Drugs: Perspectives in Social Sciences

Bia Labate & Frederico Policarpo

This book considers the practices and representations of the consumption of psychoactive substances. It discusses the theoretical and methodological instruments that enable us to deepen our understanding regarding the diversity of its uses, its social effects, and the institutional and informal controls that surround them. The starting point of our thought is to consider the coexistence of multiple discourses and practices about the so-called “drugs.” It is in this respect that both the strategies of control over the access, circulation, and the experiences of consumption, and those mobilized to ensure this consumption are examined side by side and treated with the same political and epistemological importance. With this relativistic perspective, our goal is to assure that no discourse or practice serves as an external referent to the description and interpretation of the other: What is said and done by the law and health care agents are as valid from the theoretical point of view as what is said and done by the persons who use ayahuasca, marijuana or crack. In this way, we hope to contextualize the “medical-legal” paradigm that informs the public policies on drugs nowadays. Going beyond a simple critique, the book is an invitation for an interdisciplinary dialogue; for this reason, the scope of objects and issues is broad and comprehensive. We hope that the articles of the book feed new debates and open new ground-breaking research... continue reading.