This is a question I’ve had had on my mind recently. It’s discussed in this recent podcast in a serious way. I’m methodologically cautious about neurohistorical approaches which tend to overgeneralise (e.g. ‘coffee caused the enlightenment’) but I suspect if you went deeply into transmission, you’d find the overgeneralisation mostly being driven by popularisation. Much as we can recognise narcotics as salient factors in driving historical trends, we can recognise narcotics as salient factors in the constitution of social milieux e.g. I moved from Cambridge to north Manchester and there’s a vastly increased amount of binge drinking I encounter on a daily basis.
The causality is ambiguous and complex but it seems untenable to suggest the widespread use of a particular narcotic is a salient factor in making a social milieu what it is. The evidence suggests that therapeutic and recreational use of ketamine has become widespread within Silicon Valley at exactly the point where it’s undergoing a profound political, cultural and economic transition. Correlation doesn’t entail causation but it’s a really interesting question nonetheless to consider how this might be tied up in those changes, if not necessarily driving them.
Mark Carrigan 