The articles in this special issue of Contemporary Drug Problems reflect the many problematizing frameworks that have been applied to the consumption of mood-altering drugs at different times and in different locations. In contemporary public debate, drug consumption is variously addressed as a medical issue, a public health issue, a social issue, a law and order issue, and a moral issue. The resulting field of negative images and associations not only constitutes drug users as certain kinds of people, but is drawn upon to promote particular responses and to silence other possibilities. This editorial discusses a key site for the representation and reproduction of habitual and harmful drug use as a medical problem: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association.
展开▼
