Interesting. I wonder if online gambling and social media will follow a similar path? The internet seems to have had a perverse impact upon Gen Z (and to a lesser extent my own millennial generation).
It's absolutely everywhere, too. I went online to buy a sweater the other day and a pop-up on the clothing retailer's website invited me to spin a roulette wheel for a chance at a discount. I really pity people addicted to gambling because we increasingly live in an enforced casino.
I can only vouch for my experience as a young person growing up in a pretty rough area who mixed in a drug-taking subculture. It was easy to find dealers of everything (through links to the nearest city or a small cohort of older dealer-addicts) but, in contrast to cannabis, ketamine, ecstasy and powdered cocaine, which were accessible in the school grounds, nobody, not even the hardcore users, dared touch heroin, crack or opioids. The cultural memory of a pretty serious mini-outbreak of heroin usage in our city in the 2000s was indeed enough to put them off even though they had no memory. Interestingly this didn't permeate the children of the PMC and the upper classes I see here in Durham, whose drug-taking behaviour is a lot riskier from anecdotal evidence.
I'd also recommend the 'children's' novel Junk by Melvin Burgess which was published about 2000 and portrays the addiction of children in 80's Bristol. Horribly haunting and bleak but a cultural milestone against heroin for late millennials and Gen Z.
I enjoyed this. Good review of selected drug epidemics. Though I'm not sure the supply shock piece is necessary for the generational turnover piece you're arguing. Ie you can have cohort effects regardless of how the cohort is formed. The supply shock part is important, of course, but we can find other examples where the demand side was also a major contributing component of drug epidemics (eg structural and economic dislocation, stress and anomie, social fragmentation, cultural shifts, etc). One example that comes to mind is W J Rorabaugh's Alcoholic Republic on the early US republic and the extraordinary alcohol use then. Demand side was definitely important, supply arguably less so. Also the role of industry is significant in many epidemics (hugely important in Gin Craze, for example). In my book, I conclude that epidemics often come at the intersection of those three factors (supply/potency/formulation changes, industry efforts, and demand issues). To what extent each is necessary/sufficient is complicated.
Of course the cohort issue is the main focus of the essay and I agree that's pretty compelling (though not exclusively of course).
If you enjoy reading Courtwright and the other sources you cite here, you'd love Alc Republic! Well written, clear, a classic. People have asked me and I need to put together a selected drug/addiction history list, beyond the hundreds of citations in the back of the urge...
Very insightful. Reminds me of Neil Howe’s book The Fourth Turning - the cycle theory of generations and their moods through history. Second and Third “Turning” generations are individual focused and intoxicants help them optimize self-centered outcomes. Fourth and First Turning generations are society focused and avoid intoxicants as they defeat the collective social energies of the moment. I think the curves are generational (as you point out) and more than just watching the destruction of the prior generations (which is absolutely true too).
I’m reminded of our “rhyming Weimar moment”. Doesn’t it look hauntingly similar?
The 1920s Berlin of cabaret decadence, drug fueled orgies, gender fluid experimentation. The world of Brecht.
The 1930s Berlin of right wing purity. Cleaning up. Physical vigor. Recommitment to the old ways. Strength over decadence. The world of the Third Reich.
These things really are generational. And, it appears, driven by natural social rhythms. The consumption and egalitarian ethos of feminine energy giving way to the extension and discipline ethos of masculine energy. The yin and yang wave of social moods that grip generations just as surely as the systole and diastole heartbeat of individuals.
The beat goes on. At scale, what we are experiencing is just “how it works” in the heartbeat of nations and civilizations.
Exactly! The Fourth Turning by Neil Howe tells this generational rhythmic story so well. Every 80-100 years, a civilizational reset happens. The old order collapses from exhaustion. Spent. I think of it in natural terms: civilizations (like “the west” led by America but all over the globe) are living things. They are alive. The sum total of the energy of the citizens who live there. And, like all live things, civilizations peak and decline. Like bananas from green to yellow to spotted to brown. The sweetness of ripe brown spotted bananas is the pleasure of our intoxicants. The precursor to the rot that must come next.
What is happening is merely, at the spiritual level, a rebirth. The death of the old and spent (and now rotten) to a green new stalk. Led by the young - who at some unspoken level know they must destroy this once sweet fruit hoarded by their elders. This pattern is shown again and again through history. This is merely…our turn.
‘Drug epidemics, in this view, do not end so much with the triumph of policy as with the exhaustion of a generation. One age drinks, injects, and dies; the next watches, recoils, and abstains, the grim rhythm by which intoxicated societies learn restraint.’
Does it mean that the war on drugs is pointless? I suppose trying to stop the supplies into the USA via Mexico is a good in itself - vicious, depraved criminals control it so it is correct to stop them ‘by any means necessary’. Certainly the glamorisation of drugs in music and fashion is nihilistic and disgusting. I spent a week in a part of Colombia where the population of this very small, sad, impoverished town had been, literally, enslaved from childhood by FARC to process and refine cocaine. I’d like to see photographic spreads of these poor people in Vogue.
The ‘war on drugs’ is a loaded phrase usually used polemically by people who wish to liberalise access to drugs. So I tend to avoid using it. Im in favour of ‘narcotic conservatism’ (to borrow David Courtwright’s phrase) and see an emphasis on supply-side factors pertaining to drug-use as bolstering support for measures taken to reduce drug-use.
I know you think smartphones are a panic, I think because the idea that the content causes damage isn’t sound. Do you think there’s a case for saying that the sheer addiction of the algos is a problem? That phones are the abstinent generation’s opiate?
I wouldn’t describe British Gen Z as the ‘abstinent generation’ as such—they’re still using drugs like cannabis, cocaine, ketamine, and nitrous oxide—its just that, in general, they’re not using opioids like heroin to the same extent that a tranche of Gen X did, thankfully.
You (rightly) talk about supply shocks, but if you forgive me, you might have missed a beat.
I wrote a piece for the Latin American Bureau (https://lab.org.uk/mexico-a-gated-economy-powered-by-nafta/) where I pointed out that the industry that had done best out of NAFTA was the drugs industry, given that hundreds of thousands of trucks and millions of people and cars began passing the border in an accelerated fashion.
NAFTA helped create a massive supply network for cocaine/heroin from Mexico.
Interesting. I wonder if online gambling and social media will follow a similar path? The internet seems to have had a perverse impact upon Gen Z (and to a lesser extent my own millennial generation).
American sports betting certainly strikes me a ‘drug-epidemic’-style supply-shock
It's absolutely everywhere, too. I went online to buy a sweater the other day and a pop-up on the clothing retailer's website invited me to spin a roulette wheel for a chance at a discount. I really pity people addicted to gambling because we increasingly live in an enforced casino.
Not good
I can only vouch for my experience as a young person growing up in a pretty rough area who mixed in a drug-taking subculture. It was easy to find dealers of everything (through links to the nearest city or a small cohort of older dealer-addicts) but, in contrast to cannabis, ketamine, ecstasy and powdered cocaine, which were accessible in the school grounds, nobody, not even the hardcore users, dared touch heroin, crack or opioids. The cultural memory of a pretty serious mini-outbreak of heroin usage in our city in the 2000s was indeed enough to put them off even though they had no memory. Interestingly this didn't permeate the children of the PMC and the upper classes I see here in Durham, whose drug-taking behaviour is a lot riskier from anecdotal evidence.
I'd also recommend the 'children's' novel Junk by Melvin Burgess which was published about 2000 and portrays the addiction of children in 80's Bristol. Horribly haunting and bleak but a cultural milestone against heroin for late millennials and Gen Z.
Thank for reading and taking the time to post the thoughtful comment. I will add that book to my list.
I enjoyed this. Good review of selected drug epidemics. Though I'm not sure the supply shock piece is necessary for the generational turnover piece you're arguing. Ie you can have cohort effects regardless of how the cohort is formed. The supply shock part is important, of course, but we can find other examples where the demand side was also a major contributing component of drug epidemics (eg structural and economic dislocation, stress and anomie, social fragmentation, cultural shifts, etc). One example that comes to mind is W J Rorabaugh's Alcoholic Republic on the early US republic and the extraordinary alcohol use then. Demand side was definitely important, supply arguably less so. Also the role of industry is significant in many epidemics (hugely important in Gin Craze, for example). In my book, I conclude that epidemics often come at the intersection of those three factors (supply/potency/formulation changes, industry efforts, and demand issues). To what extent each is necessary/sufficient is complicated.
Of course the cohort issue is the main focus of the essay and I agree that's pretty compelling (though not exclusively of course).
Thanks for reading and for the thoughtful comment. I need to read both your book and also Alcohol Republic.
If you enjoy reading Courtwright and the other sources you cite here, you'd love Alc Republic! Well written, clear, a classic. People have asked me and I need to put together a selected drug/addiction history list, beyond the hundreds of citations in the back of the urge...
Sounds good. Thank you for the tip.
Very insightful. Reminds me of Neil Howe’s book The Fourth Turning - the cycle theory of generations and their moods through history. Second and Third “Turning” generations are individual focused and intoxicants help them optimize self-centered outcomes. Fourth and First Turning generations are society focused and avoid intoxicants as they defeat the collective social energies of the moment. I think the curves are generational (as you point out) and more than just watching the destruction of the prior generations (which is absolutely true too).
Thanks for reading and for the thoughtful comment Lukas.
Of course. It was a great piece.
I’m reminded of our “rhyming Weimar moment”. Doesn’t it look hauntingly similar?
The 1920s Berlin of cabaret decadence, drug fueled orgies, gender fluid experimentation. The world of Brecht.
The 1930s Berlin of right wing purity. Cleaning up. Physical vigor. Recommitment to the old ways. Strength over decadence. The world of the Third Reich.
These things really are generational. And, it appears, driven by natural social rhythms. The consumption and egalitarian ethos of feminine energy giving way to the extension and discipline ethos of masculine energy. The yin and yang wave of social moods that grip generations just as surely as the systole and diastole heartbeat of individuals.
The beat goes on. At scale, what we are experiencing is just “how it works” in the heartbeat of nations and civilizations.
Yes. And punks — esp ‘straight-edge’ variant — reacting against the left-libertarian idealism of the Hippies who preceded them.
Exactly! The Fourth Turning by Neil Howe tells this generational rhythmic story so well. Every 80-100 years, a civilizational reset happens. The old order collapses from exhaustion. Spent. I think of it in natural terms: civilizations (like “the west” led by America but all over the globe) are living things. They are alive. The sum total of the energy of the citizens who live there. And, like all live things, civilizations peak and decline. Like bananas from green to yellow to spotted to brown. The sweetness of ripe brown spotted bananas is the pleasure of our intoxicants. The precursor to the rot that must come next.
What is happening is merely, at the spiritual level, a rebirth. The death of the old and spent (and now rotten) to a green new stalk. Led by the young - who at some unspoken level know they must destroy this once sweet fruit hoarded by their elders. This pattern is shown again and again through history. This is merely…our turn.
Sounds like an interesting book.
Profound: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1982173734/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0
‘Drug epidemics, in this view, do not end so much with the triumph of policy as with the exhaustion of a generation. One age drinks, injects, and dies; the next watches, recoils, and abstains, the grim rhythm by which intoxicated societies learn restraint.’
Does it mean that the war on drugs is pointless? I suppose trying to stop the supplies into the USA via Mexico is a good in itself - vicious, depraved criminals control it so it is correct to stop them ‘by any means necessary’. Certainly the glamorisation of drugs in music and fashion is nihilistic and disgusting. I spent a week in a part of Colombia where the population of this very small, sad, impoverished town had been, literally, enslaved from childhood by FARC to process and refine cocaine. I’d like to see photographic spreads of these poor people in Vogue.
Brilliant essay, Pete.
The ‘war on drugs’ is a loaded phrase usually used polemically by people who wish to liberalise access to drugs. So I tend to avoid using it. Im in favour of ‘narcotic conservatism’ (to borrow David Courtwright’s phrase) and see an emphasis on supply-side factors pertaining to drug-use as bolstering support for measures taken to reduce drug-use.
Thank you Tam 🙏🏻
100%.
Great piece, thank you.
I know you think smartphones are a panic, I think because the idea that the content causes damage isn’t sound. Do you think there’s a case for saying that the sheer addiction of the algos is a problem? That phones are the abstinent generation’s opiate?
I wouldn’t describe British Gen Z as the ‘abstinent generation’ as such—they’re still using drugs like cannabis, cocaine, ketamine, and nitrous oxide—its just that, in general, they’re not using opioids like heroin to the same extent that a tranche of Gen X did, thankfully.
You (rightly) talk about supply shocks, but if you forgive me, you might have missed a beat.
I wrote a piece for the Latin American Bureau (https://lab.org.uk/mexico-a-gated-economy-powered-by-nafta/) where I pointed out that the industry that had done best out of NAFTA was the drugs industry, given that hundreds of thousands of trucks and millions of people and cars began passing the border in an accelerated fashion.
NAFTA helped create a massive supply network for cocaine/heroin from Mexico.
Thanks Max