11th Annual John C. Burnham Lecture in the History of Medicine
featuring
Virginia Berridge
Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London

History and Horizon Scanning: What Does the Future Hold for Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco?

There has been much discussion in the UK recently about a more ‘rational’ attitude to alcohol, illicit drugs and tobacco. It has been argued that the substances should be classified and regulated on the basis of their actual harms.

This lecture will subject those arguments to historical scrutiny. It will outline a process whereby the substances moved from cultural acceptability in the nineteenth century to different positions on the spectrum of regulation. This parting of ways was driven by forces external to the harms of the substances themselves and reached its peak during and just after World War One.

The lecture will then examine a different process since World War Two, one which has gathered pace in the last two decades. The substances seem in some respects to be moving closer together again. Tobacco smokers are ‘addicts’ while drug addicts are categorised as ‘users’. Neuroscience provides a common scientific model across the substances. Medicines become drugs and drugs, medicines. The implications of these developments are complex. What the future holds could be greater hedonism in society or, by contrast, more stringent controls.

Thursday, October 17, 2013
Reception at 4:00 pm; Lecture at 4:30 pm
OSU Health Sciences Library Medical Heritage Center (5th Floor)
Prior Hall, 376 West 10th Avenue, Columbus, OH
The Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University
FREE and open to the public

Parking: We suggest parking in the SAFEAUTO Hospitals Garage. Please visit http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/maps for maps and parking information.