Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Silent “G”: A Case Study in the Production of “Drugs” and “Drug Problems”
AU - Moore, Karenza
AU - Measham, Fiona
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - This paper focuses on ‘G’ in the United Kingdom (UK), G being the collective term for gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL). Drawing on empirical data and taking a critical drug studies perspective, we use G as a case study in how drug cultures move through phases whereby a diffuse and contested network of emergent practices, agencies and processes become progressively ordered into a more stable and conventional set of problems and actors, here G and the ‘G problem’. The production of former ‘legal high’ G as a particular kind of drug in this network has shaped its relative neglect within UK research, policy and practice as compared to mephedrone, another former ‘legal high’. Our case study supports the longstanding observation that researchers, policy-makers and practitioners contribute to the performative and material constitution of ‘drugs’ and ‘drug problems’, upon which we reflect in our conclusion.
AB - This paper focuses on ‘G’ in the United Kingdom (UK), G being the collective term for gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL). Drawing on empirical data and taking a critical drug studies perspective, we use G as a case study in how drug cultures move through phases whereby a diffuse and contested network of emergent practices, agencies and processes become progressively ordered into a more stable and conventional set of problems and actors, here G and the ‘G problem’. The production of former ‘legal high’ G as a particular kind of drug in this network has shaped its relative neglect within UK research, policy and practice as compared to mephedrone, another former ‘legal high’. Our case study supports the longstanding observation that researchers, policy-makers and practitioners contribute to the performative and material constitution of ‘drugs’ and ‘drug problems’, upon which we reflect in our conclusion.
KW - GHB
KW - GBL
KW - legal highs
KW - new psychoactive substances
KW - problematization
KW - criminalization
M3 - Journal article
VL - 39
SP - 565
EP - 590
JO - Contemporary Drug Problems
JF - Contemporary Drug Problems
SN - 0091-4509
IS - 3
T2 - Contemporary Drug Problems Conference: Beyond the Buzzword: Problematising ‘Drugs’
Y2 - 3 October 2011 through 4 October 2011
ER -