Problematizing “Drugs”: A Cultural Assessment of Recreational Pharmaceutical Use among Young Adults in the United States

Abstract

Recent trends in the recreational use of pharmaceuticals among young adults in the United States highlight a number of issues regarding the problematization of drugs. Two constructions of recreational pharmaceutical use are analyzed. On the one hand, categorical frameworks based upon epidemiological data are created by institutions and media and depict recreational pharmaceutical use as illicit in unqualified, absolute terms. This is done through discourses that equate nonmedical pharmaceutical use with culturally established forms of illicit drug use. On the other hand, users’ multi-dimensional constructions of recreational pharmaceutical use emphasise social context, personal experience, and individual risk perceptions. The problematization of recreational pharmaceutical use points to intergenerational conflicts, as well as to struggles over definitions of “drug abuse” and “hard drugs”, and highlights the impact of pharmaceuticalization on recreational drug use among young people.

Misperceptions of Peer Pill-Popping: The Prevalence, Correlates, and Effects of Inaccurate Assumptions About Peer Pharmaceutical Misuse

“…This study demonstrates the significant potential for extending perceived social norms prevention efforts to substances other than alcohol and marijuana. Such efforts could easily address two categories of misperceptions that contribute to recreational pharmaceutical use; the misperceptions of safety noted by other studies (Quintero, 2012;Quintero & Bundy, 2011) and these misperceptions of peer behaviors noted here. By addressing these misperceptions, it could be possible to realize the same success seen by alcohol social norm interventions (Haines & Spear, 1996;Glider, Midyett, Mills-Novoa, Johannessen, & Collins, 2001;Gomberg, Schneider, & Dejong, 2001).…”

“…Prescription drugs may even be seen as more socially acceptable than all substances other than alcohol and marijuana (Quintero, 2012). Young adults and teenagers may be more inclined to misuse prescription drugs because it is consistent with what they perceive to be the attitudes of their peer group.…”

“…One reason young people choose to experiment with pharmaceutical misuse is linked to the widespread availability of pharmaceuticals, while a second is tied to a false sense of safety due to their status as a sanctioned medication (Compton & Volkow, 2006). Many may be unaware of the risks and consequences of pharmaceutical misuse and, while they do occasionally access online information about dosages, indications, effects, and side effects (Quintero, 2012), they may utilize biased sources that only serve to intensify the false pretense of safety. Potentially further compounding this issue is the misperception that pharmaceutical use is common among their peers or even represents the normative behavior.…”

Opioid pharmacotherapy: Treatment, regimes, constructions and control

“…Rather than drug use producing physical, psychological and social harm, it is drug use which contributes to normal functioning in the presence of disabling pain. However the problem of opiate addiction, especially the potential for iatrogenic addiction resulting from the treatment of chronic pain remains a central concern, especially now that prescription painkillers have become so strongly associated with recreational abuse (Quintero, 2012). In contrast to the regulatory discourse of drug control, pain management tends to focus on addiction as a property of individuals rather than a property of substances.…”

“…Over the past decade and a half, in the wake of increased prescription rates, opiate medications, including those mentioned in the NIDA passage quoted earlier, have been linked with increasing rates of dependence and overdose (Compton & Volkow, 2006;Quintero, 2012). Concerns about painkiller abuse have prompted a return to a discourse of addiction which identifies addictiveness as an inherent property of all opiates, whatever their context of use.…”