Due to increased availability and purity, the use of addictive substances has skyrocketed in recent times
Addictive substances were generally hard to come by in the past, but times have changed. Currently, the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) puts the U.S. binge-drinking rate at 30 percent for men and 16 percent for women, while alcoholism rates are 9.5 percent for men and 3.3 percent for women. Considering the use rate for alcohol is 67 percent of the U.S. adult population, that means that between one-quarter and one-half of Americans are binge users. And this is worth $212 billion in annual revenue to the U.S. alcohol industry.
In adolescents over the last thirty-five years, the binge-drinking rates, as well as use of virtually every other illicit substance, has continued to increase. Alcohol is but one example of substances being purified and manufactured to suit the whims of societal addiction and bludgeon our dopamine receptors into submission. Marijuana is bred to be stronger than ever before, the coca leaf continues to provide both line cocaine and its cheaper cousin, crack, and opium poppies are still grown to make heroin.
References
- Lustig, H., Robert. The Hacking of the American Mind Chapter 6. The Purification of Addiction (Location 1189). New York, NY: Penguin Random House.