Editorial March 12, 1990 Issue

Undoing the drug-abusing society

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.

Young people who see family members taking pills to go to sleep and stay awake, to have more energy, to resist colds and assorted aches and pains, may see little distinction between filling legal prescriptions at the corner drugstore and getting illegal drugs on the dark street corner down the block.

Some of the more thoughtful observers of the current scene are saying that pervasive drug abuse is linked to an even more widespread habit in society—dependence on drugs in general.

Along with all the extremely important steps taken by police, community, and government agencies to interdict the drug trade and root out its sources, something even more basic may be required. A key step in dealing with drug abuse may well be growing public recognition that an overmedicated society has been fertile ground for the spread of addictive drugs. A change of view toward drugs must come. And for that to happen we undoubtedly need to be working out a better model of what man is.

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