We All Use Drugs

You use drugs and that's okay

The following is an excerpt from p. 13-14 of the Introduction, “What is Drugism?” from my new book, Drugism (2022):

A fundamental truth which many peoples’ drugism prevents them from understanding is that everybody uses drugs. This ignorance traces to the fact that the vernacular meaning of drug revolves around notions of harmfulness.

Our society imposes false distinctions on drugs and the people who use them. As a result, many people are unaware of their own drug use.

Some drugs are publicly recognized as such, while others are publicly defined as food or drink. Those who use drugs which are not defined as such are conditioned to discriminate against those who use drugs which are defined as such. Thus, someone who consumes sugar compulsively may dismiss and disregard someone who uses heroin compulsively. Both substances are highly refined, dopaminergic drugs which have the power to fundamentally alter the body’s metabolism to produce debilitating dependency. Both produce euphoria and are potentially lethal. In hard numbers, sugar kills more people than heroin each year.^[1] Yet, because sugar is socially accepted in ways which heroin is not, it is legal and is included in countless food items. Otherwise, the distinction is somewhat arbitrary.

Salt overconsumption, i.e. overdose, contributes to more deaths than all illegal drugs combined.

This division, between people who use drugs which are socially accepted and those who use drugs which are not, results in real, tangible, consequences. Drugs which are not typically recognized as such include: tea, coffee, energy drinks, over-the-counter and prescription medicine when used legally, sugar and all its analogues, etc. Even salt is a drug: it is technically not required for our nourishment and was historically used as a medicine. Salt overconsumption, i.e. overdose, contributes to more deaths than all illegal drugs combined.

In many cases even users of alcohol and cigarettes do not consider these products to be drugs. Similarly, someone who takes sleeping pills to go to sleep or allergy medicine to clear their sinuses may insist that they do not rely on drugs. Yet an objective look at their life would reveal that they rely on at least one drug, if not many. I dare you, reader, to find a single person who has never consumed a drug, be it tea, coffee, an energy drink, over-the-counter medication, prescription medication, or refined sugar.^[2] As Carl Hart insisted, it is “foolish” to expect people not to use drugs.^[i]

I want you to be comfortable with your own drug use, as well as others’ drug use.

Our culture imposes false distinctions on drugs and the people who use them. The result is that many people are unaware of their own drug use. One goal of this writing is to help each reader realize that you—yes, you, reading this—already use drugs of one sort of another, and to be okay with that. I want you to be comfortable with your own drug use, as well as others’ drug use. Everybody already uses drugs. If we could all accept this fact, our social practices around drug use would improve immensely.

Understanding one’s own drug use is the first step to building responsible social practices and policy around drugs. We cannot expect to make meaningful progress on the various issues around drug use unless and until we accept that we all use drugs.

We cannot fully dismantle the War on Drugs unless and until we accept that we all use drugs.

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Footnotes

^[1] For the last several years, the number of annual deaths from heroin overdose in the US has hovered below 20,000 (See Figure 2 in “Overdose Death...”). On the other hand, diabetes kills more than 100,000 each year just in the US, and much of this diabetes is caused by excessive sugar consumption. Sugary beverages alone take more than 50,000 lives each year in the US. See The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, “Food is Medicine” and Terhune and Respaut, “Exclusive: U.S. diabetes…”

^[2] Another challenge: find a single person that does not consume any refined sugar. Good luck.

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Endnotes

^[i] Hart, Drug Use for…, 135.

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Sources

Hart, Carl. Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear. Penguin Press, New York, NY. 2021.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Overdose Death Rates.” Jan 20, 2022. https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates

The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “Food is Medicine: Key Facts.” https://nutrition.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/documents/FIM%20Infographic-Web.pdf

Terhune, Chad and Robin Respaut. “Exclusive: U.S. diabetes deaths top 100,000 for second straight year.” Reuters, Jan 31, 2022.

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Photo credits

Photo of prescription pill bottles from HuffPost at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/used-pill-bottles-saving-lives-in-africa_n_56ccaa63e4b041136f1882ba

Photo of beer bottle from Brew & Grow at https://www.brewandgrow.com/belgian-750ml-beer-bottle-12-cs.html

Photo of assorted supplements from the Public Health Advocate at https://pha.berkeley.edu/2021/02/20/vitamin-supplements-vital-or-superfluous/

Photo of candy from Eat This, Not That! at https://www.eatthis.com/popular-candy-year/

Photo of psilocybin mushrooms from the US Anti-Doping Agency at https://www.usada.org/spirit-of-sport/magic-mushrooms-prohibited-status/

Photo of fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills from the Kansas City Missouri Police Department at https://www.kcpd.org/media/news-releases/fentanyl-laced-counterfeit-pills-spike-accidental-overdoses-deaths/

Photo of salt shaker from iStock at https://www.istockphoto.com/search/2/image?phrase=salt+shaker

Photo of tea cup from VeryWell Health at https://www.verywellhealth.com/tea-health-benefits-2022-symposium-5271260

Photo of cannabis nug from Ten-Ten at https://www.ten-ten.com

Photo of coffee cup from the Harvard Medical School at https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-latest-scoop-on-the-health-benefits-of-coffee-2017092512429

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