Recreational drug use  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 20:16, 24 January 2008

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational rather than medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear. Regardless of medical supervision, this label does not apply to the use of drugs for utilitarian purposes, such as the relief of fatigue or insomnia, or the control of appetite.

Related

By drug: alcohol - amphetamines (speed) - cocaine - ecstasy - hashish - heroin - LSD - magic mushrooms - opium - poppers - pot - smoking

By medium: Drugs in literature - Drugs in music - Drugs in film

Related: addiction - consciousness - medicine - mind - prohibition - psychedelic

Psychotropics

A psychoactive drug or psychotropic substance is a chemical that alters brain function, resulting in temporary changes in perception, mood, consciousness, or behavior. Such drugs are often used in recreational drug use and as entheogens for spiritual purposes, as well as in medication, especially for treating neurological and psychological illnesses.

Many of these substances (especially the stimulants and depressants) can be habit-forming, causing chemical dependency and often leading to substance abuse. Conversely, others (namely the psychedelics) can help to treat and even cure such addictions. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_drug [Mar 2006]

Drug subcultures

Drug subcultures are examples of countercultures, primarily defined by recreational drug use.

Drug subcultures are groups of people loosely united by a common understanding of the meaning and value (good or otherwise) of the incorporation into life of the drug in question. Such unity can take many forms, from friends who take the drug together, possibly obeying certain rules of etiquette, to full-scale political movements for the reform of drug laws. The sum of these parts can be considered an individual drug's "culture".

There are multiple drug subcultures based on the use of different drugs - the culture surrounding cannabis, for example, is very different from that of heroin, due to the different sort of experiences, sentiment amongst the crowd attracted to the drug in question, as well as the problems the users encounter.

Drugs also play an important role in various other subcultures, such as reggae music, rastafari and hippy movements. Many artists, especially in the 20th century, used various drugs and explored their influence on human life in general and particularly on the creative process, see "Artificial Paradises" by Charles Baudelaire.

Further reading

• Psychoactive drug
• Hole in the head
• The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics(2001) by Richard Davenport-Hines
• Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible (2001) - Chris Bennett, Neil McQueen
• Artificial Paradises: A Drugs Reader () - Mike Jay
• Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market (1992) - Thomas Szasz

The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics (2001)

Richard Davenport-Hines offers a sharply opinionated history of drugs structured around three major premises: Human beings use drugs; for many that choice will be debilitating, sometimes fatal; and government prohibition of drugs, as opposed to regulation, is counterproductive and doomed to vainglorious failure. --Publishers Weekly

Artificial Paradises: A Drugs Reader () - Mike Jay

Times change--who would have thought that we'd ever see a nonjudgmental mainstream anthology of writings about mind-altering drugs? --Rob Lightner for amazon.com

Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible (2001) - Chris Bennett, Neil McQueen

Here in the bi-millenial year of the most popular individual in history, Jesus Christ, it is the perfect time to take an honest and hard look at the book that pivoted him to popularity. We say this is the perfect time for this endeavor, not only because we likely won't be burnt at the stake or imprisoned for doing so, but also because here in the "Age of Information", access to the historical material that is relevant to the subject, is unquestionably more available than ever before. It is only by coming to understand the world and time in which the Bible itself developed, that we can ever understand the Bible itself. -- from the publisher

Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market (1992) - Thomas Stephen Szasz

"My aim" states Thomas Szasz, "is to mount a critique of our current drug laws and social policies, based on the fundamental premise that a limited government, epitomized by the U.S., lacks the political legitimacy to deprive competent adults of the right to ingest, inhale, or inject whatever substance they want. . . In summary my argument is that the constraints on the power of the federal government, laid down in the Constitution, have been eroded by a monopolistic medical profession administering a system of prescription laws that, in effect, have removed most of the drugs people want from the free market. Hence, it is futile to debate whether the War on Drugs should be escalated or de-escalated, without first coming to grips with the popular and political mindset concerning the trade in drugs generated by nearly a century of drug prohibitions."--via Amazon.com