Anthropological relation of people to recreational drugs
This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(June 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Drug cultures are examples of countercultures that are primarily defined by spiritual, medical, and recreational drug use. They may be focused on a single drug, or endorse polydrug use. They sometimes eagerly or reluctantly initiate newcomers, but their main functions are to share drug experiences, to reduce harm by providing knowledge of how to use drugs as safely as possible, and to exchange information on suppliers and avoidance of law enforcement.
Drug subcultures are groups of people united by a common understanding of the meaning, value, and risks of the incorporation into one's life of the drug(s) 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, writers, and musicians have used various drugs to facilitate or enhance their creativity. Writers have explored their influence on human life in general and particularly on the creative process. There are many writings that portray drug culture. Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas employs multiple drug use as a major theme and provides an example of the drug culture of the 1960s.
After various drug cultures came to prominence during the 1960s, 1980s and early 2000s, the internet provided a new location and medium where drug cultures could be born and propagate. Technologies like Tor were able to offer anonymous website hosting and browsing, which were used for the creation of the darknet market SilkRoad, the first of many to be used in the sale of psychoactive substances and other illegal goods. There are YouTube channels devoted to recreational drug use and harm reduction, with the most popular being PsychedSubstance. Except for forums (like Blue Light) where individuals can post and discuss the properties and experiences of psychoactive substances, there are websites and organizations specifically created to serve as encyclopedias of psychoactive drugs and drug culture, such as Erowid and PsychonautWiki.
^Grund, Jean-Paul (2010-11-20). "subculture of injecting drug use". Thebody.com. Retrieved 2013-03-15.
Drugcultures are examples of countercultures that are primarily defined by spiritual, medical, and recreational drug use. They may be focused on a single...
drug is any chemical substance that when consumed causes a change in an organism's physiology, including its psychology, if applicable.[vague] Drugs are...
The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale...
Recreational drug use is the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness, either for pleasure or for some other...
psychotherapeutic effects of the drug and because it is illegal, even the very act of smoking a joint has deep symbolism." However, the culture of cannabis as "the...
Drug liberalization is a drug policy process of decriminalizing or legalizing the use or sale of prohibited drugs. Variations of drug liberalization include...
generation of youth. There had long been a culture of drug use among jazz and blues musicians, and use of drugs (including cannabis, peyote, mescaline and...
drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug,...
the same amount of the drug. Drug injection is therefore often related to substance dependence. In recreational-use drugculture, preparation may include...
Club drugs, also called rave drugs or party drugs, are a loosely defined category of recreational drugs which are associated with discothèques in the 1970s...
and roll bands have named themselves after amphetamine and the drug slang and drugculture surrounding it. For example, Mod revivalists The Purple Hearts...
Culture (/ˈkʌltʃər/ KUL-chər) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge...
pharmaceutical drugs or just pharmaceuticals. The use of medicine to save or extend life or to alleviate suffering is uncontroversial in most cultures. Prohibition...
branded with the D.A.R.E. logo and with anti-drug messages. These items were repurposed by drugculture as ironic statements starting in the 1990s. Its...
Brothers (musicians, TV performers, activists) Owsley Stanley (1935–2011) (drugculture chemist) Gloria Steinem (born 1934) (feminist, publisher) Hunter S. Thompson...
A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended. Typically...
Ketamine's rise in the dance culture was most rapid in Hong Kong by the end of the 1990s. Ketamine use as a recreational drug has been implicated in deaths...
"Drug paraphernalia" is a term to denote any equipment, product or accessory that is intended or modified for making, using or concealing drugs, typically...
Recreational drug tourism is travel for the purpose of obtaining or using drugs for recreational use that are unavailable, illegal or very expensive in...
Kids, Permanent Midnight, and Pulp Fiction—that examined heroin use and drugculture. In the early 1990s, the rise of the grunge alternative rock music and...
Global Information