Titre : | Quality control by cocaine users: underdeveloped harm reduction strategies (2001) |
Auteurs : | T. DECORTE |
Type de document : | Article : Périodique |
Dans : | European Addiction Research (Vol.7, n°4, December 2001) |
Article en page(s) : | 161-175 |
Note générale : | European Addiction Research, 2001, 7, (4), 161-175 |
Langues: | Anglais |
Discipline : | SHS (Sciences humaines et sociales / Humanities and social sciences) |
Mots-clés : |
Thésaurus mots-clés QUALITE ; COCAINE ; ETHNOGRAPHIE ; ADULTERANT ; REDUCTION DES RISQUES ET DES DOMMAGES ; DIFFUSION DES PRODUITS ; REVENDEUR ; PERCEPTION ; AMPHETAMINES ; USAGER ; RITUEL ; CROYANCEThésaurus géographique BELGIQUE ; PAYS-BAS |
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) |
Domaine : | Drogues illicites / Illicit drugs |
Refs biblio. : | 22 |
Affiliation : | Department of Penal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium |
Centre Emetteur : | 13 OFDT |
Cote : | Abonnement |
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