Histoire des addictions

History and horizon scanning: what does the future hold for drugs, alcohol and tobacco? 

Virginia Berridge (Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London) 

Thursday, October 17, 2013 

Reception at 4:00 pm; Lecture at 4:30 pm 

OSU Health Sciences Library Medical Heritage Center (5th Floor) 

376 West 10th Avenue, Columbus, OH The Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University

 There has been much discussion in the UK recently about a more 'rational' attitude to alcohol, illicit drugs and tobacco. It has been argued that the substances should be classified and regulated on the basis of their actual harms. The lecture will subject those argument to historical scrutiny. It will outline a process whereby the substances moved from cultural acceptability in the nineteenth century to different positions on the spectrum of regulation. This parting of the ways was driven by forces external to the harms of the substances themselves and reached its peak during and just after World War One. The lecture will then examine a different process since World War Two, one which has gathered pace in the last two decades. The substances seem in some respects to be moving closer together again. Tobacco smokers are 'addicts' while drug addicts are categorised as 'users'. Neuroscience provides a common scientific model across the substances. Medicines become drugs and drugs, medicines. The implications of these developments are complex. What the future holds could be greater hedonism in society or, by contrast, more stringent controls. 

Please visit http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/maps for maps and parking information. Visit go.osu.edu/mhc or call (614) 292-9966 for event information.