Drug culture

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

Drug subcultures are groups of people united by a common understanding of the meaning and value (good or otherwise) of the incorporation into one's 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, groups banding together to help each other obtain drugs and avoid arrest^[1] to full-scale political movements for the reform of drug laws.^[2] The sum of these parts can be considered an individual drug's "culture".

Many artists have used various drugs and explored their influence on human life in general and particularly on the creative process. Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas employs drug use as a major theme and provides an example of the drug culture of the 1960s.

Drinking culture

Alcoholic beverages contain ethanol (simply called alcohol). Ethanol is a psychoactive drug^[3][4] primarily found in alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is one of the most commonly abused drugs in the world (Meropol, 1996)^[5] often used for self-medication,^[6] and as recreational drug use.^[7]

Cannabis culture

Cannabis culture has been responsible for the genre of films known as stoner films which has come to be accepted as a mainstream cinema movement.^[8][9] In the United States the culture has also spawned its own celebrities (such as Tommy Chong and Terence McKenna), magazines (Cannabis Culture and High Times), and, in North America, its own distinct holiday: April 20, which is marked as a day for calling for the legalization of cannabis and celebration of cannabis.^[10][11]

Witchcraft and drugs

The drugs used in witchcraft are different depending on the culture. Most of the research done on drug use in witchcraft has been done in the 60s during the hippie movement. And since then the ergot that was theoretically taken in Salem has been some what disproven. However, because the research was done in the hippie and drug movement in the 70s the theory is still a part of drug culture.^[12]

Ancient Greek love magic uses many rituals that show drug use in poisoning to deeper the emotion of love. Love magic was used by women during ancient Greek times to keep a man deeply in love or to gain love by a man. In this field researchers look a lot at the agency of the women. Greek love magic relates to drug culture as it deals with poisoning people. There can be similarities found in today's date rape drug. However, in ancient Greek time the women would slowly poison the men. Women would put the poisons on their robes to expose it to the men.^[13]

Shamanism used hallucinogens to further their spirituality. These hallucinogens were used for different ceremonies of the Indians in the Northwest Amazon. These ceremonies include funerals and initiation of the young. Shamans had a wider rage of use for these drugs. Shamans used these drugs to identify illnesses and find possible cures or to find an enemy.^[14]

There is a theory, seemingly disproven due to timeline of events and number of those who experience the symptoms, that the salem witch trials were cause by ergot poisoning. Ergot poisoning gives a similar effect to LSD.^[15]

See also

• Coffee culture
• Entheogens
• Kava culture
• Narcoculture in Mexico
• Peyote § Cultural significance
• Tea culture

References