Premium
Debate Pollution rituals in Sweden: the pursuit of a drug‐free society
Author(s) -
Gould A.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 0907-2055
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2397.1994.tb00062.x
Subject(s) - drug , criminology , consumption (sociology) , political science , subject (documents) , order (exchange) , environmental health , sociology , psychology , medicine , business , psychiatry , social science , computer science , finance , library science
The logic of Sweden's restrictive drug policy has led its advocates to promote increasingly extreme measures. Making the consumption of drugs not only a criminal offence but an imprisonable one has enabled the authorities to subject suspected drug users to urine and blood tests. This extreme policy can be understood as a response by a society so obsessed by health, cleanliness and order that drug use has taken on symbolic significance. In its determination to rid the social body of drugs, the Swedish authorities have shown that they will seek our pollution by whatever measures available. In doing so they are in danger of becoming repressive and intolerant.