Drug Flashcards
The process of becoming user
Becker argues that ‘successful’ use that
it must be learned.
Learning takes place in three stages.
- Learning the technique
- Learning to perceive the effects
- Learning to enjoy the effects
In the course of this process he develops a disposition or motivation to use,
which was not and could not have been present when he began use, for it involves and depends on conceptions of the drug which could only grow out of the kind of actual experience detailed above.
On completion of this process he is willing and able to use it for pleasure.
Learning the technique
Learns to smoke it in a way
that will produce real effects
In the absence of technical know-how, Becker argues, the drug could not been seen as potentially pleasurable and ‘marijuana use was considered meaningless and did not continue’ (Becker, 1963: 48).
Learning to perceive the effects
Learns to recognize the effects
and connect them with drug use
The problem, Becker argues, is that the novice needs to learn to identify the drug effects. They are not self-evident, nor are they self-evidently connected with the intake of the drug.
The perception of the effects, therefore, must be pointed out by, and learned through, participation in the drug culture; that is, the novice learns what it is to be ‘under the influence’ from learned and influential members of the subculture.
Learning to enjoy the effects
Learns to enjoy the sensations he perceives
The chemically induced effects, Becker is saying, are ambiguous: the symptoms of being ‘high’ are not self-evidently pleasurable and, therefore, the marijuana user must literally learn the motivation for pleasure-seeking drug use in the course of using the drug (and not before).
The analysis of the cause
The analysis of the cause of marihuana use shows that
the individuals who come in contact with
a given object may
respond to it at first in a great variety of ways.
If a stable form of new behaviour
toward the object is to emerge,
a transformation of meanings must occur,
in which the person
develops a new conception of
the nature of the object.
This happens in a series of communicative acts
in which others point out new aspects
of his experience to him,
present him with new interpretations of events,
and help him achieve a new conceptual organisation of his world,
without which the new behaviour is not possible.
Explaining criminal
In fact,
learning any deviant or criminal role
reqires a social context
like the one Becker describes.
A person becomes criminal when the social interactions in which they participate produce a preponderance of definitions favourable to violation of law relative to definitions unfavourable of violation of law.
As criminal behaviour is learned, the learning process includes techniques of committing the crime, which vary from simple to complex, and the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.
Learning motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes is more important than learning techniques to engaging in criminal behaviour because it produces a willingness to engage in crime.
These people are acting criminally and
would be seen by many as ‘deviants’,
but within their own subcultures
their behaviour is seen as normal
and is governed by taken-for-granted rules of
interaction in much the same way
as other aspects of social life.
Like other aspects of social life
using marihuana is learned behaviour
which the individual is taught
through processes of socialisation.
Criteria for stopping
Persons who do not achieve the proper kind of conceptualisation are unable to engage in the given behaviour and turn off in the direction of some other relationship to the object or activity.
The act becomes impossible only
when the ability to enjoy the experience of
being high is lost,
through a change in the user’s conception of
the drug occasioned by certain kinds of
experience with it.
This suggests that behaviour of any kind might fruitfully be studied developmentally,
in terms of changes in
meanings and concepts,
their organisation and reorganisation,
and the way they channel behaviour,
making some acts possible
while excluding others.
Drug policies
Estimate the effectiveness of four major policies on drug control:
Controlling the drug trade abroad,
Stopping drugs at the border,
Arresting drug traders and users,
and
implementing drug prevention and treatment.
In one major governemnt-funded study,
“[t]reatment was found to be
seven times more cost-effective than law enforcement,
ten times more effective than interdiction,
and twenty-three times more effective than attacking drugs at their source”
(quoted in Massing et al., 1999: 14).
