Drugs, the democratic civilising process and the consumer society

The present article addresses the question of why drug use became an important phenomenon in the Western world and remained so. Even in scientific literature drug use is most often treated as ‘problematic’ behaviour. On the contrary, the present article argues that existing sociological models that have been used to grasp other cultural pursuits that are accepted as ‘normal’ and not as intrinsically ‘problematic’ can be fruitfully applied to understanding drug use. Two concepts will be discussed, namely that of Norbert Elias’ of the ‘civilising process’ and that of the ‘consumer society’. Firstly, the direction of the ‘civilising process’ has during the 20th century been for a part reversed. Though within boundaries set by continuing self-control, the body and the affects are readmitted into the public sphere. Drug use is part of this ambivalent phenomenon of ‘controlled de-control’. Secondly, the attractiveness of drugs expresses general preferences of the consumer society for the ‘wasteful’ and the ‘dream-like’; qualities which drugs epitomise in the most pronounced way.