# Why have drugs not destroyed society? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 6, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767 "2010-09-06T05:12:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/41 "2010-09-07T15:51:05Z")
Certainly drugs and alcohol have had an adverse effect on society, assuming you believe that the goal of society is to be industrious and productive. If we all put down our drugs and booze and worked as hard as we could every waking hour then society would maybe meet the ideal of some people but it sure wouldn’t be my ideal. Some people think that life should be all work and no pleasure, usually for everybody else except themselves - I believe they are wrong. Other people can’t seem to stop themselves from only taking the pleasure to the point that they can’t even feed and clothe themselves - clearly they have a problem. Most of us understand that life is a balance of work and pleasure and for the most part we can maintain that balance - that is why drugs, TV, art, books, sex and other pleasurable things haven’t destroyed society. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/42 "2010-09-07T18:10:53Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > …And nobody sat down and deliberately plotted a way to make Mexico pay for America’s immense appetite for drugs. The situation is unintentional, the result of poorly thought-out laws. “Poor Mexico! So far from God, so close to the United States!” - Porfirio Diaz ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/43 "2010-09-08T10:01:04Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > > [@Shalmanese](#): > > > > If you took a reasonably intelligent layperson who had no knowledge of the existence of narcotics and told them that there was a substance that was chemically designed to target the evolutionarily built in pleasure centers of the brain and that ingesting this substance would cause a strong dependency and that repeated use of this substance would significantly impair mental & physical function and what’s more, these substances are relatively easy to manufacture, I bet they would predict the total downfall of society within a couple of months. > > > > Why is it that you think drugs have not destroyed society? > > I must not be the only one who decided that impaired mental & physical function was not worth the risk of trying it. I’ve been proud of my mental function since I was in first grade. I’m not particularly proud of my mental function, but I’m another one who reckons that I’d rather remember the night during the morning after. By the time I had access to drugs I had already met several habitual drug users (alcoholics and potheads mostly) and decided that if they were cool I’d rather be burning. I did try tobacco (liked it, had very little money and decided I liked movies better) and I sometimes drink alcohol but for the taste and the idea is always to stop before being impaired in any way. My favorite quote about drugs is from a singer, José María Sanz aka Loquillo: “… and then I looked at these pills our manager had given me and I thought ‘OK, wait a minute, since you know that once you’re out there you’ll love it, why do you need to stun yourself before going out? And if you didn’t love it, why the fuck do it?’ And then I tossed out the pills and we started looking for a new manager the next day.” He does drink alcohol and I know he does or did smoke pot, but each choice was conscious and limited. We choose our pleasures, and in that instance he talks about, he realized that having drugs to get rid of the dis-pleasure of stage nerves was making him lose the full blast of the pleasure of being on stage. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/44 "2010-09-08T16:01:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > > [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > > > …And nobody sat down and deliberately plotted a way to make Mexico pay for America’s immense appetite for drugs. The situation is unintentional, the result of poorly thought-out laws. > > “Poor Mexico! So far from God, so close to the United States!” > > - Porfirio Diaz Sad, but true. Being the neighbor of a major power like the United States is like being in bed with an elephant. It really doesn’t matter whether or not the poor dumb beast means to hurt you. If he rolls over, you get squashed. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/45 "2010-09-08T16:47:20Z")
Is there, or has there been, a civilisation which did not regulate or control mind/mood altering substances at all? Many people in the US think that this is true of Holland (The Netherlands?), and especially Amsterdam, but I gather it’s not really the case. Does anybody know of one? Is there, for instance, a place where one can walk in and buy Morphine off the shelf? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/46 "2010-09-08T16:54:54Z")
America, circa 1870. Huge numbers of American Civil War veterans were addicted to morphine. In fact, IIRC, heroin was originally marketed as a way to break addiction to morphine. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/47 "2010-09-08T17:59:00Z")
If you dropped a block of cocaine on a street corner and labeled it, the vast majority of people would walk right past it. 90 percent of the people have no interest in it. Some might want to sell it though. All our vices booze ,cigarettes and drugs have a minority of the people in its control. ---
**Author:** ![moldybread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@moldybread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldybread)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/48 "2010-09-08T18:05:42Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > America, circa 1870. Huge numbers of American Civil War veterans were addicted to morphine. In fact, IIRC, heroin was originally marketed as a way to break addiction to morphine. Also Laudanum, otherwise known as tincture of opium, sold on store shelves as a cough supressant in the 1800’s ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/49 "2010-09-08T22:32:45Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > In western societies we have tried to limit how much people drink and where it is acceptable to be drunk for thousands of years. I would LOVE to be drunk for thousands of years, where do i sign up? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/50 "2010-09-08T23:06:47Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > America, circa 1870. Huge numbers of American Civil War veterans were addicted to morphine. In fact, IIRC, heroin was originally marketed as a way to break addiction to morphine. [Yes . . .](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin#History) > [@](#): > > From 1898 through to 1910 diacetylmorphine was marketed under the trade name Heroin as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough suppressant. Bayer marketed the drug as a cure for morphine addiction before it was discovered that it rapidly metabolizes into morphine. As such, heroin is essentially a quicker acting form of morphine. The company was embarrassed by the new finding, which became a historic blunder for Bayer.[13] But, whaddaya want, it **works!** 🙂 Don’t know if it suppresses coughs . . . ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/51 "2010-09-08T23:43:33Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > “Poor Mexico! So far from God, so close to the United States!” > > - Porfirio Diaz We must be close to God here in Canada despite our proximity to the United States then. And we produce B.C. Bud, the best in the world with very little social detriment. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/52 "2010-09-08T23:44:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Junk is the ultimate commodity, the merchandise is not sold to the consumer- the consumer is sold to the merchandise - Wiliam S. Burroughs Yeah, sure, they were shocked shocked. Unh-huh. Right. Hugh Betcha. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/53 "2010-09-09T00:28:12Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > But, whaddaya want, it **works!** 🙂 > > Don’t know if it suppresses coughs . . . Morphine and heroin can cause death by respiratory depression, so yes, it probably does suppress coughs. ([Current GQ discussion about this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=577460)) It seems to me it can just relax your muscles until they stop working, as opiates can also cause bad constipation. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/54 "2010-09-09T00:42:44Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > …And we produce B.C. Bud, the best in the world with very little social detriment. Adequate, I suppose, if Durango Ditchweed isn’t available. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767/55 "2010-09-09T02:12:00Z")
Six billion people are far to busy finding, and trying methods to destroy themselves, and each other for any one method to be entirely responsible for the downfall of civilization. And, even with the most deadly of recreational drug, the survival rates are just too high for it to be a genocidal method. Six billion people can be wrong, a whole lot, over and over again, and still end up being nine billion people. Tris [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-drugs-not-destroyed-society/552767.md?page=2)