Drugs zoals we het begrip vandaag kennen is een uitvinding van de twintigste eeuw. De achttiende-eeuwer kende geen overkoepelend begrip ‘drugs’. Ook een begrip als ‘verslaving’ was nog onbekend. Maar er waren wel middelen als opium beschikbaar, net als andere en relatief nieuwe psychoactieve middelen als koffie, thee en tabak. En er werd veel alcohol gedronken.
Voor het Jaarboek De Achttiende Eeuw was ik gastredacteur bij het samenstellen van een speciale bijdrage over drank en drugs in de achttiende eeuw, met bijdragen over o.a. jeneverepidemie en over opium in Nederlands-Indie.
Today’s psychedelic renaissance has also led to new interest in the history of psychedelics. MIT Press has now published a fascinating volume with histories of psychedelics from all across the world, edited by Erika Dyck and Chris Elcock.
I have contributed with a chapter on the history of psychedelics in the Netherlands. This chapter is for a large part based on my research for my PhD thesis that was undertaken in the 1990s. Since then not much has been done in this field. I have added some new research on the psychedelic underground production and trafficking that I have done in recent years for my book on the Netherlands as Drug Smuggler Nation.
David Claassen (not Claessen, as his name appears in the book due to an unfortunate typo) was so kind to show me his bachelor thesis on LSD in Dutch newspapers 1951-1966, for which he did research in the newspaper database Delpher (which did not yet exist when I did my research), coming up with some new material. For his thesis, see David Claassen (2020), LSD: Van wondermiddel tot gevaarlijke drug. Nederlandse kranten over LSD 1951-1966. https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/3069662?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=3fca44b36b7b5fe73c2a&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=5&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=7.
Expanding Mindscapes: A Global History of Psychedelics is now available in book stores.
My history of Dutch drug smuggling, Drug Smuggler Nation: Narcotics and the Netherlands, 1920-1995, was until recently only available in an expensive paperback. Manchester University Press has now published the much more affordable paperback – with a few minor corrections.
