{"id":156253,"date":"2020-02-06T18:47:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T16:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/a-history-of-how-sedatives-took-hold-in-white-south-africa-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2020-02-06T18:47:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T16:47:43","slug":"a-history-of-how-sedatives-took-hold-in-white-south-africa-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/a-history-of-how-sedatives-took-hold-in-white-south-africa-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"A history of how sedatives took hold in white South Africa | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A history of how sedatives took hold in white South Africa<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Shutterstock<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the early 1960s, pharmacists and government authorities were of the view that South Africa had experienced key aspects of a \u2018pharmaceutical revolution\u2019 over the course of the previous 40 years. <\/p>\n

These were fulcrum decades in South African medicines\u2019 history in which newly invented medicines became critically important. Most of the new therapeutic substances in high demand were antibiotics. But the class of drugs comprising synthetic hypnotics, sedatives and tranquillisers were also important. <\/p>\n

As early as the 1930s these substances \u2013 especially barbiturates \u2013 posed challenges to those who sought their control. Enmeshed in multiple issues of chemical, commercial, professional, and regulatory de\ufb01nition, timid controls were proposed in 1937. But even these failed to gain support, facilitating a permissive market for those who could a\ufb00ord the new drugs. These were, by and large, white South Africans. <\/p>\n

In my research I identi\ufb01ed a number of moments when these sedatives became of pharmacological, professional or public interest. I sketch a chronology of their regulatory politics in South Africa in the mid-twentieth century. <\/p>\n

South African markets remained limited. Nevertheless, many local pharmacists, manufacturers, importers, and consumers were quick to embrace the therapeutic aspirations and chemical technologies of the time. In turn, they helped to accelerate multiple changes in the uneven emergence of \u2018pharmaceutical modernity\u2019 in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Modernising white identity<\/h2>\n

The 1950s was a decade of an even greater variety and popularity of pharmaceutical preparations. Most were imported, particularly from the US. Another bid was made to restrict the use of tranquillising and other drugs. <\/p>\n

In 1954 a new classi\ufb01cation, that of \u2018Potentially Harmful Drugs\u2019, was established. Professional pharmacies\u2019 discretion over the sale of these substances was limited. Even so, dozens of products were available via medical prescription. This was often on the back of unsubstantiated claims that their chemical properties would relax, soothe, calm, pacify, and take away anxiety, fear and fretfulness. Others were still readily attainable from pharmacists as over-the-counter products. <\/p>\n

One such was \u2018OblivonC\u2019, which has not lingered in South Africans\u2019 medical memory. Others have proven more durable, continuing as mainstays of frequently prescribed medicines into the present.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Three tubes of Oblivon capsules from 1953.<\/span> Wellcome Images\/ Wellcome Collection<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One example is Meprobamate. Popular in the 1960s, it\u2019s still widely prescribed today, albeit in different medical preparations. <\/p>\n

From many descriptions, o\ufb03cial as well as popular, it is evident that white South Africans readily and legitimately consumed pharmaceuticals (especially in pill form) for a wide variety of ailments. <\/p>\n

In part, the popularity of the new drugs may be explained in terms of the quest for a white, \u2018modern\u2019 identity. As one historian puts it, in the prosperous decades of post-war South Africa, and especially in the 1960s, whites <\/p>\n

\n

self-consciously fashioned their personal appearance, public architecture, and consumer and lifestyle choices to demonstrate (to other South Africans and international observers) their distinctness from the non-white [sic] majority and to advertise their modernity. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If this was indeed a factor of a modernising white identity, it was white women and (generally) male medical practitioners who by the 1970s had become unwitting agents in a reciprocal relationship of need and aspiration. If relative a\ufb04uence and attitude facilitated access to the new sedative drugs for some, the consequences of their consumption were often ambivalent.<\/p>\n

Some of these substances were ineffectual. Others gave profound relief to those who su\ufb00ered from sleep deprivation, extreme anxiety, and other forms of socially or psychologically induced torment. Some proved dangerous and destructive. Many also possessed damaging powers when taken in combination with other substances (such as alcohol) or if imbibed, ingested or injected in excess or over extended periods of time. <\/p>\n

At the same time, the limited \u2018legitimate\u2019 usage of synthetic sedatives and tranquillising preparations by black South Africans can be largely explained by reasons of political economies of health. In the 1960s, there were few black doctors outside of the cash-strapped mission hospitals prescribing to middle class private patients. In addition, chemist shops were concentrated in the urban areas. And the unregulated \u2018traditional\u2019 medicines sector remained signi\ufb01cant, both economically and ideologically. <\/p>\n

But apartheid capitalism required the growth of black consumer markets at the same time as enforcing racial segregation. A commissioned survey reported in 1969 reported that<\/p>\n

\n

the natural potential of the Bantu [sic] market [\u2026] holds tremendous promise for the future\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pressure to extend formal education and training of black technicians, assistants and pharmacists also \ufb01nally gathered momentum by the mid-1960s. <\/p>\n

\"\"
An advert for Medigesic painkiller.<\/span> Nattermann South Africa \/ South African Pharmaceutical Journal<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pharmaceutical politics<\/h2>\n

By the late 1960s, South Africa had been unevenly propelled towards a new phase of \u2018pharmaceutical modernity\u2019. This too would be marked by intense local pharmaceutical politics. <\/p>\n

By the 1970s, locally-based manufacturing of pharmaceuticals had grown. On the recommendation of the Steenkamp Commission of Inquiry into the Pharmaceutical Industry of 1978, reporting after the Soweto uprising, the apartheid regime\u2019s support for the domestic manufacture of chemicals and medications was to grow \u201cin case of boycott or war\u201d. <\/p>\n

This ominous atmosphere was re\ufb02ected in the pharmaceuticals sector of the late apartheid era. An advertisement for \u2018Medigesic\u2019 reproduced from the South African Pharmaceutical Journal in 1980 portrays an atmosphere of intense stress for many white South Africans. To many whites the ad projected their physical and mental state of being under siege, both from \u2018within\u2019 the country and from apartheid\u2019s opponents \u2018without\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially formulated for the professional in medicine,\u201d Medigesic invoked the state\u2019s \u201ctraditional\u201d staunch commitment to their \u201csafety\u201d and \u201cdefence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Portraying the fortress of the Castle of Good Hope, the military emblem of the South African Defence Force, patients who consumed the analgesic were promised relief from pain, reduction of in\ufb02ammation and fever, and \u201cgeneral sedation\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is the fifth article in a series on drug regimes in southern Africa. They are based on research done for a special edition for the South African Historical Journal. Read the full paper over here.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Julie Parle receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A history of how sedatives took hold in white South Africa: Shutterstock In the early 1960s, pharmacists and government authorities were of the view that South Africa had experienced key aspects of a \u2018pharmaceutical revolution\u2019 over the course of the previous 40 years. These were fulcrum decades in South African medicines\u2019 history in which newly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,8890,6376,3859,37368,3576,9800,3141],"class_list":{"0":"post-156253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-conversation","9":"tag-history","10":"tag-hold","11":"tag-sedatives","12":"tag-south","13":"tag-took","14":"tag-white","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}