I agree that drug use as well as mental illness are both more out in the open, but I think there were/are other factors that have increased drug use in the last couple of decades. When I was growing up in the late 60s and 70s, cocaine and heroin were both very expensive and not as accessible as they are today, though if you sought it out you could find it.
Then, in the mid-80s and early 90s, the introduction of crack cocaine made cocaine very cheap and easily accessible. It was also instantly addictive. I raised a child whose birth mother is a product of that era, as are many of us raising similar children.
Then again, in the last decade or so, pills such as oxycontin and other opioids became readily available (and this is borne out through statistics and information showing that the drug manufacturers played a huge part in their accessibility). Although these opioids weren’t cheap, they were extremely addictive, though doctors were being told by drug manufacturers that they weren’t. Many drug addicts were created by folks whose doctors had prescribed opioids legitimately for pain after surgeries, etc. in addition to those who became addicted through recreational use.
Around this time, heroin became cheaper and more mainstream. Many of those addicted to the more expensive pills switched to the cheap heroin because the high was similar. It seems as though heroin has become almost more “in vogue” as well, something I will never understand, as my father put the fear of God in me about it when I was a kid!
Pot is one drug that although it has become much more expensive (sold in grams now instead of ounces!) it seems way more in use and acceptable than when I was young, and probably is, what with legality in many states. But it’s also much more potent, and some would say addictive, or at least a “gateway” drug.
And I don’t think that we can overlook the generational pull of drug addiction. With addictive parents come addictive children. And on and on it goes...