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Psychoactive Drug Pleasure: Ask a drug user why they started/kept using & you’ll likely hear: I liked it. Why do we struggle to talk about drugs & pleasure in the U.S., especially in our research? #TwitterDrugSchool #CriticalDrugStudies @MattPembleton @dhbuffalo #DruggedHistory
To talk about pleasure may ignore addiction, a devastating disorder. Yet, 90% all drug users don’t suffer substance use disorder (SUD). We over-represent people w/ SUD as all users. Why do we ignore the majority of PWUD in research? (data same % 2017) #TwitterDrugSchool 2/12
PWUD don’t talk abt drug use because prohibition & medical authority silence users. We freely talk about enjoying drugs like alcohol. Drinkers know what they imbibe & hopefully practice harm reduction. Pleasure, along w/ collateral outcomes, is the point. #TwitterDrugSchool 3/12
Marijuana policy reform went past medical access to recreational access to fit all uses for MJ. Pleasure was imp. enough to change drug policy in 10+ states. Pleasure matters & motivates drug use. Users make rational, informed choices, & express agency. #TwitterDrugSchool 4/12
Some researchers writing about drugged pleasure: Kane Race, Susanne Fraser, Kylie Valentine, Craig Reinarman, Cameron Duff, Helen Keane, Tristan Duncan, Robin Bunton, Richard Hammersley, Thompson/Coveney, (cont.) #TwitterDrugSchool 5/12 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09581596.2017.1309356
Some researchers writing abt drugged pleasures cont.: Kane Race, Susanne Fraser, Kylie Valentine, Christopher BR Smith, Sarah MacLean, Geoffrey Hunt, Carl L. Hart. @GlobalDrugSurvey has a net pleasure index. #TwitterDrugSchool 6/12
https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/past-findings/the-net-pleasure-index-results/
https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/past-findings/the-net-pleasure-index-results/
This subset of #CriticalDrugStudies hardly permeates public health/addiction research. With OD crisis, deep anxiety, & the cont. waging of a drug war, it is a hard sell. Result: we fail to research & make drug policy that reflects what people do. #TwitterDrugSchool 7/12
Pleasure & drugs is like the chicken & egg dilemma. Hamilton & Aldridge argue that we can’t investigate drug pleasure while politicians & others w/ influence over policy deny that drug-induced pleasure is possible. #TwitterDrugSchool 8/12 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/drug-use-abuse-marijuana-lsd-cocaine-drugs-research-a8817521.html
People w/ SUD deserve research & support. Studying self-regulating users will help understand SUD, drugs, & wide range of drug use practices. Focusing research funding on SUD vs. motives & benefits of drug use, sustains a distorted view of drugs/PWUD. #TwitterDrugSchool 9/12
Those who don’t use drugs or who can’t be open about their use dominate research & policy discussions. “Epistemic injustice,” (Miranda Fricker) or “nothing about us without us” is critical not just to all policy reform, but to understanding drugs & PWUD. #TwitterDrugSchool 10/12
How can #CriticalDrugStudies & #Drugged history weigh in? Demand PWUD be part of study design. Ask what Qs aren’t being asked. Understand that much of what we think we know about drugs in mainstream American academy is partly or flat out wrong. #TwitterDrugSchool 11/12
PWUD like me w/ privilege can “frame one’s situated experience as a viable position from which to make critical claims & compelling interventions into given regimes of knowledge.” Our voices are needed. #TwitterDrugSchool #DruggedHistory 12/12 https://www.academia.edu/9176993/Cultural_Studies_Perspectives_on_Drugs_and_Alcohol_
Link to article about situating one's lived experience in drug research: https://www.academia.edu/9176993/Cultural_Studies_Perspectives_on_Drugs_and_Alcohol_
