Behavior: Pop Drugs: The High as a Way of Life

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You raise up your head

And you ask, Is this where it is?

And somebody points to you

And says, It's his,

And you say, What's mine?

And somebody else says, Well, what is?,

And you say, Oh, my God,

Am I here all alone?

But something is happening

And you don't know what it is,

Do you, Mr. Jones?

—Bob Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man

HE does not. The straight middle-class American breadwinner, secure and affluent beyond the dreams of his grandparents or most of his contemporaries elsewhere in the world, Mr. Jones of Dylan's mocking lyric, finds himself in a world more surreal than a moonscape. He looks behind, and realizes that his children are not following. At a frightening distance, in their own arcane pastures of the mind, the young strip and ululate and make love to the accompaniment of manic cacophonies. Even in the Joneses' own backyard, thrusting up between the roses and the hollyhocks, a sharp eye may spot a weed growing—the telltale spikes of Cannabis saliva. Otherwise known as Indian hemp, a hardy botanic cousin to the fig, the hop and the nettle, it provides the marijuana that is troubling and changing a culture.

It used to be that "better living through chemistry" was just another advertising slogan; now it is a sly joke to the young and a grievous worry to their parents. In their quest for sensory experience, an alarming number of kids are swallowing its message whole. Marijuana ("pot," "grass," "boo," "tea," "mary jane," "broccoli," "weed") is their favorite preparation; in lesser numbers, they are smoking hashish ("hash"), taking mescaline, peyote, psilocybin, LSD ("acid"), using barbiturates and sedatives ("goofers," "downers," "red devils," "red birds," "pheenies," "green dragons," "yellow jackets," "tooies"), swallowing or injecting amphetamine stimulants ("crystal," "crank," "meth," "bennies," "dexies," "Christmas trees," "speed"). The prices of their mind excursions flutuate almost daily with the black market where kids must make their purchases. Depending on location, a dose of LSD or enough Methedrine for one injection costs around $3, while one Dexedrine pill can be bought for only 100. The marijuana contained in one "joint" or cigarette is worth around 750.

These are the pop drugs—the drugs widely taken by middle-class young people, most of whom are white. Their use is growing; marijuana smoking, in particular, is increasing. (Heroin use, by contrast, remains comparatively static.) "For the first time," says California Psychopharmacologist Dr. Leo Hollister, "pot is entrenched in our society, with untold millions using the drug. We have passed the point of no return."

There are vast differences in the effects of pop drugs. New research makes it clear that marijuana is "softer" and less perilous than the others, although for some people it does hold genuine psychological dangers. Pop drugs have provoked a defiance of the law unprecedented since Prohibition. The drug scene has stirred intense debate among scientists, doctors and politicians on how