Talking About Drugs
(See: Drugs in American Society,
5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th editions, Erich Goode, McGraw-Hill, 1999/2005/2008/2012/2014. Chapter 1/4)
The Social Construction of Reality
- Facts?==> Meaning==> Interpretation
- Defining what substances are drugs and who the drug users are===> Based on the interests of the observer and his/her perspective.
- Socially Constructed Reality is NOT somehow inferior to or less than (some other conception of) "Reality." Reality is Reality and it impacts individuals and groups. It shapes social behavior and it structures social response to behavior.
"Facts" and Interpretation
Are Drugs Good or Bad?
- Drugs are Bad: No use
- Some Drugs (medicines) are useful: Legally Controlled and Medical Use
- Drugs have Magical Properties: Spiritual Use
- Some Drugs are Not Really Drugs: Beer
- Drugs are Benign
Cultural values help create what we define as reality:
- Ruth Benedict (Patterns of Culture, 1934) and Friedrich Nietzsche:
- Apollonian Cultures: Distrust of extremes, discourages individualism. Drugs are either bad and should be avoided, or just a part of everyday life--nothing special at all (ritual and ceremonial use, perhaps).
- Dionysian Cultures: Emphasis on the stimulation of the senses, hedonism, and self-indulgence. Drugs are magical and should be used to transcend the limitations of everyday life.
Drugs are neither good nor bad. Drugs are neither magical nor benign. Some substances have pharmacological properties, we are biological entities, and there are interesting interactions. BUT, it is essential to understand the social context which surrounds drug use in order to make sense of the outcome(s) associated with the use of any substance.
Thinking Logically about Reality: Procrustean and Manichean Arguments vs. Matters of Degrees (Fuzzy Logic).
What constitutes a drug, the effect(s) of a drug and the impact of drug use===> The Substance(s) + The Person + The Immediate Socio-Environmental Context + The Wider Socio-Cultural Context: CONTINGENCIES
Gender and Drugs
- Patriarchy
- Ignoring Women
- "In sum, our knowledge of women and drugs is limited to that which is government-funded and published in scholarly journals and/or the popular media. This information does not represent the experience of the majority of women drug users. It does not even represent the majority of women who use illegal drugs, because most use drugs in controlled ways and without serious consequence. We know very little about how they manage and control their use because prohibitionist rhetoric dismisses such use as impossible, therefore research funding is difficult if not impossible to obtain.
Instead, most conventional research focuses on a relatively small group of women whose drug use becomes visible, therefore problematic. They use illegal means to earn enough money to buy (expensive) drugs. As a result of their illegal activities they come into contact with the criminal justice system. They are often poor, under skilled, undereducated, and supported by public assistance. They have difficulty taking care of their children and as part of the welfare system, come to the attention of social service agencies designed to protect children. Some have no real home and as a result much of their existence takes place "on the street." Most important, they incite fear because they deviate from sexual norms and in general violate traditional gender role expectations with regard to pregnancy and parenting." (Rosenbaum 1997--below)
- "The relevance of gender and sex role is especially crucial,..., in the social construction of drug use, that is, not so much what drugs are and do, but how users are seen by the public, how drug use is conceptualized as a social problem, how drugs and drug users are presented in the media, how politicians talk about drugs and legislate laws to control it, .... and so on." (Goode, p. 84)
Specific Issues
- Stigma and Deviance
- Female users judged more harshly
- Prostitution, Sex, Crack and AIDS
- Females more likely to sell their bodies
- Crack and the "new brothel"
- Women who sell sex for crack: double stigma ("base whores")
- Sexual behavior puts women at increased risk of HIV
- Less likely to seek treatment
- Physicians less likely to put females on medication
- Mothers and Babies
- "Crack Baby Syndrome?" (1) (2) (3) myth created through"bad" science, and media sensationalism. See also: "Use of term "crack baby" and this report on long-term effects.
- Hysteria and confusion: Drug Czar William Bennett makes wild claim of 375,000 crack babies being born in late 1980s (10% of all births--think about what that would really mean)!
- Laws directed specifically at females.
- Media never reports mistakes and factual omissions (brief mention in St. Louis Post-Dispatch in early 1990s)
- Treatment
- Designed for men
- Programs for females lacking
- Child care?
Other Drug Policy Alliance Resources
Issues to Consider in the Study of Drug Use:
- Scientific Evidence: Knowledge vs. Myths
- How many people are we talking about:
- Proportion of general population that uses a particular substance
- Frequency of Use
- What are the Risks Involved
- Odds of Harm, and the fact that most aren't harmed
- Dependency
- Crime
- Overdose (OD)
- And, To What are these Risks Related?
- Who, in particular, is using (teen vs. adult drinking; gender)
- Social Norms and Context--Groups Influence Behavior ("Birds of a feather flock together").
- Subcultures, Gender, Race, Age, and Class differences
- Socio-Political and Economic Structures: Capitalism, Profit, Power, and Control
- Legality vs Illegality: An Artificial (socially constructed) Distinction
- Potential Positive Effects: Medical Utility (Marijuana, MDMA)
- User's point of view: Subjective experience (Most use because they like the effects==> Pleasure)
- AND,
Most Importantly: Most people who use drugs
(of any kind) do so in a relatively controlled
manner.
Perhaps
the biggest questions are: What is it that distinguishes the Controlled user
from the Problem user? And, How Do We Define Problematic Use?
But
first, what is a Drug?
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/180/introdrg.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and
Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated:
Friday, October 6, 2017 3:26 PM