Aaron Bornstein interviews Hanna Pickard at the LARB:
I remember you used to give an intentionally provocative talk. One slide listed all the “positive things that drugs do for us,” and then you said something like “The question isn’t why ‘those people’ use drugs but ‘Why aren’t we all doing drugs all the time?’” This isn’t the sort of question often asked in scientific settings. How did you get there?
I was trying to hammer home the point that drugs have tremendous value. We all know this if we stop and think about how and why we use drugs in our ordinary, day-to-day lives—remember, “drugs” are not just so-called “illicit” substances but also run the gamut from caffeine to alcohol to nicotine to opioids to sedatives to sleeping pills to amphetamines to khat to kratom and more. As a species, we have always used drugs. The reason is obvious—namely, their multiple and varied benefits, their value. But also, in using this line in my talks, I was trying to get people to stop and think about the invidious “us” versus “them” that permeates so much of our thinking about drugs and addiction—and to recognize that if you have a cup of coffee in the morning or a glass of wine in the evening, you yourself are using a drug.
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