ABSTRACT
It is one of the paradoxes of Western, twentieth-century life that, although we have access to more information than ever before, the nature of our industrial society makes it harder to perceive other cultures except through categories which are largely inappropriate. This, in turn, makes it harder to see our own culture in comparative perspective. The case of what we call ‘drugs’ is an outstanding example. The term is used for a category of substances taken into the human body for purposes other than nutrition: ‘drug’, in this sense, is opposed to ‘food’. Its contemporary usage encompasses two broad areas of meaning: medicinal preparations and chemically similar compounds consumed primarily for hedonistic purposes —where changes in body chemistry are sought for their psychological rather than physiological effects. ‘Drugs’ of both kinds are typically controlled by law, either by a system of medical prescription or by legal proscription, with penalties for their unauthorized possession; and the use of psychoactive materials in a non-medical context tends therefore to be characterized as drug ‘abuse’. In this case, they are often described (particularly in American usage) as ‘narcotics’ —a term which more properly refers to substances causing sleep or insensibility, but which now usually carries implications of illegality.1 The fact that they are often associated with a range of social and medical problems, through their use by deprived or disturbed groups within society, colours the terms in which the substances themselves are described.
