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…Could it be drug use that accounts for the collapse of some buildings and bridges due to faulty design; a regular occurrence in the US? Is it drug influence that explains why hardly any business transaction these days is executed without a mistake? My wife spends hours every week on the phone unraveling billing and banking errors. What else could explain why airline pilots taxi onto the wrong runway, or trains meet head-on, or drivers find themselves facing oncoming traffic on the freeways?...

John Merchant says that extensive drug use in the United States is producing a culture that is mentally and physically flabby.

To read more of John’s insightful columns please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/american_pie/

LIVING WITH TODAY’S DRUG CULTURE

Do you often encounter inexplicably bizarre behavior? Have you been within earshot of a group of people, some of whom seem to find every remark hilariously funny? I have, and it’s happening to me more and more often. I hear conversations that are excessively loud and long, punctuated every few seconds by raucous laughter that is occasioned by the most mundane statement, and there isn’t a drink in sight. I also see wild and crazy driving that goes beyond the merely daredevil.

Alarmingly, the only way I can explain these behaviors to myself is that they are drug induced. I have read that recreational drug use is pervasive in today’s American society, but I have never knowingly encountered a user. I have yet to stumble across some guy snorting cocaine in the men’s room. I have smelled what I believe to be marijuana smoke, though I never saw a joint in anyone’s hand or mouth, but I still can’t come up with a better explanation.

A World Health Organization (W.H.O.) report states that in a survey, 16 percent of people in the United States had admitted to using cocaine in their lifetimes - far higher than the next highest rate, found surprisingly in New Zealand, where 4.3 percent of people reported having used cocaine. More than 42 percent of Americans admitted to having tried cannabis, closely followed by 41 percent in New Zealand.

The W.H.O. report gives the US credit for driving much of the world's drug research and drug policy agenda, but questions why the country stands out with higher levels of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis use, despite punitive illegal drug policies. Now, one needs to bear in mind that the statistics are based on people who admitted to using drugs, so it’s reasonable to think that the actual numbers are much higher. For the purpose of this article, shall we say 20 percent of the population is using cocaine and 50 percent is smoking marijuana?

In December 2007, the estimated population of the US was 303,111,027. So based on my modified W.H.O data, it’s likely that at any given time there could be 60,622,205 among us in the USA who are getting through all or part of their day on cocaine, and another 151,555,513 who are puffing the weed. Of course, some may be doing both.

In any event, there are droves of people out there that aren’t totally in charge of themselves, not to mention the drinkers and users of other drugs such as crack, methadone, heroin, ecstasy etc. Then there are the prescription drug users who rely routinely on anti-depressants, sleeping pills, pain killers and mood suppressants, and over-the-counter drugs such as anti-histamines. No small wonder then that almost daily I am puzzled by the antics of those around me.

Being puzzled by their antics is one thing, but it’s a sobering thought that a proportion of these people are engaged in some critical aspect of my daily life. Cocaine is reputably the drug of choice among the affluent, so that would include medical doctors, dentists, lawyers, company executives, architects, bankers and stockbrokers, airline pilots and high-level government officials.

Could it be drug use that accounts for the collapse of some buildings and bridges due to faulty design; a regular occurrence in the US? Is it drug influence that explains why hardly any business transaction these days is executed without a mistake? My wife spends hours every week on the phone unraveling billing and banking errors. What else could explain why airline pilots taxi onto the wrong runway, or trains meet head-on, or drivers find themselves facing oncoming traffic on the freeways? Twice recently, one of those tall cranes used in the building of skyscrapers has collapsed into the street in New York, apparently due to the inadequate repair of a critical part of the structure. How could that happen if the parties involved were clear headed?

Aside from the impact of addictive behavior on safety and reliability, I suspect that drug use is at the heart of many aspects of modern life that seem irrational or inappropriate. How many times have you seen a highly touted, new movie plot reviewed, and thought “They must be kidding”? Could pop music have gone down the turgid road it has this past several years without the influence of drugs?

In the last five or more years, the US has been rocked by the collapse of large corporations due to fraud on the part of senior executives. At their trials, the CEO’s and their henchmen postured themselves as omnipotent, and showed scant regard for the thousands of their employees who have lost their jobs and pensions as the result of their bosses’ conduct. The recent sub-prime mortgage scandals are yet another example of what Alan Greenspan, the past Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, termed “Irrational Exuberance.” To me, all this smacks of drug infused thinking.

The drug scene is an ever expanding, vicious cycle. People take recreational drugs because they don’t like the way their life is without them. In doing so, they themselves become perpetrators of some of the very aspects of living they are trying to escape from.

In contemporary US society there is a driving desire to feel good all the time. Just as we have strived to eliminate the physical challenges in our daily lives, so now we are attempting to shield ourselves from the psychological challenges. The end product is a culture that is mentally and physically flabby, and ill prepared to deal with what will undoubtedly be the more stringent demands future living.

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