Hallucinogenic or psychedelic drugs have predominately been linked to the "hippie" counter-culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide or LSD as well as many natural hallucinogens such as peyote and psilocybin mushrooms were commonly abused. Following a period of heavy usage the 1980s experienced a sharp decline. Coinciding with the emergence of "raves"; in America during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the abuse psychedelics began a sharp upswing. The 1990s has seen the increase in the abuse of drugs, but the abuse of hallucinogenic drugs has doubled (Hunt, 1997).
In 1974 the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) reported that seventeen percent of Americans had admitted the use of hallucinogenic drugs at least once their lifetime. That figure rose to twenty percent in 1977 and to twenty-five percent by 1979. NHSDA was not alone in their findings. A study called Monitoring The Future (MTF) reported similar numbers. The study by MTF in 1975 stated that the percentage of lifetime users of hallucinogens was at sixteen percent.
The 1980s witnessed a sharp decline in the use of hallucinogens. Since the original report in 1975 by MTF, the percentage of lifetime users had been on a steady decline. A 1982 a study found that only six percent of adults who were older than twenty-six were found to have used hallucinogenic drugs, but fewer than one percent reported use in the year prior to the study. Probably the largest reason for this decline was the increase of the use of cocaine. Cocaine sparked a new interest among drug users and quickly hallucinogens were out of the picture.
In 1992 researchers studying the emerging dance and club phenomena known as raves began to notice that the use of hallucinogenic drugs was prevalent among attendees (Hunt 1997). Although LSD was found to be the most common hallucinogen used. MDMA or Ecstacy, PCP, and natural hallucinogenic were found to be used as well. In 1991 the percentage of lifetime users began to rise. In 1993 it had reached eleven percent. In 1996 it had risen to fourteen percent.
The group of people using hallucinogens has remained the same since the 1960s. Although LSD and other hallucinogens are relatively cheap compared to drugs such as heroin and crack, oddly drug users in the upper class are twice as likely to use hallucinogenic than those in the lowest socioeconomic classes (Hunt, 1997). Middle class white males between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five are the dominate users of LSD and other psychedelic drugs. However, a study done by The Community Epidemiolgy Work Group (CWEG) shows that the number of Hispanic and African Americans as well as the number of women using hallucinogens is increasing. In 1995 CWEG reported that "Over half of the hallucinogen-related deaths in Los Angeles involved African-American males", and that "the majority of primary PCP treatment admissions in that city were female (63 percent) and Hispanic (68 percent)." In Chicago, "Ethnographic reports indicate some PCP use in the black communities on the South and West Sides.[1]" The majority of users of hallucinogenic drugs are teenagers are young adults. King County, the surrounding county of Seattle Washington, reports that "Hallucinogenic drugs such as lysergic acid Diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin mushrooms, and MDMA (Ecstasy) continue to appear in area reports involving primarily younger users." It also reports that Ecstasy is being combined with other hallucinogens, usually LSD, and is known as
"candy flipping.[2]"
But why has the use of hallucinogenic drugs increased in the 1990s? There are many theories. A study done in 1991 suggests that the number of high school seniors has declined who feel that experimenting with LSD or using it for a prolonged period of time is a "great risk." In the 1991 study, ninety percent of all high school seniors disapprove of experimentation with LSD. That figure dropped to eighty percent in just five years. A telephone survey done in 1995 with fifty-nine ";university officials" found that thirty-four percent of the colleges and universities polled showed an increase in the use of hallucinogenic drugs on campus. An unspecified university in the midwest reported that ten percent of the students had reported that they had experimented with hallucinogens. While many university officials may concede to the increase of hallucinogenic drugs on campus, they also stress that the abuse of hallucinogenic drugs is dwarfed abuse of alcohol and marijuana (Hunt, 1997).
A few reasons as to why the increase in the use of drugs and hallucinogens by young adults may rest with their parents. Most young adults are the children of baby boomers, who lived through the drug revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Before this time very few drugs were being abused. With the variety and the number of drugs being abused addictive once subdued addictive personalities were activated. This elevated addictive personality passed to their children still runs strong in a time when many drugs are available to their children. With cocaine being the drug of choice in the 1980s, the availability of hallucinogenic drugs increased. A cheap high became readily and easily available to anybody who had a few dollars in their pocket. Children of baby boomers may also experience the reduction of the severity in the sanctions placed on drug use, both by authority figures and peers. Although the norms are being broken, many parents may feel that drug use by their children is not a bad thing because they themselves grew up in a time when drug use became common place in society, and that it is common and acceptable for their children to experiment with drugs. Through the 1991 study of high school seniors it can be observed that the use of hallucinogenic drugs is becoming accepted through out high schools. Like their parents young adults may feel that the consequences of drug abuse is not great, and that because their parents grew up in a time when drug use was accepted using or experimenting with drugs is acceptable. As seen by the college officials in the previously mentioned study, colleges and universities do not believe that the use of psychedelics is a problem. Gresham Sykes and David Matza's Drift Theory helps to explain this. Their theory states that a juvenile who is torn between morals and laws will "drift" between delinquency and these morals [3]. Finally a juvenile will "neutralize" their delinquent behavior. One of the techniques of neutralizing of deviant behavior is Condemnation of the condemners. By looking at their parents and other authority figures a juveniles may feel that because their parents used drugs that it is acceptable for them to do so. Further more the juvenile, when confronted by an adult, may condemn the adult for their prior drug use.
It is the break down norms which describe the social condition which Emile Durkheim called anomie. Anomie is "a condition in which social control becomes effective as a result of the loss of shared values and sense of purpose in society" (Kendall, 1999). It is from Durkheim's anomie which Robert Merton developed the Strain Theory which attempts to explain social deviance. It states:
"People feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals" (Kendall, 1999). A person might seek social acceptance from the use of drugs. Rebelling against other a society who does not accept the, one might choose to use drugs to escape reality. Hallucinogens distort reality. Hallucinogenic drugs can produce convincing visual audio distortions which may become attractive to the user. Many users of hallucinogenic drugs often report out of body experiences.
The Opportunity Theory is very similar to Merton's Strain Theory. Developed by Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin in 1960, their Opportunity Theory also explains the deviance in terms of not being able to meet goals, and not being able to meet certain social norms. It states that a person who does not have access to certain things will take illegitimate action to obtain the desired object. Again, a person who is socially rejected may turn to drugs because of the altered reality (Hunt, 1997). Sykes and Matza's Drift Theory helps to explain why the majority of users of hallucinogens are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. Drifting between the use of drugs a user may finally neutralize themselves as they grow older and mature, finalizing on a life with out using drugs.
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"A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind. I do not know which makes a man more conservative-to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past." -John Maynard Keynes
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