Drugs 101

Abstract

This chapter recounts the history of how humans have used drugs for all kinds of reasons, including achieving alternative states of consciousness. It mentions excavations that have uncovered colored stains on human teeth that date back to sometime between 2400 and 2000 B.C.E., indigenous Peruvians were making pipes for smoking hallucinogenic herbs. It also talks about the Chinese, who were cultivating opium by 700 A.D. and an Abyssinian herder from 900 A.D., who noticed that his animals would become nervous after eating the shiny red fruit of a tree that would one day be called coffee. The chapter refers to scientists that suggested that the desire to alter consciousness is the “fourth drive” in every human mind, making drug use biologically inevitable. It provides enough information to dispel some of the myths about drug use, abuse, addiction, trafficking, and enforcement.