For half a century, cocaine served as the primary chemical shorthand for American ambition. Arriving in force through Miami in the early 1970s, the stimulant became inextricably linked with a specific brand of capitalist excess—brash, fast-paced, and unapologetically brazen. It was a drug that mirrored the era’s economic volatility and its obsession with high-octane performance.
But the cultural and pharmacological landscape is shifting. Data suggests that cocaine use has plummeted among Gen Z, marking a sharp departure from the habits of their parents’ generation. The "war on drugs" left behind a legacy of systemic destruction, but the current decline seems driven less by enforcement and more by a fundamental change in how younger Americans choose to alter their consciousness.
In the vacuum left by the declining stimulant, a new suite of substances has emerged. Ketamine, psychedelics, and GHB are increasingly favored, signaling a move away from the frantic energy of the 20th-century party scene toward experiences that are often more internal or dissociative. As the era of the "bombastic" high recedes, it takes with it a core pillar of old-school American excess.
With reporting from The Guardian Science.
Source · The Guardian Science
