the present dayGeneral sourceWell documented
Intoxicants Today
On the timeline · around the present day ·
What happened
Hundreds of millions of people use drugs each year, from legal alcohol, caffeine and nicotine to illegal cannabis, cocaine and opioids. Policy is fracturing: some places legalize and regulate, others wage prohibition, as synthetic drugs like fentanyl make the stakes deadlier than ever.
Why it matters
After 10,000 years, humanity has never stopped seeking to alter its own mind — and has never agreed on how, or whether, to control it.
Sources
Related timelines
- Tobacco → — Nicotine: the legal intoxicant
- Cannabis → — Cannabis: from banned to regulated