NCJ Number
163938
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 25 Issue: 4 Dated: (Fall 1995) Pages: 799- 816
Date Published
1995
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This analysis of discussions of drug policies argues that the nature and emotional intensity of these discussions represent a reaction to the symbolic aspects of objects and that understanding or progress is impossible without an appreciation of the role of these elements in our perceptions.
Abstract
Aesthetic factors influence attitudes toward drug policy, and symbolic meanings are attached to the imagery of drugs. Thus, the war on drugs is a war about emotional imagery and contested symbols, particularly the idea of the boundary, a matter crucial to the metaphysics and social organization of Western society. At the same time, the failure to recognize that we are dealing with the symbolic realm hampers both drug users and legislative policy, because in many ways discussion of the drug problem is not discussion about drugs at all. The reification of symbols both causes and perpetuates the problems that are intended to be solved. The fetishization of the objects of drug use makes the law and the drug addict far more alike than often thought. 51 references (Author abstract modified)