The Fifties is when the drug culture of the Sixties got started. As laid out by the Palm Partners Recovery Center in Palm Beach:
After WWII there was an amazing development of new medicines: tranquilizers, new amphetamines and barbiturates, new opioids (synthesized opium products). Weight loss products were sold containing amphetamines and ephedrine. National marketing of these medicines increased their use. This post-war era brought with it affluence, social change and mass use of medicines and drugs. Many of the stimulant, tranquilizer and sedative medicines were misused.
https://www.palmpartners.com/history-of-drug-abuse-the-50s/
This is the decade that saw housewives taking a LOT of drugs to cope with their bleak and hopeless lives. The Rolling Stones got a hit song out of it:
"Men just aren't the same today," I hear every mother say
"They just don't appreciate that you get tired
They're so hard to satisfy, you can tranquilize your mind
So go running for the shelter of a mother's little helper"
And 4 help you through the night, help to minimize your plight
"Doctor, please, some more of these"
Outside the door, she took 4 more
Of course, the popularity of cocktails, especially the martini, helped make alcohol abuse rampant, and everybody was smoking a pack a day. My mother talked about seeing doctors on tv promoting cigarettes, often while puffing on-camera.
Are these the healthy values you want us to return to?