NCJ Number
161016
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 25 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1995) Pages: 629- 647
Date Published
1995
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper presents an ethnographic analysis of risk reduction efforts by the many groups in the United States that are devoted to the promotion of marijuana and psychedelic drugs.
Abstract
Data came mainly from newsletters, brochures, notices, and fundraising letters distributed by the groups themselves. The researcher examined these materials as cultural artifacts possessing important information about what the groups believe and how they operate. Additional data came from informal interviews with people in New Mexico and the San Francisco Bay area. Results revealed that groups as a whole do not advocate the indiscriminate use of these drugs, but instead offer information on how to use these drugs responsibly. They try not only to reduce the physical and psychological risks associated with drug use, but also to reduce what they believe to be the greater risks associated with draconian laws against drugs, overzealous law enforcement practices, and mainstream views about marijuana and psychedelic drugs that are based on misinformation and prejudice. A central belief among these groups is that citizens should have the constitutional right to alter their consciousness in whatever way they wish; they view responsible use of these drugs as a privacy issue. Notes and 51 references (Author abstract modified)