The FDA and CDC have approved the Pfizer vaccine booster for the general adult population.

The Biden administration announced a plan to vastly increase COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing.

And drug overdose mortality has surpassed 100,000 for the first time, a 29% increase since

last year.

This is America Dissective.

I'm your host, Dr. Abdul-Elsaid.

Friends, I'm a child of the 90s.

Born in 1984, I grew up with Nickelodeon, Dance of the Macarena, and fell in love with hip

hop, listening to Pock and Biggie.

I also grew up with a cop in my classroom, telling me about the harms of drugs and eye

war the ubiquitous daretees shirt that he brought.

It was all part of growing up in the shadow of one first lady's message to a whole generation.

I know my young friends out there say yes to your life, and when it comes to drugs and alcohol,

just say no.

First Lady Nancy Reagan's infamous campaign kicked off a cultural wave in the United States,

one that demonized drugs as a singular cause of poverty, criminality, and social breakdown.

But implicit in telling kids to just say no, is that substance use is a moral failure

driven by individual choices to use or not use.

In an economic sense, the first Lady was framing drugs as a demand side issue.

If enough kids said no, there'd be no demand for drugs.

That's ironic.

Because while Nancy was saying just say no, her husband Ronald was saying something else.

...