Drug use and the constitution of homo politicus in Swedish politics 1966-1979.

BACKGROUND: The emergence of the drug user as a political problem in Sweden during the 1960s presented politicians with the problem of how to fit this new character into the existing democratic order. The aim of this article is to examine how Swedish politics sought to regulate democratic participation by establishing norms that conditioned who is recognized as a political subject as well as what counts as political speech and action. METHODS: The analysis is based on a close reading of parliamentary debates, political motions, and public reports and covers the period 1966-1979. RESULTS: During the examined period, Swedish politics constituted the ideal subject of democratic politics, homo politicus, as a subject embedded in a community of active and politically conscious citizens endowed with the capacity to cooperate and engage in the collective formulation of the common good. Drug use therefore posed a threat to the democratic order due to its passivizing effects that inhibited the cooperation needed to uphold the democratic polity. CONCLUSION: The perceived individualism, passivity, and inability of the drug user to engage in cooperation within a politically conscious community of citizens positioned the drug user as a threat to the democratic order. The drug user thereby became a useful figure in the political regulation of the democratic sphere and the constitution of homo politicus, the ideal subject of democratic politics.

[Argentinian women and the uses of drugs: A sociohistorical analysis of female drug use in Argentina (1860-1930)]. / Mujeres argentinas y usos de drogas: análisis sociohistórico del uso femenino de sustancias psicoactivas en Argentina (1860-1930).

This article describes cases presented by experts from the legislative and medical-legal fields regarding the use of psychoactive substances among Argentinian women from 1878 to 1930. Background information is presented regarding the relationship between women and the use different drugs, medical interventions on the female body where psychoactive substances were used are analyzed, and experts' descriptions of cases of female drug users are detailed. Experts' discourses during this period did not attempt to comprehend the specificities of female consumption, but were rather used to position the issue of drug use as a social problem. This was done using three prototypes: the victim of a sick husband; the prostitute who encourages drug use among the weak in spirit (natural-born criminals); and the virtuous young woman who succumbs to drug addiction in spite of her father's rule. Each figure reinforces the need for state intervention and increased social control.

Este trabajo describe casos expuestos por expertos de los ámbitos legislativo y médico-legal periodístico, en los que se reporta el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas por parte de mujeres de Argentina, entre 1878 y 1930. Se presentan antecedentes sobre mujeres y usos de distintos fármacos, se analizan las intervenciones médicas que utilizan sustancias psicoactivas sobre el cuerpo femenino, y se detallan los casos de mujeres consumidoras desde las miradas expertas. En este periodo, los discursos expertos no buscaron comprender la especificidad femenina del consumo, sino promover el tema drogas como un problema. Esto se produce utilizando tres prototipos: la víctima de un marido enfermo, la prostituta que envicia a los débiles de espíritu (criminal nata), y la joven virtuosa que contraviene la ley del padre y sucumbe en la toxicomanía. Cada figura refuerza la necesidad de intervención estatal y control social.

Mujeres argentinas y usos de drogas: análisis sociohistórico del uso femenino de sustancias psicoactivas en Argentina (1860-1930) / Argentinian women and the uses of drugs: A sociohistorical analysis of female drug use in Argentina (1860-1930)

RESUMEN Este trabajo describe casos expuestos por expertos de los ámbitos legislativo y médico-legal periodístico, en los que se reporta el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas por parte de mujeres de Argentina, entre 1878 y 1930. Se presentan antecedentes sobre mujeres y usos de distintos fármacos, se analizan las intervenciones médicas que utilizan sustancias psicoactivas sobre el cuerpo femenino, y se detallan los casos de mujeres consumidoras desde las miradas expertas. En este periodo, los discursos expertos no buscaron comprender la especificidad femenina del consumo, sino promover el tema drogas como un problema. Esto se produce utilizando tres prototipos: la víctima de un marido enfermo, la prostituta que envicia a los débiles de espíritu (criminal nata), y la joven virtuosa que contraviene la ley del padre y sucumbe en la toxicomanía. Cada figura refuerza la necesidad de intervención estatal y control social.

ABSTRACT This article describes cases presented by experts from the legislative and medical-legal fields regarding the use of psychoactive substances among Argentinian women from 1878 to 1930. Background information is presented regarding the relationship between women and the use of different drugs, medical interventions on the female body where psychoactive substances were used are analyzed, and experts' descriptions of cases of female drug users are detailed. Experts' discourses during this period did not attempt to comprehend the specificities of female consumption but were rather used to position the issue of drug use as a social problem. This was done using three prototypes: the victim of a sick husband; the prostitute who encourages drug use among the weak in spirit (natural-born criminals); and the virtuous young woman who succumbs to drug addiction in spite of her father's rule. Each figure reinforces the need for state intervention and increased social control.

From disease to criminality ­ changes in how substance dependency is viewed. / Fra sykdom til kriminalitet ­ endringer i synet på rusavhengighet.

BACKGROUND: The policy on drug use is currently undergoing significant change. This article examines how the view of addiction to illegal drugs changed in the first 30 years after the advent of 'the drug problem' in Norway. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We performed a search in Oria, bokhylla.no and various databases on the history of illegal drugs in Norway, with an emphasis on the period from 1960-90, with white papers from 1976 and 1986. RESULTS: Until the mid-1960s, Norway had very few opiate abusers. This generally concerned abuse of medically prescribed drugs, and was perceived as an internal problem for the health services. The youth counterculture in the late 1960s brought the recreational use of illegal substances to Norway, leading to major concern on the part of the public authorities. 'The drug problem' was now perceived as a significant societal problem, with social and societal causal explanations, and was therefore the subject of a white paper (1976). The next white paper (1986) put forward the ideal of a 'drug-free society' for the first time, with the purpose of general deterrence and strict sentencing as important instruments. INTERPRETATION: From the early 1960s until the late 1980s, the 'drug problem' was perceived in different ways. At the start of the period, it was formulated primarily as a medical problem. From the late 1960s, it was seen first and foremost as a social problem caused by changes in society, whereas from the late 1970s until the late 1980s, control measures constituted the most important instrument to address the problem.

Mixing drink and drugs: 'Underclass' politics, the recovery agenda and the partial convergence of English alcohol and drugs policy.

Alcohol policy and illicit drugs policy are typically presented as separate and different in academic discussion. This is understandable, to a degree, as the criminal law upholds a 'great regulatory divide' (Seddon, 2010: 56) separating the licit trade in alcohol from the illicit trade in substances classified as either class A, B or C under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. This paper takes a different stance. In doing so, it draws upon Berridge's (2013) argument that policies governing various psychoactive substances have been converging since the mid-twentieth century and seeks to elaborate it using recent developments relating to the control and regulation of drugs and alcohol in the broader areas of criminal justice and welfare reform. Significantly, the article examines how recent policy directions relating to both drugs and alcohol in England have, under the aegis of the 'recovery agenda', been connected to a broader behavioural politics oriented towards the actions and lifestyles of an apparently problematic subgroup of the population or 'underclass'. The paper thus concludes that, although the great regulatory divide remains intact, an underclass politics is contributing towards the greater alignment of illicit drugs and alcohol policies, especially in regards to the respective significance of abstinence (or abstinence-based 'recovery').

Drug consumption and additional risk factors associated with microscopic colitis: case-control study

BACKGROUND: Microscopic colitis has now emerged as a common cause of chronic diarrhoea, but its aetiology remains unknown. Some studies suggest that commonly prescribed drugs and other additional risk factors may be triggers. AIMS: To evaluate the effects of drug intake and other risk factors on microscopic colitis patients. METHODS: A prospective, case-control study with all consecutive adult patients referred to the Hospital General de Tomelloso (Ciudad Real, Spain) for chronic watery diarrhoea (from 2008 to 2011) was performed. Microscopic colitis was diagnosed following the commonly accepted histopathological criteria. RESULTS: 46 consecutive new cases of microscopic colitis and 317 chronic diarrhoea controls were recruited. Five independent risk factors significantly associated with microscopic colitis were identified: Abdominal pain (OR 3.25; 95%CI, 1.49-7.08), weight loss (OR 2.67; 95%CI, 1.16-6.15), celiac disease (OR 15.3; 95%CI, 3.70-63.5), topiramate intake (OR 13.6; 95%CI, 1.84- 100.8), and older age at diagnosis (OR 1 year increase 1.022; 95%CI, 1.002-1.042). Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was associated with microscopic colitis in the subgroup of patients who fulfilled irritable bowel syndrome criteria (38.5% vs. 10.8%; p < 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Microscopic colitis is associated with autoimmune disease, an increased age at diagnosis, topiramate intake and only in a sub-group of irritable bowel disease patients with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

No disponible

Images by the vineyard: images of addiction and substance users in the media and other culture sites/sights.

This article constitutes a discovery journey into the world of drinking images, the pleasures and harms related to consuming alcoholic beverages, as well as the relationships between drinking and spirituality. These aspects are described historically and globally, over time through a series of snapshots and mini-discussions about both visual and mental images from art, classical literature and operatic music.The images are interpreted according to how they represent the drinking culture within which they were created and sustained, and how they are able to involve the spectator and the user in terms of either empathizing, accepting and including or distancing, stigmatizing and marginalizing the user.

Recalling the past: probation officers work with drug misusers during the 1960s.

AIMS: Britain's first wave of non-therapeutic drug users during the 1960s were more likely to come into contact with the criminal courts than previous, therapeutic, drug users. This paper recounts the untold history of probation officers' work with drug misusing offenders in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. METHODS: Using 'snowballing' to source participants (in which study subjects recruit future subjects from among their acquaintances) and in-depth interviews as a means of eliciting information, probation officers who had supervised drug users during this time were interviewed about their experiences. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and a thematic data set produced. RESULTS: Front-line probation officers in the United Kingdom in the 1960s had considerable contact with drug-misusing offenders. In explaining drug addiction, officers tended to draw upon a psychotherapeutic interpretation, and in terms of intervention they relied heavily upon the psychiatric services to deliver treatment. Probation officers did not always make the connection between addiction and an increase in criminality. CONCLUSION: In Britain's first wave of non-therapeutic drug users in the 1960s, probation officers appear not to have made a connection with criminality, which may have limited how far they developed a formalized approach to applying the expertise of the Probation Service.

A Canadian perspective on documentary film: Drug Addict.

BACKGROUND: In 1948 the first National Film Board (NFB) documentary in Canada about illegal drugs, trafficking, and addiction was produced. The documentary is titled Drug Addict, and was directed by Robert Anderson. This paper provides a socio-historical context for the documentary Drug Addict. Viewing the film through the lens of Canadian history gives readers a better context to understand the claims and representations in the film about law enforcement, people who use illegal drugs and treatment. METHODS: To examine Drug Addict, a socio-historical analysis and case study were conducted. This project's qualitative methodological framework is consistent with its critical theoretical perspective, drawing from Stuart Hall's perspectives on visual and textual representation and cultural criminology. RESULTS: Drug Addict is a significant documentary because it provides insight into early foundational law enforcement discourses and practices about illegal drugs, addiction, and treatment, including obstacles to drug substitution and maintenance programs. It also highlights the emergence of psychiatry as a new knowledge producer in the area of drug treatment. The film also transmits ideas about the criminal nature of addicts and the need for punitive criminal justice control. CONCLUSION: Drug Addict captures some past and contemporary tensions related to Canadian drug policy. The film also provides another lens to understand some of the foundational frameworks of Canadian drug policy such as the dominance of criminal justice, and its practices of knowledge production, the resistance espoused by institutions to diverse models of treatment such as drug maintenance programs, and the power of visual representation.

Violence, drug markets and racial composition: challenging stereotypes through spatial analysis.

Places in which there is a strong spatial connection between violence and drug activity can often evoke particular stereotypes. They are believed to be places marked by high levels of social disorganisation, unemployment, disorder and racial heterogeneity. Yet scholars have argued that the spatial relationship between drug market activity and violence is more complicated and that other factors may explain this geographical connection. In the first article of this two-part series, different types of spatial analysis were employed to describe crime concentrations of drugs and violence. Evidence was found that challenges the notion that places with drug activity are inevitably more violent. This second paper examines what factors predict these variations in drug­violence spatial patterns in Seattle when derived using different spatial methods. The findings indicate that racial composition, disorder and unemployment may not be as salient as once believed in predicting places that are violent drug markets.

In the hunt for the "sultans of smack:" dope, gangsters and the construction of the Turkish deep state.

This article traces the development and evolution of the Turkish heroin trade against the backdrop of the Republic of Turkey's long transition from imperial core to nation-state. In taking up heroin's relationship to modern Turkey, I would like to specifically explore the meaning and manifestations of what many inside and outside of academia have called the "deep state." Heroin, I argue, was and is one of the most vital enablers of the factional "deep state" rivalries that compete for power in Ankara, adding a steady violent dimension to local and national politics.

Vauxhall's post-industrial pleasure gardens: "death wish" and hedonism in 21st-century London.

In recent years Vauxhall in south London has been transformed and rebranded as an urban leisure zone for gay men. Disused railway arches and warehouses have been converted into nightclubs and a significant night-time economy has developed rivalling Soho's existing gay village. However, with its commodified forms of public sex and high levels of recreational drug use, Vauxhall's club scene looks rather different from the British gay villages of the 1990s. This article examines how the area's nightlife entrepreneurs have capitalised on the recent liberalisation of licensing laws while drawing on the historical associations with the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (1660-1859) in attempts to market the area as a site of embedded hedonism. Overall, the aesthetic and cultural themes of Vauxhall's club scene seem to contradict earlier assumptions about the desexualisation and sanitisation of contemporary gay culture.

Methadone maintenance treatment: disciplining the 'addict'.

This article examines key aims, objectives, technologies, strategies, and procedures utilised in Australian methadone maintenance programs over the past thirty years. An examination of the major policy documents reveal that, in addition to medico-health concerns, methadone programs have been strategically deployed to manage specific sociopolitical problems including illicit drug use, crime, and the spread of infectious diseases. The techniques, technologies, and procedures utilised in methadone programs and the 'disciplinary monotony 'of the methadone regime itself aim to produce a more compliant, conforming, and self-regulating subject. It is argued that the promotion of methadone maintenance as a 'treatment' modality obscures these disciplinary objectives and the political goals that have fostered them.

"The Attila the Hun law": New York's Rockefeller drug laws and the making of a punitive state.

In 1973, New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller responded to panic about soaring heroin use by renouncing his aggressive treatment programs and enacting the most punitive drug policy in the United States. His "Rockefeller Drug Laws" mandated sentences up to life in prison for selling any narcotics. These punishments, comparable to the penalties for murder, served as models for subsequent "War on Drugs" policies enacted across the nation.This article explores the ideological and political work accomplished by this high profile legislation­for policy makers, for members of the general public who clamored for "get tough" strategies, and for the drug users targeted by the statutes. The laws were a repudiation of liberal treatment programs and specialists' expertise, and provided a forum to remake the much-maligned welfare state into a stern, macho vehicle for establishing order in society. Increasingly punitive policies constricted the rights of drug users by rhetorically constructing "addicts" and "pushers" as outside of the polity and as the antithesis of full citizens. Therefore, the Rockefeller Drug Laws not only had devastating effects on drug offenders, but also were instrumental in the profound renegotiation of the state's role and responsibilities.

Conditional rights, benefit reform, and drug users: reducing dependency?

United Kingdom government policy to increase social security claimants' entry to the labour market through conditions attached to unemployed, sickness and incapacity benefits now includes additional measures to activate particular groups such as lone parents and drug users. The latter are a prime target because of their high level of dependency on benefits and because social security rules are seen as having the potential to modify the behaviour of individuals with a lifestyle regarded as being at odds with the moral obligations of citizenship and incompatible with the government's realization of its wider economic and social goals. There are strict procedures for the identification of drug-user claimants, enabling additional conditions to be attached to their benefit rights. This article discusses the general trend in benefit reform towards increased conditionality and evaluates the reforms affecting drug users, considering human rights and other implications. It concludes by reflecting on the status of conditional rights to social security as social rights.

Birth of a brain disease: science, the state and addiction neuropolitics.

This article critically interrogates contemporary forms of addiction medicine that are portrayed by policy-makers as providing a "rational" or politically neutral approach to dealing with drug use and related social problems. In particular, it examines the historical origins of the biological facts that are today understood to provide a foundation for contemporary understandings of addiction as a "disease of the brain." Drawing upon classic and contemporary work on "styles of thought," it documents how, in the period between the mid-1960s and the mid 1970s, such facts emerged in relation to new neurobiological styles of explaining and managing social problems associated with drug abuse, and an alliance between a relatively marginal group of researchers and American policy-makers who were launching the "War on Drugs." Beyond illustrating the political and material conditions necessary for the rise of addiction neuroscience, the article highlights the productivity of neurobiological thought styles, by focusing on the new biological objects, treatments and hopes that have emerged within the field of addiction studies over the last several decades.