THE COUNTERCULTURE

S INFLUENCE ON DRUG USE TODAY

By: Teria Smith

BACKGROUND INFORMATION Counterculture is an era starting in the

1960s used to define a cultural event where norms were deviated against and people dared to be different. This was the rock and roll era and during their parties and concerts, people began to use different drugs as a get away instead of what it was prescribed for, homosexuals were more accepted, interracial marriages, etc.

RESEARCH QUESTION How has the

counterculture of the 1960s relate to the many addictions and drug overdoses in today’s society?

THESIS STATEMENT As counterculture

influence escalates, drugs are almost seen as a rite of passage and everyone has at least tried one thing or another, eventually leading to new drugs or the abuse of those drugs

SUPPORT/EVIDENCE This book demonstrates

how the drug marijuana progressed into crack after a 20 year expansion. It shows how just one period in time where drugs became extremely popular turned into a drug that is extremely harmful. She says that people do not even realize what they are doing to themselves; they just want to be high all of the time. She says that crack became more known in the 1980s.

Aucker, Caroline J. How Crack Found a Niche in the American Ghetto: The Historical Epidemiology of Drug-Related Harm. The London School of Economics and Political Science, 2010.

SUPPORT/EVIDENCE This website says that

teens basically ran wild and there was a massive use of drugs. They would do whatever they could to get high. It says that asking people to join to smoke is a way to clear the air or break the ice. It even forms a bond between everyone. It also states how around 1969 the first drug overdoses began to occur. This counterculture was only the start of what drugs have become today.

Kent, Ryan. “There were drugs at Woodstock?!.” May 2000. http://www.lehigh.edu/~ineng/jac/jac-ryan4.htm (accessed Feb. 28, 2012).

SUPPORT/EVIDENCE This book highlights the

drug LSD and how the medical community was warned about it in 1962. It was a little too late because LSD had arrived in the United States in 1949. LSD’s initial purpose was to cure neuroses and alcoholism as well as enhance creativity, but that purpose soon changed. It was beginning to be used for casual reasons and became harmful to patients using the drugs, thus considered dangerous.

Novak, Steven J. LSD before Leary: Sidney Cohen’s Critique of 1950s Psychedelic Drug Research. Isis. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1997.

REASON FOR CHOOSING TOPIC I chose this topic

because people die everyday from drug overdoses and I wanted to trace back to see where these drugs first became socially accepted and extremely popular.

WHAT DID I LEARN I learned that during

the counterculture era drugs became very popular and new drugs were introduced and abused. I learned that counterculture is not to blame for the many drug addictions and overdoses that happen in today’s society, but it can help explain drug use now.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HISTORY This is

significant to history because it shows the exact time period when drug use went rampant and how it has evolved over time.

WORKS CITED Aucker, Caroline J. How Crack Found a Niche in

the American Ghetto: The Historical Epidemiology of Drug-Related Harm. The London School of Economics and Political Science, 2010.

Huff, Ethan. “Timeline of Celebrities Killed by Big Pharma.” 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012

Kaplan, University. “Marijuana – The Counter-Culture Drug Used as Medicine.” 08 Aug. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

Novak, Steven J. LSD before Leary: Sidney Cohen’s Critique of 1950s Psychedelic Drug Research. Isis. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1997.

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