Drugs: a social history

Australian doctors once prescribed heroin for the relief of pain in childbirth, cannabis cigarettes were promoted as an asthma cure and opium-laced syrups were sold to parents to calm teething infants. In the 1950s women with ’nervous tension’ were advised to have ’a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down’.

Attitudes to drug use changed dramatically during the 20th century, with many drugs becoming prohibited or restricted substances, yet two of the most lethal recreational drugs used today, tobacco and alcohol, remain legal and widely available.

In the exhibition, DRUGS: A Social History, curator Inara Walden and Paul Dillon from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, examine our society’s love-hate relationship with drugs and challenge existing views about drugs.

The exhibition uses images, objects and film to highlight key episodes in Australia’s drug-taking history: from sly grog shops to safe injecting rooms, from Bex to the billboard vigilante group BUGAUP, from opium dens to the Aquarius Festival to rave nation. Both legal and illegal drugs are featured, including tobacco and alcohol, cannabis, opiates, ecstasy, cocaine, LSD and amphetamines.

Tour history

Melbourne Museum, VIC
9 May - 5 October 2008

Albury Regional Museum, NSW
9 March - 6 April 2008

Museum of the Riverina - Wagga Wagga, NSW
6 September - 25 November 2007

Fairfield Regional Art Gallery, NSW
30 March - 30 May 2007

Newcastle Regional Museum, NSW
30 September 2006 - 18 March 2007

Orange Regional Gallery, NSW
9 June - 6 August 2006

Dubbo Regional Gallery, NSW
9 January - 12 March 2006

Shear Outback, Hay, NSW
26 September - 28 November 2005

Broken Hill Geocentre, NSW
1 August - 20 September 2005

South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA
23 May - 29 July 2005