Drug History Shorts: Inside the Secret History of How the World Got Hooked on Drugs

People do drugs: Hundreds and millions of people worldwide use cannabis, millions more use cocaine and opioids, psychedelics are booming, and amphetamines are more popular than ever. People use drugs as medicines, or because they provide spiritual solace, or simply because drugs bring them joy.

Drugs also cause massive problems. Drug addiction is found in every country on earth. In the last quarter century, over a million people have died from drug overdose in the US alone. And drug money fuels conflicts, corruption, and destabilizes states and communities.

For more than a century, and to the tune of 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. People continue to take drugs.

None of this is completely new. Drugs have been a massively consequential cultural, economic, and political force in the world for centuries and, in some cases, millennia. While policymakers have long asked, “How can we stop drugs,” historians recognize that the more realistic question is: “How can we live better, and smarter, with 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 film upends the conventional wisdom about drugs and their impact on our world.