DEVIANCE

1
DEVIANCE

• DRUGS

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HISTORY

• Intoxicants are part of a whole that consists of
  a particular type of music, life style and
  clothing as well as attitudes and ideologies.
  Viewed from a wider perspective intoxicants
  symbolize societal structures - they can be part
  of youth rebellion against adults authority or
  of a need to differentiate from other youth
  groups.

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CHRONOLOGY

• 1920s dope girls
• Emphasis on women uncontainable class
• Why discourse GILBERT -
• patrelineal succession ,
• women full citizenship.
• Demonology of dope girls due to profound social
  anxieties
• 1950s and 1960s drugs associated with youth
  culture cannabis, LSD, Acid empire big money
  (New York and San Francisco)
• Spreading of this culture due to travel and
  media.
• 1970s punk Speed cheap for the proletariat,
  rebels against the establishment

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• 1980s rise in heroin use and an association with
  young working class (underclass) people
  TRAINSPOTTING
• Rise of Crack Cocaine in USA associated with
  young black men.
• Cocaine and the yuppie culture.
• Late 1980s and 1990s Dance Culture (Also Known as
  the Second Drug Wave)
• Ecstasy
• Drug culture prevalent in Great Britain, Germany
  Holland and Italy.
• MORAL PANICS Within each time period the media
  have contributed to moral panics that have
  gripped the publics imagination.

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NORMALISATION

• Has there been a Normalisation of drug use?
• Argument for Normalisation.
• Aldridge (1999) Self Report Studies.
• 6/10 under 16 have tried an illicit drug
• 1.2 1.8 million 15-19 have experienced drugs
  (Post 1996)
• Therefore normative effect-
• No longer correlate drugs with race, class,
  gender, crime and delinquency

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• Parker (1998) G. Manchester and Merseyside from
  1991 till 1995 14-18yrs
• Findings- Exposure and experimentation rises
  with age.
• 6/10 had tried at least one drug by the age of
  18.
• For many young people taking drugs has become the
  norm and the prediction that over the next few
  years, and certainly in urban areas, non drug
  using adolescents will be a minority group. In
  one sense they will be the deviants (PARKER
  199526)

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Attitudes- Four Pathway Groups

• Abstainers
• Ex triers
• Transition
• Current users
• Post Modern society and leisure as consumption.

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• Therefore the normality of drug use amongst the
  young can be attributed to a number of areas-
• 1 Availability
• 2 Given and shared in many social settings
• 3 Therefore young people make drug decisions
  which make them drug wise
• 4 Cultural belief5 Risk Society (Calculated risk)
• 6 Cannabis most common (safe and cost
  effective)
• 7 Reluctant social acceptance (Co existence and
  accommodation)

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• 8 Post modernity emphasis on consumption,
  fracturing of morality and reshaping of class and
  gender relationships.
• Nowadays ecstasy is taken by people of various
  backgrounds, diverse sexual orientations and a
  wide range of educational backgrounds
• (Richard S Cohen (1998)The Love Drug)
• As soon as people realize that the majority of
  people in this country take drugs, then the
  better off we will all beDrugs is like getting
  up and having a cup of tea in the morning ( Noel
  Gallagher NME 29th January 1997)

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• Against Normalisation thesis.
• Michael Shiner and Tim Newburn(1999)
• Three questions need to be answered
• 1 How common is illicit drug use?
• 2 How have the levels of illicit drug use changed
  over time?
• 3 What are peoples attitude to illicit drug use?

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• Answer 1
• Although illicit drug use may be more prevalent
  amongst the young adolescent users do not
  outnumber non users. YLS indicates that 64 of
  14-25year olds have never used an illicit drug in
  their lives (Graham and Bowling 1995)
• Data to support the normalization thesis is
  flawed
• Failure to distinguish between current and ex
  users
• (Current use of drugs is based on behaviour
  during the previous year)
• Despite the status of cannabis being the nations
  favorite drug (see normalization thesis above)
  the BCS (1994) showed that less than a third of
  all 16-19 year olds are current cannabis users.
  Also-
• 3/100 16-24 have ever used cocaine
• 1/100 heroin
• 1/200 Crack

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• Answer 2
• Changing patterns of drug use show a fairly
  steady increase since 1950s There is no RADICAL
  break. Therefore there has been a period of
  evolution rather than radical fundamental
  structural shift as those who champion the
  normalization thesis would suggests

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• Answer 3
• Young peoples attitudes
• ISR 1996 drugs are ordered into a hierarchy of
  disapproval
• Restrictive attitudes are based upon concerns
  around-
• Health
• Finance
• Functioning in everyday life
• General criminality
• (Shiner and Newburn 1996)
• Also Peer Selection (Coggans and McKellar 1994)

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How should society and the government deal with
the drug phenomena?

• Change/ Libertarians- those who advocate
  decriminalization
• Criminalizing normally law abiding citizens.
• Crime without a victim
• why should the government tell society what to
  do?
• Rowntree these people are not losers just part
  of the consumer lifestyle
• decriminalizing could regulate purity
• violent crime and illegal profit would disappear

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• Anti Change those who argue that changes in the
  structure of society are needed
• Focus on inner city users not recreational
• Geoff Pearson (1997) legalization misses the
  point of economic deprivation
• Elliot Currie (1993) urban and family decline
• Mike Davies (1990)- LA drugs gangs
  restructuring of local and global economies
• Therefore legalization would produce more drug
  misuse, accelerate urban decline

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Labour Government Drug Strategies

• 1 To stifle availability of drugs on our
  streets
• 2 To help young people resist drug misuse , to
  achieve their full potential in society
• 3 To enable people with drugs problems to
  overcome them and lead healthy and crime free
  lives
• 4 To protect our communities from drug related
  anti social and criminal behviour