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Mind-altering drugs are a universal habit, but an acquired taste: one culture’s religious sacrament is another’s public health problem. Over the last century, the West has medicalised or banned many plant drugs that still occupy traditional roles in other societies. How did the contemporary category of ‘drug’ come into being, and how do attitudes differ across other times and places? 

Speakers
Valerie Curran, Professor of Psychopharmacology, UCL.
Stephen Hugh-Jones, Honorary Emeritus Associate of the Department of Social A nthropology, University of Cambridge.
Andy Letcher, lecturer in religious and cultural studies, author of Shroom: A cultural history of the magic mushroom.

This event is FREE. 

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