For more than a century, and over a trillion dollars, a global war has been fought to stop drugs. Millions have been imprisoned or killed for using them. And still - those efforts have failed.
And yet, people continue to take drugs.
We must ask if drugs can ever be stopped?
For historians – this isn’t the right question. The apparent ubiquity of drugs is, in reality, just the continuation of a very old story, as drugs have been a massively consequential cultural, economic, and political force in the world for centuries and, in some cases, millennia. For historians the question isn’t how to stop drugs – rather - its how to better live with them? The time is ripe for a new way to look at the history of humans and drugs.
Drug History Shorts offers a revolutionary new perspective on how and why the world got hooked on drugs. From the earliest experimenters, to commercialization, prohibition, and legalization – we unravel the history of the drugs we fear, and the drugs we love. With visuals from award-winning animator Pete List, and history written by ground-breaking scholars, this series upends the conventional wisdom about drugs and their impact on our world.