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Talking About Drugs: Towards a More Reasoned Debate

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorLouise Sturgeon-Adams
Pages35-45
35
TALKING ABOUT DRUGS: TOWARDS A MORE
REASONED DEBATE
Louise Sturgeon-Adams, Lecturer in Community Justice, Department of Social Sciences,
University of Hull
Abstract
This article aims to outline and discuss a number of issues that arise from the current
popular conceptualisations of ‘the drug problem’. It is argued that debates foc us on ‘taken-
for-granted’ understandings of key terms and concepts, and in doing so, fail to grasp the
complexities of the ways in which the drug problem is currently understood. The article
therefore discusses current popular di scourse by exploring the ways in which key terms are
employed, and ho w these serve to simplify the issues concerned, and, at the same time to
establish false divisions; key amongst these is the division between legal and illegal drugs.
This article argues that it is only in acknowledging these complexities and contradictions
that the debate can move forward.
British Journal of Community Justice
©2013 Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
ISSN 1475-0279
Vol. 11(1):35-46

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