Hello and welcome to Overthink,
the podcast where two philosophy professors bring philosophy into dialogue with everyday life.
I'm David Peña Guzman and I'm Ellie Anderson.
Virtually all human cultures have used drugs in one way or another.
Opium poppies have been used in Britain and Europe since at least 5,500 BCE.
Alcohol production dates back all the way to 5,000 to 7,000 BCE and on some accounts it's even older than that all the way to 12,000 BCE.
You also have other drugs that have been used in ancient cultures.
This includes peyote, mescaline, a bunch of psychedelics and hallucinogens in places like Mexico,
Central and South America, as well as other places in the world.
So drugs have been with us for a very long time and in many, many places.
And that obviously continues into the present.
Many of us use very different kinds of drugs, sometimes regularly, sometimes infrequently.
But I think it's fair to say that drug use is a fundamental feature of human experience.
I mean, I drink coffee every morning.
That's a drug.
We often tend to equate drugs with illicit drugs, some of which I do partake in too occasionally,
and I can say that now that I have tenure.
Plus, we have our intoxication and psychedelics episodes,
which you can listen back to if you want to hear a little bit about those.
But yeah, just simple coffee.