Premium
Symbolism and racism in drug history and policy
Author(s) -
MANDERSON DESMOND
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1080/09595239996617
Subject(s) - opium , symbol (formal) , racism , context (archaeology) , meaning (existential) , criminology , sociology , deviance (statistics) , metaphor , race (biology) , law , gender studies , history , political science , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , archaeology , psychotherapist
The modern history of drug regulation began 100 years ago with the enactment of laws prohibiting the smoking of opium. In Australia and elsewhere, these laws manifested a fear of Chinese immigration. It was not opium as a substance with particular health effects which concerned the community, but opium as a symbol of transgression which the Chinese presence had elicited. Opium was prohibited because it represented an amalgam of race, sex and fear. This symbolic meaning was developed through the use of metaphor and metonymy. The author examines the way in which these strategies were deployed in the particular context of Australian anti‐opium laws. Drug laws continue to be about symbols and not substances, and are still and not least an expression of racism and fears of difference