Drug users are usually portrayed as useless slackers, burdens on society, and just plain useless—morally, culturally, and economically. By contrast, , The Social Value of Drug Addicts, (PDF) argues that the social construction of some people as impractical is in fact extremely useful to other people. Leading medical anthropologists J. Bryan Page and Merrill Singer analyze media representations, drug policy, and primary social structures to show what industries and social sectors benefit from the criminalization, demonization, and even common glamorization of addicts. Synthesizing a wide range of key literature and advancing innovative arguments about the social construction of drug users and their part in contemporary society, this ebook is an important contribution to public health, popular culture, medical anthropology, and related fields.
Review
“In The Social Value of Drug Addicts: Uses of the Useless, J. Bryan Page and Merrill Singer present a sweeping analysis of popular representations of drug use and drug users in U.S. culture…In making such a contribution, J. Bryan Page and Merrill Singer continue to fortify their legacy as scholars who have tried to talk wisdom to us about our society’s most damaging habits of social distinction.”― Jennifer J. Carroll, American Anthropologist
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