A Social Classification of Drug Use

Abstract

Established ways of classifying drugs cannot be assumed to provide a suitable basis for sociological analysis because they are typically rooted in medical or pharmacological perspectives. One of the best known pharmacological classifications distinguishes between stimulants, hallucinogens and depressants, but these categories are not readily applicable to the most commonly used illicit drugs. Cannabis and ecstasy, for example, defy precise pharmacological classification because they contain both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. An alternative approach is offered by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which classifies controlled substances according to their perceived dangerousness or harmfulness. Although this classification is sometimes used as a basis for sociological analysis its suitability for such a role remains open to doubt. As Sellin (1938: 23–4) noted some 70 years ago:

The unqualified acceptance of the legal definitions of the basic units or elements of criminological enquiry violates a fundamental criterion of science. The scientist must have freedom to define his own terms, based on the intrinsic character of his material… the acceptance of the categories of specific forms of ‘crime’ and ‘criminal’ as laid down in law renders criminological research theoretically invalid from the point of view of science.

It is not then the study of drugs in a vacuum, as isolated pharmacological effects, which will help us understand drug addiction; rather it is the social meanings ascribed to a particular drug in a specific society or culture that we must analyse (Young, 1971: 34).