Historical Context
Origins and Modern Prevalence of Drug Abuse
19th Century: Modern history is noted with the early crisis of alcohol abuse. Such as the prohibition and temperance movement. Dating back to 1830, the average American over the age of 15 years old consumed nearly 7 gallons of pure alcohol a year. That is three times the amount the average American consumes today. Alcohol abuse (primarily by men) created a major disturbance in many households at the time. Particularly during the age of when women had very few legal rights and were utterly dependent on their male spouse. The country's first serious anti-alcohol movement grew out of an ardor for reform that swept the nation in the 1830s and 1840s. Many abolitionists fighting to rid the country of slavery came to see drinking as an equally great evil to be eradicated. People pushed for this movement in hopes of fully cleansing society of sin. The temperance movement was rooted in America's Protestant churches, which urged moderation, then encouraged drinkers to help each other resist temptation, and ultimately demanded that local, state, and national governments prohibit alcohol. By the late 19th century the amount of alcohol consumed drastically decreased.
20th Century: Not only alcohol but surprisingly the use of marijuana was widely popular in the 20th century. In 1914, when the Harrison Act, which outlawed heroin and required controls on cocaine and opiates, was enacted, youthful drug users were conspicuously absent. 1937 Marijuana Tax Act was passed due to publicity about youth marijuana usage in the 1920’s. At the end of the 1940’s, juvenile drug abuse was an issue facing the country with specific attention paid on urban youth and their heroin addiction.
Unfortunately enough another spike occurred in the late 1960s and early 70s. The ready availability of heroin in Vietnam during 1970 and 1971 seemed to temporarily exhaust the pool of vulnerable soldiers. The drug epidemic in the U.S. began in the late 1960s and is still with us today. It has prompted a number of important studies dedicated to determining the prevalence of drug use in the general population. As substance abuse waxes and wanes various age groups and geographic areas can be affected differently. Studies that address this issue of the stability of drug abuse over a period of time across adulthood and throughout childhood, particularly welcome a wide range of studies that address the question of the stability of drug use patterns following people studied in high school. Surprisingly, these studies validate the conclusions drawn from the retrospective reports across cross-sectional studies involving high school students, in the order in which the substances are initiated, the age of initiation, and initiating correlates.
Youth heroin use was still concerning in the early sixties, however at that time usage involved some specific categories of people exclusively. A proliferating counter culture in the early 1960’s fueled the actual rise in juvenile drug abuse. This was for the first time that there had been pro-drug supporters who were saying how pleasant it is to consume non-addictive psychotropics. Drug use continued to spread even after the end of the counterculture, especially among white adolescent youth. In the 1970’s, drugs came almost on par with alcohol as youth preferred them, and though federal ‘drug war’ drug usage soon became just normal activity.
21st Century: As time goes on it appears that the world of drugs has evolved and has advanced. Drugs used in the 21st century are synthetically made and categorized by names people can not even pronounce. Drugs may seem to be promoted in pop-culture, but people are blinded by the marketing tactics used by modern day drug companies.
In an article posted by truth initiative, an organization that promotes putting an end to nicotine addiction; in efforts to nearly drown out the pop culture promotion of the substance. In 2013, e-Cigarette companies like “Blu” and “JUUL” sponsored music festivals and events which featured a vapor lounge that would invite surprise guest appearances such as top performers (that were not named) to interact with people and social media while using their nicotine product. These products made their way into social media rampantly, with JUUL spending more than $1 million dollars to market the product on the internet. The brand has paid campaigns on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to promote company sponsored ads that associated the JUUL product as having fun, relaxation, freedom sex appeal and more predominantly “being cool”. In 2015 JUUL related tweets skyrocketed from a monthly average of 765 to a monthly average of 30,565 in 2017. JUUL captured more than half of the entire electronic cigarette market share by the end of 2017.
The most appealing market tactic these vape companies used was introducing appealing flavors. These products are assumed to be intended for people to quit smoking cigarettes, so creating these appealing flavors must be able to draw them in? That was the case for some, but what started happening was children were drawn in by the fruity fun flavors and started a nicotine addiction at a very young age. People went from inhaling this burning plant material to getting hooked on a fruity vape that they can not seem to put down. Youth e-cig users say the flavors are the main reason they began using vapes. 43 percent of young people, who were involved in a study including middle and high school students, reported that they only tried an e-cigarette because of the appealing flavors. In addition, truth initiative repeatedly called the the FDA to fully regulate e-cigarettes to reduce your appeal, access and use. Truth also continues to promote the detriments of nicotine usage across numerous social media platforms in hopes of putting an end to this glorified culture of ingested synthetic nicotine.
The most shocking report I came across, from “AP” or Associated Press, is that several e-cigarette companies were offering students scholarships ranging from $250 to $5,000 to write an essay about the potential benefits of vaping. A large, growing number of e-cigarette sellers started to offer college scholarships as a way to get their brands listed on university websites. Some essay prompts were to write about the dangers of tobacco or whether vaping could be a safer alternative.
This is a sickening report considering only in December of 2019 the U.S. The Legislature passed “T-21”, making the legal age to purchase all tobacco products 21 years old across all 50 states. Most of these college students at the time were 18. Therefore, they should not have had a prior tobacco addiction when it was not even legal. This confirms that the e-cigarette market/ industry was and still is aware that minors are using their products, and they continue to target the youth to be their primary consumers.