On Drugs: Substance Rehabilitation, The ‘War On Drugs’ Moral Panic & The Future of International Psychoactive Policy

The cultural stereotyping and social stigmatisation of drug use is a recurring theme amongst social issues throughout human history. From the alcohol prohibition laws to the modern day illegalization of novel psychoactive substances the problem persists and is evident in mainstream cultural society. The question as to what extent the users of illicit substances suffer penal consequences for their actions and the portrayal of drug use in the mass media is the fundamental issue at question here. Using Stanley Cohen’s model of a ‘moral panic’ I shall look at the illegality of drug use as a social and cultural phenomenon with directions towards the progressive liberalisation of rehabilitation culture and the psychospiritual functions of the pineal gland in human consciousness and neuropsychology as a resultant conclusion to this subject matter