Using drugs: The meaning of opiate substances and their consumption from the consumer perspective

Abstract

This article reports on the ethnographical study carried out among an opiate consumer community in Barcelona (Spain) and analyses the meanings that those consumers build and handle around the substances that they consume. Our approach emphasises the point of view of the consumers in their understanding of drugs and the type of relationships that they maintain between themselves and with their social environment.

• Drug consumption
• ethnography
• social meanings of drugs
• consumer understanding of drugs

Notes

Notes

1. All names are changed to preserve privacy.

2. The field diary is composed of five ‘passbooks’ or notebooks.

3. Community facility for activities for the young and elderly people.

4. The letter ‘L’ and the number followed by the date indicate the passbook containing the extract and the moment when the information was recorded. When it is an extract from interview, the annotation is the letter ‘E’ followed by the number of the interview and the date of performance. The annotations and transcriptions are taken in Catalan or Spanish depending on the mother tongue of each person, however, here we present them in English translation.

5. ‘Colega’ (‘Mate’) is the slang expression for peers.

6. The ‘therapeutic barter’ is the same, but when the consumer context is an institution or health centre. As a rule, consumers consider their relationship with the therapist as a barter: the therapist gives treatment, the dose of the substance, and in exchange, the consumer accepts the control and regulatory requirements of the centre.