Social Value of Drug Addicts
Subtitle: Uses of the Useless
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9781611321173
Subjects: Social values; Drug abuse; Drug addicts
Description: "Drug users are typically portrayed as worthless slackers, burdens on society, and just plain useless--culturally, morally, and economically. By contrast, this book argues that the social construction of some people as useless is in fact extremely useful to other people. Leading medical anthropologists Merrill Singer and J. Bryan Page analyze media representations, drug policy, and underlying social structures to show what industries and social sectors benefit from the criminalization, demonization, and even popular glamorization of addicts. Synthesizing a broad range of key literature and advancing innovative arguments about the social construction of drug users and their role in contemporary society, this book is an important contribution to public health, medical anthropology, popular culture, and related fields"--