{"title":"阿片类药物危机中的毒品耻辱、消费文化和企业权力","authors":"Liviu Alexandrescu","doi":"10.1177/00914509241254784","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Recent efforts to rethink drug-related stigma have been increasingly considering the power dimension of the concept, to show how stigma formations flow top-down from governments, as well as other political or corporate stakeholders, towards the powerless and marginalised. Stigma attaches itself to the individual and collective identities of the substance-using subject. But it equally alters the multiple lives of the substance. In the US opioid crisis of recent decades, big pharma companies could be seen lobbying the medical profession and harnessing their power to destigmatise opioid painkillers, as part of wider marketing and sales strategies. This has been subsequently linked with rising opioid-related fatalities and spiralling harms among some of the most vulnerable groups. This theoretical paper locates the object-stigma of drugs between the cultural confines of ‘limbic capitalism’ (the drive to seek pleasure and meaning through consumption) and ‘palliative capitalism’ (the drive to pathologise and medicate ills attributed to the individual, but not the system). It argues that stigma should be viewed as a dynamic force which, under the guise of consumer culture and the veil of scientific rationality, can be manipulated by business elites to shift meanings around pain, pleasure, and addiction, in ways that are potentially conducive to social harms.","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Drug Stigma, Consumer Culture, and Corporate Power in the Opioid Crisis\",\"authors\":\"Liviu Alexandrescu\",\"doi\":\"10.1177/00914509241254784\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Recent efforts to rethink drug-related stigma have been increasingly considering the power dimension of the concept, to show how stigma formations flow top-down from governments, as well as other political or corporate stakeholders, towards the powerless and marginalised. Stigma attaches itself to the individual and collective identities of the substance-using subject. But it equally alters the multiple lives of the substance. In the US opioid crisis of recent decades, big pharma companies could be seen lobbying the medical profession and harnessing their power to destigmatise opioid painkillers, as part of wider marketing and sales strategies. This has been subsequently linked with rising opioid-related fatalities and spiralling harms among some of the most vulnerable groups. This theoretical paper locates the object-stigma of drugs between the cultural confines of ‘limbic capitalism’ (the drive to seek pleasure and meaning through consumption) and ‘palliative capitalism’ (the drive to pathologise and medicate ills attributed to the individual, but not the system). It argues that stigma should be viewed as a dynamic force which, under the guise of consumer culture and the veil of scientific rationality, can be manipulated by business elites to shift meanings around pain, pleasure, and addiction, in ways that are potentially conducive to social harms.\",\"PeriodicalId\":35813,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Contemporary Drug Problems\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-05-15\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Contemporary Drug Problems\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509241254784\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"SUBSTANCE ABUSE\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Contemporary Drug Problems","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509241254784","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"SUBSTANCE ABUSE","Score":null,"Total":0}
Drug Stigma, Consumer Culture, and Corporate Power in the Opioid Crisis
Recent efforts to rethink drug-related stigma have been increasingly considering the power dimension of the concept, to show how stigma formations flow top-down from governments, as well as other political or corporate stakeholders, towards the powerless and marginalised. Stigma attaches itself to the individual and collective identities of the substance-using subject. But it equally alters the multiple lives of the substance. In the US opioid crisis of recent decades, big pharma companies could be seen lobbying the medical profession and harnessing their power to destigmatise opioid painkillers, as part of wider marketing and sales strategies. This has been subsequently linked with rising opioid-related fatalities and spiralling harms among some of the most vulnerable groups. This theoretical paper locates the object-stigma of drugs between the cultural confines of ‘limbic capitalism’ (the drive to seek pleasure and meaning through consumption) and ‘palliative capitalism’ (the drive to pathologise and medicate ills attributed to the individual, but not the system). It argues that stigma should be viewed as a dynamic force which, under the guise of consumer culture and the veil of scientific rationality, can be manipulated by business elites to shift meanings around pain, pleasure, and addiction, in ways that are potentially conducive to social harms.
期刊介绍:
Contemporary Drug Problems is a scholarly journal that publishes peer-reviewed social science research on alcohol and other psychoactive drugs, licit and illicit. The journal’s orientation is multidisciplinary and international; it is open to any research paper that contributes to social, cultural, historical or epidemiological knowledge and theory concerning drug use and related problems. While Contemporary Drug Problems publishes all types of social science research on alcohol and other drugs, it recognizes that innovative or challenging research can sometimes struggle to find a suitable outlet. The journal therefore particularly welcomes original studies for which publication options are limited, including historical research, qualitative studies, and policy and legal analyses. In terms of readership, Contemporary Drug Problems serves a burgeoning constituency of social researchers as well as policy makers and practitioners working in health, welfare, social services, public policy, criminal justice and law enforcement.