Drug Use in Australia: A Harm Minimisation Approach
edited by Margaret Hamilton, Allan Kellehear, Greg Rumbold
Oxford University Press, Australia, 1998

An introductory book containing essays about drugs and drug use in Australia that challenge the “prevailing” (?) judgemental, often insufferably simplistic views about drugs and drug use, and discuss instead the current “harm minimisation” approach, aimed mainly for tertiary students, but readable for general public.

It describes key local sociological & historical events, giving particular attention to specific social groups, e.g. Aboriginal people, women, and teenagers to young adults. Avoiding the minefield of moralistic, ideologically-driven arguments about whether drug use is inherently “bad” or “good”, it focuses instead on biosocial and cultural context and offers critical responses, acknowledging at the same time its possibilities and limitations. It also dispels the prevailing “grand theories” of a drug user as the sinner, the sick person and/or the social victim, pointing out the lack of cross-cultural evidence to support them and its consequences:

Grand theories encourage the moral view that the (deviant) drug user is, at worst, a villain, at best perhaps a member of the growing ranks of the walking wounded—the poor; the sick; the disabled; the mentally confused, morally disorderd, socially deranged hordes of twentieth-century modernity.

(Or a hedonist, an escapist, an irresponsible, no-good morally-corrupt delusional hippie presumed to be nothing but a simpleton who believes that s/he’s just acting “cool” and “alternative”, take your pick. Sorry, I digress.)

The book also describes the creation of myths surrounding drug use, concocted, exploited and enforced by major players to the general public to camouflage the underlying xenophobia, class, and economic & political interest often not immune to international pressures. How the decisions about which drugs should be legal and which ones should be banned have rarely been based on any scientific determination of innate risk or danger of the particular substance, and decades of uncritical acceptance left a legacy that in turn plays a crucial role as popular (electoral) supports.

Due to its publication date (and perhaps no assumption of reading/background in drug & alcohol studies), some of the explanations can be too repetitive (and rather solely preoccupied) in persuading the harm-minimisation approach, while historical accounts on drug wars are too basic. It would perhaps be a “challenging” & “provocative” with interesting perspectives only if you belong to Nancy Reagan’s “Just say no” club, but not if you’re looking for details. The chapters on treatment, education and training seem to be in need for further elaboration (although that could be due to the lack of reliable evaluations), and the drugs discussed tend to be limited on a few popular illicit drugs (e.g. not much on PCP, magic mushrooms, and ecstasy is only mentioned briefly) and alcohol. I find HHT’s Drugs: A Social History exhibition more informative (visuals help), but this book has been revised in 2nd edition in 2003, so maybe that’d be more up to date.