Reframing the Drug Epidemic as Commercialized Recreational Pharmacology

The national drug epidemic is commonly thought of in substance-specific terms, e.g., the opioid epidemic and the individual threats of marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Further, drug-specific diagnoses of the substance use disorders, substance-specific treatments, and the media focus on substance-specific threats fail to recognize that the use of each of these drugs, or group of drugs, is part of one larger significant health problem: commercialized recreational pharmacology (CRP). CRP is defined as the personally controlled use for pleasure of chemicals that super-stimulate brain-reward.

An historical perspective of past drug trends and related problems provide a useful frame for how CRP drives the drug epidemic. Presenters will identify examples of how CRP occurs in both legal and illicit drug markets. The creation and ongoing expansion of the legal (and illegal) marijuana industry and its impact on CRP will be examined. Recognition of the role of polysubstance use among individuals suffering from opioid and other substance use disorders is also essential to the development of better drug policy and both treatment and prevention strategies to reduce the public health carnage resulting from CRP.