Criminal Constructions Of Drug Users By Kevin Whiteacre

When examining drug use in American society, it can be said that it is met with generally negative attitudes. American society has typically frowned upon drug use, creating negative narratives and stigmas against the use of drugs. They have also employed various tactics to convince people not to use drugs, including the concept of drug scares. Drug scares are employed by different entities within American society throughout history in order to dissuade individuals from engaging in drug use and uphold negative attitudes towards drugs and drug users. Before delving into historical continuities of negative drug use, it is imperative that one understand the concept of drug scares and how it
In “Criminal Constructions of Drug Users”, Kevin Whiteacre explores how academia has contributed to the demonization of drugs and users. Instead of viewing drug use as something recreational, or something that provides “immediate, easy and certain short-term pleasure”, academia takes it upon itself to “explain drug use... Results in a continuous stream of publications showing whatever statistically significant (though rarely robust) differences between users and nonusers that can be found” (Whiteacre 5). Drug use is seen as something that inherently belongs to a group that has typically deviated from societal norms and practices. The distinction between users and nonusers can be seen as an Othering tactic which separates the deviants from the accepted members of society. Academia and criminology have been keen with focusing on particular groups of people within society in order to create negative attitudes towards them. Researchers have noted that “white (American) culture, in previous moral panics over some drugs, developed a fear of illicit drugs through their association with undesirable subgroups of society. Cocaine was linked to blacks, marijuana was linked to Mexican immigrants and opium was linked to Chinese Immigrants (Whiteacre 7). The fear of drugs and these groups of people can be attributed to prior research which has upheld prejudice and ignorance towards people of color in American society. The linkages of these communities of color to these drugs are symbolic, because it feeds into the racist and xenophobic mentality of white American culture. These communities, also composed of immigrants, are seen as a threat to the traditional, conservative culture that is maintained across American society. By Othering both drugs and communities of colors, researchers are upholding pre-existing biases and hegemonic ideas of drug use. The maintenance of these