What Are Drugs For?

We live in a pharmaceutical age where drugs contribute to and are a potential solution for many personal and societal problems. But instead of serious ethical inquiry into these substances' role in our lives, we've embraced harmful political and cultural trends of wholesale rejection of "evil" drugs while searching for "miracle" cures. But for most of human history, what we today call drugs were considered gifts from the divine with the potential to bestow healing, power, and wisdom. These were gifts of fire, essential to our lives but with underlying danger.
Our pursuit and fear of this pharmacological fire helped build empires and destroy civilizations. At the heart of today's problem is a mistaken understanding of our history with drugs. In What Are Drugs For? Timothy McMahan King excavates the evolutionary, religious, and social histories of humanity and its relationship with drugs, showing how these fiery divine substances have shaped and continue to influence religions, societies, and our notions of the good life. By retrieving that history and recontextualizing contemporary political, legal, and social challenges within them, King offers clues to building a path forward. Drugs are tools for human flourishing, yet are best known for their powers of destruction. What Are Drugs For? is about what makes the difference.

Timothy McMahan King is a writer, nonprofit professional, senior fellow for Clergy for a New Drug Policy, and owner of Vagabond Strategies. He has worked as a community organizer in Chicago, a chief strategy officer with Sojourners, and a consultant for national nonprofits, advocacy campaigns, and political candidates. He is the author of Addiction Nation (2019).