Rik Loose – The Subject of Addiction
 
THE LETTER 25 (Summer 2002) pages 21-38
 
Who will ever relate the
whole history of narcotica?
It is almost the history of
‘culture’, of our so-called 
high culture
 
The earliest evidence of psychoactive drug use and knowledge of hallucinogenic plants dates back some 13,000 years.2 Most early forms of religion used drugs in an attempt to gain divine knowledge. Drugs and drug use are an integral part of human culture. Yet, we hardly know anything about drugs, at least not the kind of knowledge that would help us to understand how drugs affect people and how people become addicted to drugs. This is most surprising in light of the vast amount of knowledge that has been accumulated in the sciences.