Control Attitudes and Perceptions of Drug use: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Control attitudes represent opinions about the formal or informal control of a behavior by society. This study investigates control attitudes toward drug use based on data from semistructured in-depth interviews. The analysis shows that control attitudes toward drug use consist of a normative component (philosophical principles) and a perceptive component (perceptions of harm and perceptions of immorality). In particular, control attitudes are shaped by combinations of (1) libertarian principles and perceptions of harm to others, (2) paternalistic principles and perceptions of self-harm, and (3) moralistic principles and perceptions of immorality. The implications of the results in the study of normative culture are discussed.

Notes

¹The remaining behaviors were predominantly about sexual deviance (premarital sex, homosexuality, prostitution, group sex, polygamy, masturbation, pornography, extra-marital sex, incest, sex-change operation, and bestiality). The list also included drunk driving, driving without a seatbelt, suicide, gambling, abortion, euthanasia, and not helping another person in a dangerous situation. This list was used because the interviews were part of a larger project on victimless behaviors. In this study, only statements about drug use or statements that specify general principles are presented.

²Each participant was assigned a pseudonym, which is reported in the extracts.

³These categories were induced from statements that clearly showed a conceptual distinction among these kinds. The data contain other statements about self-harm that could not be classified under this scheme: Some expressed general concern about self-harm (without specifying type of harm) and some expressed concern about addiction in general (without specifying type of addiction). In some of the general addiction statements, the participants somehow, but not clearly, referred to physiological addiction. The most frequently mentioned substances in those statements were cocaine and heroin.

⁴In other occasions, the participants changed their mind (on control attitudes) after a few probe questions that (re)specified that the behavior would not harm the actor or other people. In those cases, the participants clearly stated that the only concern they had with that behavior was harm to the actor or other individuals. Those situations were interpreted in this analysis as libertarian or paternalistic statements (reported in previous parts).

⁵Note that this category of arguments differs from addiction and self-harm resulting from too much use.