Sociology of Legal & Illegal Drug Use (UiO Fall 2026)

Erving Goffman (1968) Stigma

An attribute that is a deeply discrediting situation, causing the individual to be disqualified from full social acceptance

Types of Stigmas (Goffman)

Tribal Stigmas (e.g., race, ethnicity, and religion)

Physical Deformities (e.g., deafness, blindness, and leprosy)

Blemishes of Character (e.g., homosexuality, addiction, and mental illness)

Link & Phelan (2001) Co-Occurrences of 4 Processes to Stigma

(1) Labeling human differences

(2) Stereotyping such differences

(3) Separating those labeled from “us,” AND

(4) Status loss and discrimination against those labeled

5 Key Dimensions of Normalization of Illegal Drug Use (Parker et al. 1998)

(1) Increased availability

(2) Increased drug trying rates

(3) Increased drug-usage rates

(4) Accommodating attitudes towards “sensible” recreational drug use (especially by non-users)

(5) A degree of cultural accommodation to illegal drug use

Shiner & Newborn Criticism of Normalization Theory

Normalization theory exaggerates the increase and extent of illicit drug use; normative behavior is not necessarily the most frequently occurring pattern, but is that which conforms to popular expectation

Compromise of Normalization Criticisms (Measham & Shiner)

Drug use is a result of complex and fluid interplay between structure and agency, which can be understood in terms of “situated choice” or “structured action”

Subcultures

Groups of people that are in some way represented as non-normative and/or marginal through their particular interests and practices, through what they are, what they do, and where they do it.

Created through a collection of rituals, stories, and symbols. Revolve around certain perceptions of the world and are often linked to general cultural currents in society.

Symbols

Sign, an object, an event or a material object that refers to or represents something other or more than itself

Rituals

Prescribed formal behavior for occasions not given over to technological routine, having reference to beliefs in mystical beings or powers

Stories

Organize social experiences so they are comprehensible and provide meaning; subcultures are primarily created and repeated through

Markets

Where transactions take place

The exchange of goods for money under competition

Arenas of regular voluntary exchange of goods or services for money under conditions of competitions

Illegal Market

When the product itself or the exchange of it violates legal stipulations, and both sides know

Market Types

Open Markets (Public Markets)

Semi-Open Markets

Closed Markets (Private Markets)

Economic Sociology

Economic processes as a category of social action: economic transactions are embedded in networks of social relations & required investments are therefore not only economic in nature (they also build trust)

Combines the focus on the market/economy with the importance of the social side

Illegal Markets & Economic Sociology

Illegality deprives actors of legal protection

Needs t be a reason for why an illegal market exists

4 Types of Illegal Markets

(1) Illegality due to the outlawing of the production of specific goods or services

(2) Illegality of the market exchange of an otherwise legal product

(3) Illegality of exchange due to theft or product forgery

(4) Illegality due to violation of regulatory stipulations

Online Markets

Clearnet Markets (websites, forums)

Darknet Markets (crypto markets)

Social Media (encrypted and non-encrypted)

Online-Offline Drug Markets

Acknowledge the everydayness of “the digital” in illegal activities

Considers the physical context, offline relations, and societal context

While seeing the “newness” of digital interaction

Drug Control

The informal and formal control of substance use

Universal regulations, domestic regulations, on the ground police forces, street regulations, etc.

Drug Control

Intended consequences: prohibiting spread of use, offering help to those in need

Unintended consequences: harm and inequality

Drug Reform

Depenalization, diversion, and decriminalization

"Punishment” in Diversion Programs

(1) Deprivation of time

(2) Deprivation of social bonds (unable to connect with people)

(3) Deprivation of dignity (loss of dignity when someone is constantly being watched, even in private instances)

(4) Deprivation of “self”

Habitus (Bourdieu)

A subjective but not individual system of internalized structures, schemes of perception, conception, and action common to members of the same group or class

Productive Stigmas? (Bayer, 2008)

If a stigma moves people to act/change behavior that ultimately improves their health

All kinds of regulations meant to promote health have an aspect of paternalism to them

How Will E-Cigarettes Affect Health Inequalities? (Thirlway, 2018)

Bourdieu’s concept of struggle for distinction: has driven the social gradient in smoking—middle class took up smoking to distinguish themselves from the working class, left for the same reasons

E-cigarettes are compatible with middle class and working-class habitus in different ways: solve middle class “cleft habitus,” compatible with working class habitus of sociable hedonism & family responsibility to stay healthy

Illegal Drug Use in Club Settings—Reith

“…drug users walk the tightrope between the chaos of addiction and the order of sobriety, between the urge to indulge in excessive behavior and the simultaneous need to exercise self control.”

Edgeworks

“…the ability to maintain control over a situation that verges on complete chaos…get as close as possible to the edge without going over it.” (Lyng)

Concept of negotiating with drugs between chaos and order

Controlled Loss of Control: desired state of intoxication they wish to acheive

Effervescence (Durkheim)

Intense shared energy, excitement, and emotional unity people experience when they gather together for a common purpose or ritual

“A condition of heightened intersubjectivity, marked by intense emotions, a strong sense of communion and acts of transgression”

“A sort of electricity is formed by their collecting which quickly transports them to an extraordinary degree of exaltation”

Emotional Energy

Individuals seek this, it operates as the common denominator in terms of which choices are made among alternative courses of action. Individuals apportion their investments in work and in ritual participation to maximize their overall flow of this

Interaction Rituals

Theory that provides a theory of individual motivation from one situation to the next. Emotional energy is what individuals seek; situations are unattractive or attractive to them to the extent that this concept is successful in providing emotional energy

Cocaine Use in Nightlife Study Findings

(1) Unity with friends...because of shared transgressions (provides sneaky thrills and emotional energy)

(2) “The High” as a Collective Effervescence

(3) To control, extend, and intensify drinking to intoxication (Controlled loss of control = in control; the desired state of intoxication)

Sociological Definition to Addiction

Certain individuals

Use certain substances

In certain ways

Thought at certain times to be unacceptable

By certain other individuals

For reasons both certain and uncertain

Griffiths Components Model of Addiction as Individual Experience

(1) Salience (the activity dominates thinking, feeling, and behavior)

(2) Mood modification (buzz, high, escape, or numbing)

(3) Tolerance (more is needed for the same effect)

(4) Withdrawal (stopping produces unpleasant states)

(5) Conflict (with others and oneself)

(6) Relapse (old patterns can return after control)

ALL components are needed before something can be considered an addiction

Weinberg on Addiction

Addiction is learned and social; its a compulsion

Addiction is something that is learned, social, and meaningful, and it can be experienced as something you are not in control of

“Toolbox” to Understanding Addiction

(1) How is it learned, and what does it mean? (Lindesmith & Becker)

(2) Who labels it, and with what consequences? (Becker)

(3) Where is the compulsion/symptoms? (Griffits & Weinberg)

Additions of the Sociological Perspective to Addiction

(1) Addiction is meaningful and learned

(2) Addiction is defined by someone

(3) Keeps the questions around compulsion, approval, and attraction apart and in view

Street Culture

A complex and conflictual web of beliefs, symbols, modes of interaction, values, and ideologies that have emerged in opposition to exclusion from mainstream society

Has aspects of distinguishing individuals, creating status & power, and can be used to make money

Street Capital (offshoot from Bourdieu’s capital theory)

Emphasizes the relational and situational character of street skills

Based on the marginalization and the absence of cultural capital

Ex: experiences with use and sale of drugs, violence, crime, etc. but also skills that can be used in meetings with the welfare state apparatus

Sulkunen

Intoxication has been reduced to culture, meaning and socialization, however, it misses the natural effects on the body

Sulkunen on Latour

Cultural practices and discourses should be seen as translations of each other. Intoxication is a proto-semiotic fact between culture and nature, not being completely meaningful but not possible without meanings either

Bourdieu’s Social Capital

Consists of non-financial social assets—such as knowledge, skills, education, and aesthetic tastes—that help individuals navigate society and advance their social status

Three forms of Social Capital

Embodied

Objectified

Institutionalized

Embodied Social Capital (Bourdieu)

The conscious and unconscious knowledge, habits, accent, posture, language skills, and manners that your internalize over time from your own family and environment

Objectified Social Capital (Bourdieu)

Physical items and media that signal social class or cultural value—such as artwork, books, instruments, or designer clothing—which only yield true social benefit if you have the embodied skills to appreciate them

Institutionalized Social Capital (Bourdieu)

Formally recognized credentials, degrees, and academic qualifications that certify your competence and carry official weight in the job market

Actor/Actant (Latour & Law)

Any material, i.e., human beings or nonhuman actors/actants

Actor-Network (Latour & Law)

Related actors in a heterogeneous network of aligned interests

General Symmetry (Latour & Law)

The symmetrical treatment of humans and nonhumans as a priori equal

Translation (Latour & Law)

How actors generate ordering effects by negotiating or manoeuvring others’ interests to one’s own with the aim of mobilizing support

Inscription (Latour & Law)

Embodied translations into a medium or material

Enrollment (Latour & Law)

Mobilize support by creating a body of allies through translation

Black Box & Punctualization (Latour & Law)

A temporary simplification in a network that acts as a single unit so that the network effaced into one actor

Quasi-Object (Latour & Law)

A nonhuman that is necessary for the collective to exist; An object that passes through a social group which in doing so forms relations between members of that group

Hybridity (Latour & Law)

The idea that neither a human nor a nonhuman is pure, that is, either human or nonhuman in an absolute sense but rather entities produced in associations between the former and the latter. Thus, humans are considered as quasi-subjects and nonhumans as quasi-objects