Historique
Article de Périodique
Quality control by cocaine users: underdeveloped harm reduction strategies (2001)
Auteur(s) :
DECORTE, T.
Année :
2001
Page(s) :
161-175
Langue(s) :
Anglais
Refs biblio. :
22
Domaine :
Drogues illicites / Illicit drugs
Thésaurus mots-clés
QUALITE
;
COCAINE
;
ETHNOGRAPHIE
;
ADULTERANT
;
REDUCTION DES RISQUES ET DES DOMMAGES
;
DIFFUSION DES PRODUITS
;
REVENDEUR
;
PERCEPTION
;
AMPHETAMINE
;
USAGER
;
RITUEL
;
CROYANCE
Thésaurus géographique
BELGIQUE
;
PAYS-BAS
Note générale :
European Addiction Research, 2001, 7, (4), 161-175
Résumé :
The use of any drug involves both values and rules of conduct (social sanctions) and patterns of behavior (social rituals). Based on an ethnographic study (1996-1999) among 111 cocaine users from the metropolitan area of Antwerp (Belgium), the self-regulatory mechanisms surrounding the methods of controlling the quality of a drug are described. Users' perceptions of reliable and unreliable sources of cocaine, quality and adulteration of cocaine and quality control techniques are confronted with objective information. It is argued that these informal control mechanisms may be crucial factors in the controlled use of any intoxicant, but myths are an important ingredient of the observed rituals, which indicates that knowledge about certain drugs and the best ways to use them in a safe way is still underdeveloped. Users are left to their own folk-experimental devices for testing tools or techniques, and many aspects of the natural processes of social learning are generally not based on objective information. Future harm reduction interventions should therefore also stimulate the development and dissemination of effective informal control mechanisms among illicit drug users. (Author's abstract)
Affiliation :
Department of Penal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Cote :
Abonnement