Conceptualising Legal and Illegal Drug Use

The Criminalisation of Intoxication / Impermissible Pleasures in UK Leisure

At the heart of British drug policy lies a prohibitionist stance which prioritises the relationship between drugs and crime resulting in both increased medicalisation based on outdated notions of addiction and compulsion, and increased criminalisation dominated by ‘war on drugs’ and ‘law and order’ discourses. Medicalisation through the potentially compassionate treatment of problem users is based on an exaggeration of the drugs-crime relationship which is used to justify coercion into abstinence-oriented treatment. However, the majority of young adult drinkers and drug takers fit neither the medical model of addiction nor the discourses of crime and compulsion. We argue that this policy vacuum is being filled by a new wave of proactive prohibition of pharmacological intoxication – through both legal and illegal drug use – bolstering an enduring ‘official’ ambivalence to leisure, pleasure and intoxication. Four aspects of this new wave of criminalisation are considered: firstly, the extension of the Misuse of Drugs Act to criminalise emergent drugs used for recreational purposes; secondly, changes to the burden of proof regarding drug supply offences; thirdly, the increased regulation of young adult drunkenness and drink-related disorder; and fourthly, the continued rejection by the British government of repeated calls to overhaul the drug classification system. We suggest that young people’s involvement in vibrant and diverse local leisure ‘scenes’ provides the target for a new wave of stigmatisation and criminalisation of contemporary cultures of intoxication at odds with official policy supporting the expansion of the night time economy.

Extract (reworked) from Fiona Measham and Karenza Moore, (2008) The Criminalisation of Intoxication, in P. Squires (ed.) ASBO Nation: The Criminalisation of Nuisance, Bristol: Policy Press.

See also Moore, K. and Measham, F. (2011) Impermissible Pleasures in UK Leisure: Exploring policy developments in alcohol and illicit drugs, in C. Thomas et al (2011) The Problem of Pleasure: Leisure, Pleasure and Tourism, Cullompton: Willan.

MDMA project (with Zoe Welch [née Smith], Lifeline)

Zoe Smith, Fiona Measham, and Karenza Moore, (2009), MDMA Powder, Pills and Crystal: The persistence of ecstasy and the poverty of policy, Drugs and Alcohol Today, 9(1), pp.13-19.

Emergent Psychoactive Substances or ‘Legal Highs’

Whilst working on our British Academy project on GHB and GBL use, it has come to our attention that mention was being made of the use of ‘legal highs’ such as GBL, Methylone and Methedrone (M1), ‘Spice’ (a cannaboid) and BZPs. These substances are of interest to us in terms of both patterns of use, and broader processes of the ‘criminalisation of intoxication’ and the problem of pleasure is UK leisure.

Measham, F., Moore, K., Newcombe, R. and Welch, Z. (2010), Tweaking, Bombing, Dabbing and Stockpiling: The emergence of mephedrone and the perversity of prohibition, Drugs and Alcohol Today, 10 (1), pp.14-21.

Brandt, S., Sumnall, H., Measham, F., and Cole, J. (2010), Second generation mephedrone: The confusing case of NRG-1, British Medical Journal, 6th July, 341:c3564.