"A Trap Baited With Pleasure" Social Causes Friday Forces of Habit book discussion

Forces of Habit Drugs and the Making of the Modern World for Social Causes Friday Youtube  Podcast   



Segment One 30 Sept 2022: Chapter 5 Introduction 

Common belief is that the majority of drugs are dangerous, best limited for use under medical supervision. Also seen as seductive product for capitalist, merchants, political elites who tax and see them as a great source of revenue. 
-P6 91: "The clash between opportunities for profit and concerns about health forms the central moral and political conflict running through the history of psychoactive commerce." Question that must be considered, Pg 91: "What is it about drugs that generates so much demand? And why do some people...sacrifice everything they possess to acquire them?"
-In short, drugs are poisons- in evolutionary terms, "accidental intoxication may be valuable" giving an organism warning signal to stay from it. To seek after intoxication then profit from it is paradoxical. 
-Andrew Weil arguse all people have natural drive to alter normal consciousness. Pg 92: "Children at play will whirl themselves into a vertiginous stupor; holy men and women lose themselves in meditation. The desire to vacate ego-centered consciousness is deep-seated." 
-Drugs are shortcuts to obtaining altered states  of mind. Weil's claim that one's drive towards drugs is inborn-one also has to consider social circumstances. 
-Pg 92: Bored miserable creatures more likely to seek out drugs to acquire altered states. Animals in captivity more likely to use controlled substances than those in the wild. Pg 92 : "And one could say that civilization itself represents a state of captivity."

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