<p>Most of us think we know cocaine — a glamorous party drug with a dark side, a scourge of the 80s, a straightforward villain in the story of addiction. But what happens behind the scenes - in the months of work and miles of travel that take the coca leaf of Central and South America to the consumers all around the world? </p><br><p>Emilia Ziosi is a researcher and science communicator whose work has focused largely on the cocaine trade. </p><br><p>In this episode, Zale and Emilia dig into the assumptions we carry about cocaine and where they actually come from, including:</p><br><p>- How cocaine was used medically for decades — and why that history got buried</p><p>- What's actually happening in the brain during cocaine use, and why the "addiction = weak willpower" framing misses the point</p><p>- The racial politics behind cocaine prohibition and how moral panic shaped drug policy</p><p>- Why cocaine's cultural image has shifted so dramatically across time and class</p><p>- What harm reduction gets right that abstinence-only approaches keep getting wrong</p><p>- Whether we're asking the right questions when it comes to drug policy reform</p><br><p>Preconceived is a weekly Society &amp; Culture podcast where each episode challenges a widely-held assumption. Hosted by Zale Mednick. New episodes every week.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>