Drugs, a human story

Hallucinogenic plants, narcotics, psychotropic drugs, synthetic products: what exactly are "drugs"? The Musée de l'Homme in Paris devotes a major exhibition to the subject, Drogues, with the aim of dismantling preconceptions and making scientific knowledge accessible on a topic rarely addressed in museums. The exhibition, covering 650 square metres on the second floor, is designed for visitors aged 12 and over. The show continues the series of major exhibitions on social issues that the Trocadéro museum has staged since reopening in 2015, from Nous et les autres, on racism, to Je mange donc je suis and Migrations. Here too the approach is multidisciplinary: anthropology, history, sociology, medicine, psychology, ecology and economics come together to explain the role of psychoactive substances across cultures, eras and religions, free of any ideological stance. The scientific curators are sociologist François Beck, ethnobiologist Vincent Verroust and medical anthropologist Alain Epelboin. The first section offers an overview of fungi, plants, animals and synthetic products, alongside objects linked to their consumption, including the Muséum's herbarium sheets of cannabis, coffee, coca and tobacco and vials from its chemical library. It shows that the very definition of "drug" is a social construct, varying across time and place, and that there is a continuum between remedy, poison and intoxicant. An interactive multimedia display illustrates the effects of different substances on the body and brain, while the exhibits recall that consumption dates back to prehistory and that some animals also seek intoxication. The second part asks why people consume: to heal themselves, to feel part of a group, to enhance intellectual, sporting or military performance, for pleasure, to reach mystical experiences or to seek artistic inspiration. The third follows the path from producer to consumer: from illegal poppy cultivation to the industrial production of fentanyl, from centuries-old vineyards to clandestine laboratories, from colonial trade routes to social networks, with the environmental, economic and health consequences of a fast-growing market, extending even to armed conflict. The final section addresses public policies, more or less repressive depending on the country, and the history of harm reduction in Europe since the 1980s. It closes with an installation that gives voice to users from a wide range of backgrounds, to move beyond stereotypes and offer a humane view of a phenomenon that concerns every society.