Essay On Barbiturates

"Religion is the opium of the people" (Karl Max). This famous quote simply says religion does the job of a drug for people. Religion provides comfort to people who are suffering just as people who are physically or mentally in pain receives comfort from the opium drugs. In this week’s lecture Professor Berman also states that “sometimes opium is the opium of the people”. According to the lecture throughout the history the choice of the drugs have changed. 1920’s and 30’s the drug choice was alcohols and cocktails, 1940’s it was just cafe and chocolate bars, 1950’s the drug of choice was barbiturates. 1960’s and 70’s the drug of choice was marihuana and LST and after 1980’s there were many choices. When we watch movies we can see the reflection of those choices on the movies.
Barbiturates is something I have never heard of so I did a little research on it. “Barbiturates are addictive drugs that were first used in medicine in the early 1900s and became popular in the 1960s and 1970s as treatment for anxiety, insomnia, or seizure disorders and addiction to barbiturates is uncommon today” (webmd.com). So it used to keep population relax because 1950’s era was all about fitting into families and communities. (Berman) Nicholas Ray directed Bigger Than Life, one of the 1950’s key films that we watched is a great example for fitting into communities and communities and also great example for the relationship among drugs, film and religion. In the 1950’s the America a model family consisted of a bread winning father, a devoted father and respectful children. We see the perfect family example that accepted by society in the movie bigger than life. The father figure is Ed is the only provider in the family and he is working on two jobs to fit in as a family. The mother figure is Lou is a stay at home mom who works hard to make the house and herself look good and they also have a respectful son