Drug Crisis: The Valium Panic Of The 1970s

Not much has seemed to have changed since the 1970s Valium Panic. The Valium Panic of the 1970s was a valid fear; even now in today’s generation there is still licit and illicit drug addictions. Usually the war on drugs was aimed towards immigrants, nonwhites, and the urban poor. Whereas, “The Valium Panic, involved a quintessentially middle-class drug prescribed legally by reputable physicians for their respectable patients, and was popularly recognized as an entrenched part of life in the comfortable classes, especially for women” (pg. 80). Valium wasn’t seen as a narcotic or even seen as being an addictive substance. Because the usual antidrug coalition of government, the medical authorities, and the middle-class cultural crusaders were …show more content…
80). This campaign changed the views and helped reduced the use of Valium to the extent they will never really know if there was really an epidemic. In the 1960s, addiction was seen as a disease instead of a criminal act. Betty Friedman who was tired, and nervous was led into believing her problems were medical instead of political. “As a result, “Many suburban housewives were taking tranquilizers like cough drops” (pg. 90). There were advertisements telling housewife’s that taking a pill will cure it instead of feminism. Friedman tried to warn women that Valium and tranquilizers were no good for women. By the late 1970s women who were addicted to Valium began to tell their stories. First lady Betty Ford was prescribed pain killers for a pinched nerve she had in her neck. Ford would later recall “She had a pill induced fog” (pg. 94). Ford had held a press conference to announce that she had been …show more content…
When Gordon stopped taking Valium all at once she ended up going into a mental institution twice. Gordon finally didn’t need any pills and she began to warn women about Valium. The so called “cousins” of Valium like Prozac and Xanax are widespread as well. “According to respected national surveys, 15 percent of all Americans reported having used Valium or one of its cousin drugs in the past year, 5 percent of them “regularly” (daily for months or more at a time). The numbers were even higher for women, 20 percent of whom reported to use in the past year, 10 percent of them regularly- twice the rate of men’s use, and more than could be accounted for by women’s greater usage of the medical system generally” (pgs.79-80). My mother was prescribed the cousin of Valium; Prozac because she suffers from depression. When my mother first started taking Prozac I noticed changes in her behavior she became in a fog like state. She was acting like a zombie. Eventually, her dosage of Prozac was increased because the dosage she was given was enough for her