Policy analysisMixing drink and drugs: ‘Underclass’ politics, the recovery agenda and the partial convergence of English alcohol and drugs policy
Introduction
Where policy is concerned, academic discussion of alcohol and illicit drugs frequently emphasises their disparities. As Bennett and Holloway (Bennett & Holloway, 2005:3) have commented, alcohol research and drugs research tend to be conducted by different groups of researchers and the resultant literatures do not regularly overlap. It is quite normal for research on drugs policy to be framed in regards to the divide between licit and illicit substances, or to make reference to alcohol and the (usually) more permissive policies which govern its consumption and trade, but more detailed comparison is rare. This is understandable, to a degree, as the criminal law upholds a ‘great regulatory divide’ (Seddon, 2010: 56) separating the licit trade in alcohol from the illicit trade in substances classified as either class A, B or C under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. But, in spite of this legal divide, there is a strong basis for a more comparative focus. Alcohol is usually understood to be a psychoactive and potentially addictive ‘drug’. Ever increasingly, its use has been connected to a broad array of social harms and, although disaggregating harms deriving from substance use from those deriving from the policy frameworks regulating substance use is challenging (see Rolles & Measham, 2011), its relative harmfulness has been compared to that of illicit drugs (Nutt et al., 2010, Nutt et al., 2007). These similarities suggest that, while unusual, it is feasible to compare social and political responses to the consumption of various licit and illicit substances.
One of the few academic studies which attempts this is Virginia Berridge's recent book Demons. This book examines the historical development of various expert discourses on alcohol, illicit drugs and tobacco, and considers the connections between these discourses and public policy. Importantly, Berridge's novel argument suggests that, despite some sharp historical divergences, subsequent shifts in understanding mean that policy responses to various substances, especially alcohol, illicit drugs and tobacco, may have moved closer together since the mid-20th century (Berridge, 2013). The “great regulatory divide” is seen by Berridge, not as monolithic and impermeable, but as nuanced and subject to historical change. This article picks up on Berridge's line of analysis and considers its connections to a broader behavioural politics, oriented towards the actions and lifestyles of an apparently problematic subgroup of the population or “underclass”, which has emerged from around the 1980s onwards (e.g. Murray, 1984, Murray, 1996a, Murray, 1996b). Political interest in an underclass is visible in various countries, notably Britain and the USA. The convergence in understandings highlighted by Berridge (2013), moreover, is identified within various Western countries as well as the actions of transnational bodies such as the World Health Organisation. While both central phenomena have a transnational dimension, this paper examines their relevance to some recent developments in alcohol and drugs policies in England. Specifically, the article considers how policy directions relating to both drugs and alcohol have, under the aegis of the recovery agenda, been connected to ongoing efforts to regulate the behaviour of an apparent underclass. The idea of historical convergence is thus investigated in respect to more recent policy developments in England.1
To do this, the article assesses the relevant policies of the New Labour Government (1997–2010) and the Coalition Government (2010–2015) and provides some preliminary comments on the directions adopted by the current Conservative Government (2015+). It examines key drugs and alcohol policy documents and considers the political discourse in which these have been framed. The article does not investigate policy implementation or impact, but instead concentrates primarily on the discursive level with a view to identifying how relevant policies concerning alcohol and illicit drugs are framed by central government. We maintain that analysing the framing of policy can be revealing with regards to comprehending how certain behaviours and social groups are constructed as problematic and how political interventions which target them are rationalised. The first section of the article outlines Berridge's analysis of the historical divergence and convergence of policies relating to alcohol and illicit drugs as well as introducing the notion of the underclass. We then discuss the recovery agenda, particularly with its initial focus on abstinence (Duke, 2013, Monaghan, 2012, Wardle, 2012). Here we acknowledge a schism between policy discourse and policy practice, but also suggest that via heightened conditionality, the ‘recovery’ of welfare claimants and offenders, often considered to be part of the underclass, is pursued more than that of other groups. It is in this scenario, we conclude, that a degree of convergence in alcohol and drugs policy is apparent.
Section snippets
Historical divergence and convergence
Berridge (2013) argues that a series of divergences and convergences have helped produce the discursive and regulatory situation that exists with regards to alcohol and drugs today. The most striking historical divergence is the advent of the “great regulatory divide” around the time of the First World War. The use of alcohol was legally restricted but widely practised in the Victorian period. Opium, and increasingly cannabis and cocaine, were also legally available and largely socially
The recovery agenda
The 2010 Drug Strategy, has at its core a desire to see so-called problematic drug and alcohol users undergo a ‘permanent change’ and come off drugs and alcohol for good. In doing so, they can ‘successfully contribute to society’, which can be understood as entering the paid labour market (UK Government, 2010:18). It is perhaps best encapsulated by the growing political discontent over methadone maintenance treatment as a key pillar of previous drug strategies. Indeed, the shift away from
Problematic behaviours of problematic populations
With conditionality in welfare and criminal justice targeting alcohol and drug users alike through a valorisation of abstinence, we are left with the task of explaining these trends. It is important to identify that those targeted by conditionality tend to belong to the more disadvantaged socio-economic groups. Obviously, the Work Programme and Universal Credit are welfare policies which are designed to deal with people who are out of work or on low incomes. Criminal justice interventions do
Conclusion
This paper has analysed illicit drugs and alcohol policies relating to an underclass with a view to exploring Berridge's (2013) idea of a convergence between government policies on certain psychoactive substances. It has examined a range of policies which have been followed by New Labour, the Coalition and, in a preliminary sense, the current Conservative Government. Of course, alcohol and illicit drugs policies remain separated by the thick line of the criminal law. But either side of this
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Emma Wincup, Katy Wright and Teela Sanders for their helpful comments on drafts of this article. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their feedback and advice.
Conflict of interest: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
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