The way that drugs, especially neurotransmitters such as Xanax, are characterized and stigmatized has changed in A Scanner Darkly, a 1977 novel, compared to Taipei, a 2013 one. In this almost 50-year difference, these novels reflect the current view of drugs at the time they were written, but also give a unique look into just how quickly man’s perception of drugs has been altered. In Taipei by Tao Lin and A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, the drugs taken in the novels, whether the several “blockbuster drugs” such as Adderall and MDMA in Taipei or cannabis and the fictional “Substance D” in A Scanner Darkly, create a distancing effect from others as well as the user themselves. In contrast, the drug “Substance D” is so heavily regarded as …show more content…
evil and bodily destructive that one of the main plotlines is to track its source and eradicate it, whereas the drugs in Taipei are more commonplace and human to take; they are not seen to be as monstrous as Substance D. The distancing effect of the blockbuster drugs, especially MDMA, is shown quite prominently in Paul and Erin’s relationship. Their bond is shallow in the sense that they never seem to be sober with each other; they must always be on drugs for every moment that they are together. But even when they are taking psilocybin or MDMA with one another, there is still a detach in their communication and thoughts: “’Huh?’ said Erin. If she didn't hear something, Paul had noticed, she would sometimes appear confused in a frightened, child-like way... ‘I feel like I hate everyone,’ said Paul. ‘Yeah,’ said Erin, and smiled at him. ‘Really?’ said Paul, a little surprised. ‘Yeah. Well, everyone on the street.’ ‘I feel like I can't even look at any one,’ said Paul” (133). Paul and Erin have a kind of disconnect; they do not seem to be hearing each other. At the beginning of their conversation, Erin does not hear Paul when he tells her for the first time that he feels like he hates everyone. Because they are always under the influence, they never seem to be truly present with each other. Especially with this string of dialogue, neither answers the other in a straightforward manner. Instead, they both just say what is on their mind rather than creating meaningful communication. It is ironic, however, that the drug they take the most is MDMA, which is an empathogen and taken for a “group experience”, Erin and Paul never seem to feel the same things with each other; there is no connection other than the fact they both have MDMA in their system. MDMA and the other drugs that Paul takes act as a crutch for him; he needs them to feel more comfortable with people, although he never truly does.
When Paul sits in a café surrounded by other people, he cannot help but feel the weight of this upon him: “Paul’s main feeling… in a café with six to eight strangers, staring at his hands wrapped tightly around his teacup, was an excruciating combination of social anxiety and, as the MDMA stopped working, disintegrating functioning…” (Lin 122). Without the drug’s effects, he begins to feel more anxious and disconnected from the people that share the space with him. Although he does not interact with any of them, these intense, anxious feelings overwhelm him nonetheless. In a way, the drugs Paul takes make him feel more “human”, or at least be able to somewhat connect with the people around …show more content…
him. These feelings are echoed in Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly as Bob Arctor loses touch with both sides of himself. Arctor’s disconnect is more within himself than with others as he develops a kind of split identity and remarks on how things have turned “murky” inside himself: “Murky again; the same murk that covers them covers me; the murk of this dreary dream world we float around” (Dick 74). The “murk” has surpassed him and covered everything and everyone else too. Arctor is not only losing touch with himself, but also with reality. He cannot separate the “murk” from the “murk” anymore, and he says he feels like he is floating around inside a “dreary dream world”. The word “murk” shows up several more time in the novel, usually having something to do with what Bob Arctor is feeling: “…I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed...” (138). The more Arctor takes Substance D, the more disconnect and “murkiness” he feels. He says that now he “sees only darkly”; Arctor can scarcely trust himself to know what is real because he mind has become so clouded from using. Substance D in A Scanner Darkly is much more criminalized than the drugs taken in Taipei.
Although in both novels the drugs are taken at about the same rate by the characters, Substance D has a much more visibly negative effect on the user, therefore making it the drug that agents seek to eliminate. When Bob Arctor is undercover as Fred during the speech he gives at the “Gentlemen of the Anaheim Lions Club”, he speaks on the destructiveness of the drug on people: “The identity of the purveyors of the poisons concocted of brain-destructive filth shot daily, orally taken daily, smoked daily by several million men and women--or rather, that were once men and women-- is gradually being unraveled” (14). Calling the drugs “poisons”, “filth”, and “brain-destructive”, the blame is turned on the “purveyors” or rather large companies that manufacture and distribute the drugs rather than the users or even low-level dealers. Regardless, the drug itself is still criminalized and every character in the novel knows the deadly effects it could have on their brain and
body. In contrast, the neurotransmitter drugs taken in Taipei are much more common and openly taken than in A Scanner Darkly. It seems like everyone is on something in Taipei, but it is rarely judged or criminalized in the way Substance D is. The characters in Taipei take the drugs to feel good and to connect with each other. In a way, drugs like MDMA in the novel have better reasons to be taken than Substance D, although fictional, which has known negative brain impacts and is generally taken for its popularity than its effect. In Tao Lin’s novel, feeling good is the motive for using drugs: “Paul said health and drugs and being productive were all in service of feeling good” (127). Equating health and productiveness to drugs to feel good is not an uncommon thought in this novel nor in current society. The drugs are not taken through peer pressure or even boredom; they are taken because the characters, just like real people, are depressed and seeking to find something that will make them feel better again—to make them feel. However, just as Substance D is criminalized, these blockbuster drugs are in no way glorified; there is still a stigma that if someone must be on anti-psychotic or anxiety medication, they are outsiders and apart from society. These two novels are some of the best example of the rapid change that has occurred in regard to drug-taking in society. When the War on Drugs began in the 60s and 70s, around the time when A Scanner Darkly was written, many narcotics were rightly criminalized while others not. This obviously had a great impact on literature at the time and seeped into Philip K. Dick’s work as he writes in a much more passionately aggressive way toward the fictional drug Substance D and its effect on the public within the novel. However, as neurotransmitters rise in popularity as well as mental health research and diagnoses, drugs like Xanax, Adderall, etc. have become so widely used that their mention does not shock anymore. Everyone knows someone on a drug like Xanax or is taking it themselves. Regardless of this, these types of drugs not only create distance in the user and toward others, it also creates distance toward the general public who still view these drugs in a stigmatized light. While Substance D in A Scanner Darkly is criminalized and investigated while drugs in Taipei have become prescribed and commonplace, the perspective of drugs keeps on changing not only in literature, but in the minds of people.
He uses the drug as an excuse to escape his life so he does not have to communicate with others.
Marijuana also known as weed, is a green mixture of dry, shredded leaves and flowers of a hemp plant known as Cannabis sativa. Research has shown that marijuana has been around since the 1920s. People use marijuana because of the after affects. Studies have shown marijuana makes you feel delightful, it increases satisfaction while smoking, if you’re stressed, after smoking the marijuana you’ll be on cloud nine and the stress will no longer be present. Society has influenced people to smoke marijuana more each day. After interviewing a series of marijuana users, they’ve told me that marijuana is a safe, harmless drug, that is used for meditation. In order to smoke the marijuana, you’ll use some form of paper to roll it up with.
Drug in the American Society is a book written by Eric Goode. This book, as the title indicates, is about drugs in the American Society. It is especially about the misuse of most drugs, licit or illicit, such us alcohol, marijuana and more. The author wrote this book to give an explanation of the use of different drugs. He wrote a first edition and decided to write this second edition due to critic and also as he mentioned in the preface “there are several reason for these changes. First, the reality of the drug scene has changed substantially in the past dozen or so years. Second much more information has been accumulated about drug use. And third, I’m not the same person I was in 1972.”(vii). The main idea of this book is to inform readers about drugs and their reality. In the book, Goode argued that the effect of a drug is dependent on the societal context in which it is taken. Thus, in one society a particular drug may be a depressant, and in another it may be a stimulant.
... the drug but have made a big controversy about not using the drug at all. Causing a big dramatic scene that just makes the problem even worse for the person involved in the situation, though problems can’t always be solved to a certain extent. It’s the people trying to help change the problem and not promote people to the Hall of Shame.
“[The war on drugs] has created a multibillion-dollar black market, enriched organized crime groups and promoted the corruption of government officials throughout the world,” noted Eric Schlosser in his essay, “A People’s Democratic Platform”, which presents a case for decriminalizing controlled substances. Government policies regarding drugs are more focused towards illegalization rather than revitalization. Schlosser identifies a few of the crippling side effects of the current drug policy put in place by the Richard Nixon administration in the 1970s to prohibit drug use and the violence and destruction that ensue from it (Schlosser 3). Ironically, not only is drug use as prevalent as ever, drug-related crime has also become a staple of our society. In fact, the policy of the criminalization of drugs has fostered a steady increase in crime over the past several decades. This research will aim to critically analyze the impact of government statutes regarding drugs on the society as a whole.
Credibility material: Its intake results in adverse medical conditions that are further exalted by its addiction properties that ensure a continued intake of the substance. The drug can be abused through multiple means and is medically recorded to produce short-term joy, energy , and other effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. This ultimately results in numerous psychiatric and social problems; factors that played a major role in its illegalization after multiple and widespread cases of its effects were reported in the country during the 1900s. In addition to this, the drug results in immediate euphoric effect, a property which the National Institute of Drug Abuse (2010) attributes to be the root cause for its increased po...
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
Schrof, Joannie M. "Pumped Up." U.S. News and World Report 1 June 1992: 54+. SIRS "Drugs", vol. 5, article 52.
...f actual reality. They are no longer able to face day to day activities without having that drug in their life.
Throughout David Sheff’s book, he incorporates detailed diction in describing his environment, past, and the people around him as to allow the reader to be able to imagine what he had seen during this course of his life. As the father of a drug addict, Sheff had also had his own experience with drugs, in which he describes this experience with words and phrases such as “I heard cacophonous music like a calliope”, “[The brain’s neurotransmitters flood with dopamine], which spray like bullets from a gangster’s gun” and “I felt
Bruce K. Alexander’s essay “Reframing Canada’s ‘Drug Problem’” is about shifting the focus from intervention to prevention. Alexander explains that in Canada there have been three major waves of drug intervention: “Criminal prosecution and intensive anti-drug” (225), “medicinal and psychological treatment” (225), and the ‘“harm reduction’ techniques” (225) being the most resent. The “’harm reduction’” (225) consisted of: clean injectable heroin, clean needles, methadone, and housing for addicts. Although each of the methods is devoted and knowledgeable, they have done little to decrease the deaths or suppress the unhappiness. While clean heroin did work well few addicts quit using and many found
Illicit drug use and the debate surrounding the various legal options available to the government in an effort to curtail it is nothing new to America. Since the enactment of the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914 (Erowid) the public has struggled with how to effectively deal with this phenomena, from catching individual users to deciding what to do with those who are convicted (DEA). Complicating the issue further is the ever-expanding list of substances available for abuse. Some are concocted in basements or bathtubs by drug addicts themselves, some in the labs of multinational pharmaceutical companies, and still others are just old compounds waiting for society to discover them.
Gerdes, Louise I., ed. At Issue: Legalizing Drugs. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc. 2001. Print.
The War on Drugs is a lost cause. The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives. The result is any adult or child with a couple measly dollars can purchase any existing illegal drug almost anywhere in the country (Greer 6/24/98). The emergence of a new designer drug (a combination of two existing drugs) "ecstasy," which is the most common street term for the illicit drug MDMA (+/-3,4Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), has brought a fatal blow to the War on Drugs. The "love drug," as MDMA is sometimes referred to, has spread from its previously isolated dwellings within the darkness of the "rave" scene (a rave is an all-night illicit dance party), into high schools across the United States and Canada. "Police say the manufacture, smuggling, and availability of ecstasy are booming" (Oh 4/24/00). The tremendous increase of ecstasy use is due to its escalating social acceptability, the perceived safety of the drug, and the influence of peer testimonies. This dramatic proliferation of the use of "X" is something that urgently needs to be addressed.
Drug use and abuse is as old as mankind itself. Human beings have always had a desire to eat or drink substances that make them feel relaxed, stimulated, or euphoric. Humans have used drugs of one sort or another for thousands of years. Wine was used at least from the time of the early Egyptians; narcotics from 4000 B.C.; and medicinal use of marijuana has been dated to 2737 BC in China.