Drug use has been a problem for much of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially during the mid to late 1900s. One example of a drug that was very heavily used during the 1900s was Cocaine. Cocaine was originally used for medicinal purposes and for applications such as assisting soldiers in staying awake to battle. However, this medicinal use quickly turned into addiction because of the strong effects of Cocaine. People began to rely on the substance for happiness and couldn’t stop using it. In addition, the idea of the whole purpose in life being to “have fun” in the later 1900s didn’t help at all with this addiction crisis as people glorified the use of drugs. Cocaine ultimately got the attention of 10.4 million users by the 1980s in the United States alone.
Due to the uprise of drugs throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, many people found their overall purpose in “having fun” doing drugs and “living life.” This ultimately means that the rise of drug use was heavily connected to one’s purpose in life.
“New Ingredient in Cocaine Vaccine Shows Promise in Mouse Study.” Duke Health, 5 Feb. 2020, https://corporate.dukehealth.org/news/new-ingredient-cocaine-vaccine-sho....
The Buyers - A Social History Of America’s Most Popular Drugs | Drug Wars | FRONTLINE | PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/buyers/socialhistor.... Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.
