Book Review: Drug Ethnography in the United Kingdom

摘要

For most people, when the word "crack cocaine" is mentioned, the image that immediately springs to mind is that of a young African American living in a deprived inner urban area in the United States. Crack use in South London is not what we can imagine immediately. In fact, given the recent interest in drugs and the nighttime economy in the United Kingdom, we might be more inclined to think about ecstasy or concerns with legal highs. But by reading Daniel Briggs' study of people who use crack cocaine, these images will certainly begin to alter. In charting the lives of people who use crack in South London, Briggs sets out to correct our understanding of the crack scene which "remains limited to the United States." His book is a very detailed and readable, albeit disturbing, account of one group of crack cocaine users in the United Kingdom. In the tradition of previous drug studies by ethnographic researchers as well as other ethnographies of the economically deprived sectors of the U.S. cities (e.g., Bourgois, 1995; Maher, 1997; Sterk, 1999; Williams, 1989), Briggs has produced a finely nuanced ethnography of drug use among a highly marginalized group of people. Such an understanding of crack users, their social relationships, and their identities is important for an overall understanding of contemporary drug use in the United Kingdom and also for providing a slight corrective to the current interest in alcohol and other drug use among mainstream youth.