Smoking rates were around 40% up through the 1970s. If you didn't smoke, you almost certainly got it second hand. Which implies that up through the smoking bans of the 1990s, everyone (except maybe some farmers and other outdoorsy types) were on a psychoactive drug 24/7 at least a little.

[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I mean sure, nicotine is technically a psychoactive drug. But so is caffeine and theobromine, so should we stop giving kids chocolate? Ban all coffee shops? Honestly not sure what your point is here. Everything is drugs, at least a little.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

That basically is my point. It's eye opening for people who don't think about drugs that way.

[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 hours ago

Ah okay i misunderstood. Regardless there were far more harmful things influencing everyone in the 70s than nicotine, like the thousands of toxic additives and carcinogens in secondhand smoke, or the lead in the paint and the gasoline.