Representation of drugs in the societal history. The French case
The history of drugs is part of the history of man. The word itself mixes health (medication) and disease (toxic), well-being and malaise, humanity and social dangerousness. Drugs and their users are repeatedly present in literature and the arts. Their presence is even worth the definition of living standards in society: tolerance or intolerance, sociability or social disqualification, integration or exclusion. They even enable the study of consumption and their representations from a gender perspective. An issue of the period. In fact, three periods are considered: a time when curiosity for drugs brought enthusiastic disputes and when knowing how to live included peer discussion (16th-18th centuries); a time when drugs, under the effect of the democratization of their use, began to worry the medical authorities (19th century); and lastly a time when regulations, if not prohibition of drugs (narcotics, alcohol and tobacco) caused the social disqualification of the users.