The Evolution of Drug Use from 1969 to 1989: From Radical Youth Culture to Violent Drug Conflicts in Minority Communities

“Drugs Hit the Young,” Time Magazine, Sept. 26, 1969, Cover

This image was published during the peak of the hippie movement, away from the social activism of the sixties and towards the pursuit of personal pleasures in the 1970’s. The shattered and psychedelic image of the generic America’s youth represents the deterioration of the typical family unit and it points to the social challenges that increasing drug use posed. The drugs most popular during the decade were psychedelics, Marijuana, and Heroin, most of which became tolerated. During the Cold War, a cohesive nuclear family was the paradigm. In the image, America’s youth is represented by a young white woman and can also be interpreted as the emerging breakdown of the nuclear family with the public access of contraceptives and birth control that were restricted until the 1960’s. This precedes the rise in divorce and abortion rates and the shocks in traditional social relations that resulted from the second wave feminist movement in the 60’s.

“The Lonely War,” Time , Sept 11, 1989, Cover.

This image shows significant changes in the evolution of drugs in society. In contrast to the image from 1969, this image assumes that the traditional family unit is much less relevant and has increasingly become a single-parent institution specifically in “drug-infested neighborhoods across America.” Highly ethnic cities like Detroit are beginning to see the ravaging effects of drugs in their communities, most notably with the crack epidemic in the 1980’s. In addition to cociane and crack cocaine, people began using prescription drugs, and cstasy. But the crack epidemic almost strictly hit black and Latino communities across America and as Rantine McKesson's sign suggests, drug epidemics brought considerable violence and the deterioration of black communities. Compared to the drug concerns of the 1960’s and 1970’s, drugs in the 1980’s were considerably more associated with violence and brought to power several ethnic gangs in highly urban communities throughout the US. The themes of feminism and gender are noticeable in this image when compared to the image from 1969 because we are presented with a woman adversary to drugs. The words on Rantine's shirt clearly state that it is up to her to save her community from the violence and human digressions that the crack epidemic, which continues today especially in contrast to the more “clean” drugs used during the 1960’s and 1970’s, has caused in many other communities. In the first image, the question of drug use among the young was just that, a query. However, in this image, drug use is represented as a war being fought on the level of communities. The image also draws a distinction between differently racialized and classified drugs which were not so clear in the first image. Also, this image gives the false impression that extreme drug use is more characteristic of black and Latino communities. Both cocaine and crack cocaine have become stereotypically and demographically characteristic of extreme drug use among whites and blacks respectively. What was the tolerance for drug use during in the 60's and 70's changed drastically once newer and more debilitating drugs emreged.