Against Drug Stigma
It is a commonly held misconception (in western, capitalist society) that drug addiction is the cause of social issues. As if drug addiction is the starting point or root cause from which all (or many) other social ills emerge, such as homelessness, crime, violence, and civil disorder. This is an untrue and harmful narrative that needs to be resisted.
Yes, drug use may play a role in these issues, but addiction is not the root cause of the problem; rather, it is the symptom of wider social ills that push people — people who are likely experiencing some form of personal crisis or trauma — into using drugs as a means of escape or relief from a life of harm and/or marginalization. Decades of neoliberal austerity reforms have gutted our social programs to a state of near non-existence, and drug use/abuse/addiction is just one response to that lack of support from a society which allows its people to slip between the cracks.
Drug addiction isn’t the real problem here. There’s nothing inherently wrong with addiction unless its resulting in harm. We tolerate a wide variety of drug addictions such as caffeine or alcohol, and we even provide safe consumption sites for both of those substances (i.e., cafes and bars). No, I don’t want to see any more people dying from drug use, but we cannot solve this problem by cracking down on or eliminating [certain] drugs from our cities, or by further villainizing, stigmatizing, and/or criminalizing drug-users or those who are experiencing homelessness.
I don’t think that we can realistically expect to make certain substances disappear, and I think that the only real way forward is to decriminalize (or even legalize) these substances. Alongside legalization, we need to ensure that there is a safe supply of these substances available, with supervised and sanitary consumption sites, so that people are less likely to die from the use of tainted substances and/or overdoses — which we see so often today because of the stigmatization or marginalization of drug users.
These changes wouldn’t necessarily address the cause of addiction, but I also don’t think that addiction is the issue that needs to be addressed in the first place. Again, we permit the use of [certain] drugs in our society without the associated negative stigma. Caffeine, alcohol, over the counter pharmaceuticals, and now cannabis. But we stigmatize other drugs as if there’s a moral or ethical dimension when it comes to what substances are permitted to make you feel better. Seth Rogen described this concept beautifully in his recent book Yearbook.
He talks about how we — human society — have developed many tools that make everyday existence easier on us, such as eyeglasses or walking shoes, and he feels that the use of cannabis is no different. Using that drug makes the basic act of existing easier for him (and many others). Why stop that? Why make life harder on people who benefit from these substances?
Drug use — under capitalism — is important to help us escape lives that can feel increasingly meaningless, exhausting, hostile, alienating, and/or lonely. Especially for those who are unable to afford access to meaningful work, affordable housing, or adequate mental health support. I also see drug use as being a crucial component to building a wider revolutionary consciousness across society because drugs provide us with an experience of escapism in a [capitalist] world that typically denies us the freedom to escape to different ways of thinking, feeling, or being.
Unless we can properly address other social issues that arise from the contradictions of capitalism, we will never end drug addiction because people will always seek pleasure or escape from the struggle and suffering of existence. Criminalizing drug use or destroying the supply of drugs only hurts those who genuinely need those substances to make it through the day.
