Chapter 15 The Social Constructions Of Drug Scares

Question 1

Summary of Craig Reinarman The social constructions of drug scares

Answer 1

Author Outline

Introduction
Drug scares and drug laws
Toward a culturally-specific theory of drug scares
According to Reinarman, 7 components of drug scare

A Kernel of Truth
Media Magnification
Politico-Moral Entrepreneurs
Professional Interest Groups
Historical Context of Conflict Linking a Form of Drug Use to a “Dangerous Class”
Scapegoating a Drug for a Wide Array of Public Problems
Functions of drug scares for various stakeholders:

can help elites increase the social control of groups perceived as threatening (Duster. 1970)
establish one class’s moral code as dominant (Gusfield. 1963)
bolster a bureaucracy’s sagging fiscal fortunes (Dickson. 1968)
mobilize voter support (Reinarman and Levine.1989)
By why so resonant?

Vocabulary of attribution that fits with cultural ideals of blaming individuals rather than situations
“Temperance Culture”: US history growing out of protestant/capitalist emphasis on self control makes “losing control” morally bad
On foundation of temperance culture a postmodern mass consumption culture
Reinarman wants to argue that the kind of capitalism that developed in US requires a constant expansion of self-indulgence and that this interacts with the temperance culture to create a contradiction/strain which periodically breaks out in drug scares.