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Abstract
Drug use is a transient rather than a fixed range of practices. Drug markets are constantly evolving as substances, both old and new, move in and out of fashion. If we are to understand this process of evolution, it must be placed against a background of consumer capitalism. Building on the author’s previous work, this article seeks to move beyond existing theories to examine the nexus of drug use, pleasure and consumerism. This article draws upon a Žižekien account of the unconscious and the ontology of desire. Drawing on ultra-realism this article responds to the call for new theories of drug use to replace the old and outdated theories of the sixties and seventies. Beginning with the claim that we cannot properly grasp ‘real-life developments’ unless we examine ‘the self-propelling metaphysical dance of Capital that runs the show’ this article positions drug use in relation to the key ideological demands of neoliberalism and its subjectivities, including its damaged subjectivities.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Simon Winlow not only for encouraging me to write this article, but also for his input, guidance and invaluable feedback/comments, which helped to make this paper what it is. Your continued support and guidance is much appreciated. The author would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their positive and constructive comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The author acknowledges that the term addict/addiction is controversial and problematic, but it is used to illustrate the theoretical argument being proposed and to distinguish between controlled and uncontrolled AOD use (also problematic terms).
2 Transcendental materialism recognises ‘all humans are, paradoxically, hard-wired for plasticity, which carries a natural tendency to dysfunctionality’ (Hall & Winlow, Citation2015, p. 111).
3 Linnemann and Medley’s (Citation2022, p. 1) palliative capitalism ‘describes a set of social relations in which legal pharmaceutical drugs and their producers, marketers and distributors profit from treating or attempting to treat the conditions that neoliberal capitalism creates.’
4 People can pay to go on luxurious ayahuasca retreats in search of spirituality, self-enlightenment and psychic self-improvement.
5 ‘The Lacanian theory of the mirror stage: only by being reflected in another man - that is, in so far as this other man offers it an image of its unity – can the ego arrive at its self-identity’ (Žižek, Citation1989, p. 20).
6 Split between conscious and unconscious thought.
7 According to Žižek (1989, p. 70) ‘the Real is in itself a hole, a gap, an opening in the middle of the symbolic order— it is the lack around which the symbolic order is structured’. It cannot be symbolised or represented.
8 This is because they have no firm ‘position from which one can make sense of one’s world’ (Dean, Citation2009, p. 67).
9 To encourage excessive consumption and intoxication the market offers a diverse array of substances – alcopops and shots - designed to be consumed quickly in vast quantities as the sweetness disguises the very high alcohol content (Smith, Citation2014)
10 Red wine (Hough, Citation2010) and champagne (Ky & Drouard, Citation2006) consumed in moderation can be beneficial to health.
11 For example, a glass of wine after a hard day at work or a cigarette to relieve stress/tension.
12 Libidinally alive with excess drug-induced jouissance but excluded from society.
13 Some good examples come from the USA, where drug addicts are being left to die as one state introduced a three-strikes-style policy for people who repeatedly overdose, which means those who had received overdose treatment twice in the past would not have an ambulance sent to resuscitate them or receive life-saving medication (Wootson, Citation2017).
14 E.g., we ignore the harmful side effects of prescribed pharmaceutical drugs; drug-testing technologies; and doctors that over prescribe drugs and harm their patients (Dyer, Citation2004; Singer & Baer, Citation2009; Taylor et al., Citation2020).
15 Many of these substances contain banned and dangerous ingredients, very little is known about some of them (e.g. safe levels of use/concentrations), let alone how they interact with each other or metabolise in the body, which is particularly problematic since people consume several products together (Evans-Brown et al., Citation2012; Maughan, Citation2013; Tucker et al., Citation2018).
16 The Drug Apartheid is a hierarchical system of segregation that privileges certain drug markets whilst criminalising others (see Taylor et al. Citation2016).
17 E.g. ecstasy tablets and cocaine bricks are stamped with legitimate luxury corporate brands like Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Gucci. Corporate designer and luxurious brands also piggy-back on illicit drugs (e.g. Calvin Klein’s heroin chic) as transgression has been subsumed by capitalism.
18 Drug sellers adopt similar strategies implemented in the promotion and sale of legitimate substances like coffee and tea.