects under discussion, I formed an opinion. I can only confirm the thesis that a massive part of the myths of the media is false, based on and based on fears and prejudices. People of the past years were poorly aware of what drugs are, about the variety of their properties, side effects, and other factors. Marijuana and cannabinoids are generally harmless to humans or pose little danger. It is rare to hear about violence or illegal actions resulting from the use of marijuana. In the vast majority of these kinds of claims, people who have used weed, LSD, mushrooms, and other mild psychoactive substances were already mentally ill.
Despite the above-described features of the mythologization of drugs, in our time, alcohol, in terms of the level of danger, is one of the most frightening. Alcohol is hazardous both for the person who uses it and for his relatives and society as a whole. Silencing some problems with substances in the media and inflating and sometimes inventing others always leads to long-term problems. My experience of interacting with the topic suggests that modern society will be faced with myths and lies about substances for a long time to come. However, given the medical and scientific refutation of a massive layer of media lies, the situation will get better soon.
In today’s society, citizens already have repeated experiences of interacting with, using, or familiarizing themselves with the topic of drugs. As stated earlier, science and medicine keep the sane discourse direction by opposing the media. In our time, it is still possible to publish scarecrows for people of the older generation or representatives of closed communities. However, as time goes on, society will become more intelligent about substances, especially with increasing drug research and practice. Thanks to this work, even my personal opinion and perception of drugs has improved towards a more constructive view of the topic.
Reference
Axley, P. D., Richardson, C. T., & Singal, A. K. (2019). Epidemiology of alcohol consumption and societal burden of alcoholism and alcoholic liver disease. Clinics in Liver Disease, 23(1), 39–50. Web.
Goode, E. (2019). Drugs in American society (10th ed.). McGraw Hill.
Heidt, J., & Wheeldon, J. (2021). Data, damn lies, and cannabis policy: Reefer madness and the methodological crimes of the new prohibitionists. Critical Criminology. Web.
Moyle, L., Childs, A., Coomber, R., & Barratt, M. J. (2019). #drugsforsale: An exploration of the use of social media and encrypted messaging apps to supply and access drugs. International Journal of Drug Policy, 63, 101–110. Web.
Schlag, A. K., Aday, J., Salam, I., Neill, J. C., & Nutt, D. J. (2022). Adverse effects of psychedelics: From anecdotes and misinformation to systematic science. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 36(3), 258–272. Web.
Siff, S. (2018). “Why do you think they call it dope?”: Richard Nixon’s national mass media campaign against drug abuse. Journalism & Communication Monographs, 20(3), 172–247. Web.