Vida social de la cocaina

ENGLISH :
Cocaine is fashionable in Spain. The connecting thread of the study is the cultural dynamic that motivates cocaine use, and its growth, particularly among the young. The article results from qualitative research in five Spanish cities. Recreational establishments were observed and in-depth interviews -51 in total- were carried out with consumers in treatment, consumers not in treatment and professionals in the treatment centres. The analysis focused on the socially integrated collective. Three collectives have been highlighted, differentiated by the use and significance given to the substance: the "aristocratic" the "recreational" and the "hooked". The significance that cocaine goes on to acquire for the users in these collectives, use styles, the function of use in relation to users of other substances and non-users, the rituals of its purchase, the management of finances, the control and the risk and, finally, the entry into a treatment programme for some users and its minimal influence on those who continue to use are described. Cocaine acquires different significances which are nurtured in each group, becoming a substance related to pleasure, to having fun, a privileged ingredient of the ritual between friends, a fetish of important celebrations, a bait to be used in flirting, a trading lever, and malignant substance with the capacity for possession for those who enter into an addictive process. An understanding of cocaine use involves making a social diagnosis, presenting some of the more dominant values of our society - dominion of the individual, success, use, subordination of the means to the end, belief in the magical powers of technology. (Review's abstract.)