drug taking for pleasure

drug taking for pleasure

drug taking, where the aim is merely to gain or enhance gratification. Rather than ascribing some set of deviant impulses or motives which lead to drug ‘abuse’, some sociologists (e.g. BECKER, ‘Becoming a Marijuana User’, 1953) have been interested in exploring the social mechanisms which lead to drug taking for pleasure. Becker argues that the motivational chain involved in such cases is the reverse of that usually suggested by psychologists: the ‘motivations’ involved arise, like any other taste, as a socially acquired taste, in which the SOCIAL ACTOR is first introduced to the drug and then learns to enjoy it as a pleasurable sensation. As such, ‘drug takers’ do not differ ‘psychologically’ from other social actors; their drug taking can be explained primarily in sociological terms. see also LABELLING THEORY.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000