Drugspeak: The Analysis of Drug Discourse

Drugspeak The Analysis of Drug Discourse describes the way in which conversations between drug users vary and change according to context and circumstance in ways that suggest that there is no single truth about the state we call addicted. The central thesis of the book is that the explanations that drug users give for their drug use make sense not so much as sources of facts, but as primarily functional statements shaped by a climate of moral and legal censure. Consequently the significance of drug conversations lies not in their literal semantics but in the purposes such conversations serve. The argument raises a number of fundamental issues about the performative rather than the informative nature of language, about the nature of the scientific facts concerning drug use, and about the very nature of science itself. Starting with a general overview of the problems arising from a mechanistic and deterministic view of science, the book identifies a need for a new approach to the un