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Real dope

A look at the tools of the drug trade

by Leon Nigrosh

ALTERED STATES: ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS IN AMERICA At the Museum of Our National Heritage, 33 Marrett Road, Lexington, through May 10, 1998.

At the entrance to this exhibit a panel simply states that "500,000 Americans die each year from tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse. This is the single largest preventable cause of death." With that thought firmly planted in mind, you enter the maze-like exhibit which takes you on a chronological trip from colonial America to present day. Along the way, you are treated to a calm and dispassionate display of the continual pendulum swings our society has had in its love/hate relationship with mind-altering substances.

America would not have come into existence if it were not for the rum and tobacco trade of the early 1600s. These commodities fueled a growing economy and were lauded by the likes of Puritan minister Increase Mather, who called alcohol "a good Creature of God." At the time, he was probably right. Alcohol was thought of as both food and medicine. It nourished the body, eased pain, cheered the heart, and prolonged life. Water, on the other hand, was often unsafe, milk was scarce, and tea, coffee, and chocolate were expensive luxuries.

This exhibition has a supply of charts and graphs, statistics and quotations, but it is lavishly illustrated with more than 200 artifacts, hundreds of photographs, and four video stations which bring the otherwise dry facts to life. Some of the most revealing highlights are actual paraphernalia used to partake of the substance of the moment. Full-bodied, saltglazed stoneware jugs from the late 17th century show the care that potters put into their product to make the contents more desirable.

In the 1830s, temperance groups tried to turn people from hard liquor by suggesting they drink only water or, at least, the less potently addictive coffee. After they finally convinced the government to drop the high coffee tariff, consumption rapidly increased, prompting the desire for interesting serving utensils such as the handsome hand-wrought pewter coffeepot from 1834. These same groups were also successful in lobbying for better, safer municipal water systems. As the custom of drinking water at meals increased, so did the quality of the goblets and carafes that were used. Several examples of hand-blown glass and cut-crystal bottles evince this fine craftsmanship.

As we move through the maze, we see a reproduction of Thomas DeQuincey's famous tome, Confessions of an English Opium Eater, which extols the virtues of the drug. Indeed, during the mid 1800s, opium was used medicinally to cure diarrhea associated with cholera. As testament to the rise of opium use, we are shown a beautiful turned-wood, ebony and silver opium pipe with a carved ebony hand holding the bowl. The medical community called the use of opium "respectable intoxication" because the habitués were not common, noisy drunkards. Marihuana began to play a role in medicine in the 1850s and has persisted as the overwhelming recreational drug of choice to this day.

An exquisite faïence apothecary jar, labeled cocaine, serves as a reminder of Sigmund Freud's endorsement of the drug as a "magical substance" and cure-all for the turn of the century. Coca-Cola, which contained real coca, a somewhat less addictive form of cocaine, was touted as "The Ideal Brain Tonic." And in an advertising poster from 1900, we learn that the Bayer Aspirin Company promoted cough syrup with heroin in it!

In video clips from the '20s it's a bit of a shock to see a young Cab Calloway singing the jazz tune "Reefer Man." But the real surprise is watching Charlie Chaplin play a comic convict taking "nose powder" in Modern Times. Soon after these films came out, the industry voluntarily banned any future references to drugs (until the '30s, and then again in the '60s, and onward). Of course, this left alcohol to fill the gap.

Prohibition followed -- and was finally repealed in 1932. By that time, drinking and cocktails had again become a socially acceptable form of entertainment. To illustrate this phenomenon, the museum has arranged Cocktails for Two, which contains a mahogany and blue glass cocktail table with silver martini shaker, ice bucket, and glass stemware, all executed in 1930s Art Deco style.

The section of the exhibit portraying the '60s through the '90s is peppered with bongs and pills and acid tabs. There are pictures of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush, issuing their various wars on drugs. They all get equal time with the Zig-Zag man, shown on an orange box of "Weedies -- the Breakfast of Champions." An actual steel-reinforced apartment house door, confiscated from a drug raid, stands in mute testimony to the current nationwide drug problems.

There is a great deal of information put forth in this exhibit, almost too much to absorb at one pass. But it is presented in an even-handed manner, showing the recurring cycles and the many sides of the drug and alcohol issues as they were handled in each era. At the end of the maze, we are left to make our own decisions regarding these mind-altering substances.

The Museum of Our National Heritage is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Call (617) 861-6559.