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Beyond ‘Addiction’: Dependence, Injecting and Transitions in Opiate Use

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A Fine Line

Abstract

This chapter addresses the limitations of the framework of addiction for understanding non-medical consumption. It canvasses sociological perspectives on addiction and addresses concern about the pathologizing and individualizing components of addition discourse by exploring the lives of two participants who no longer use drugs. These life histories are used to highlight the way gender, class and medical discourse intersect to constitute addiction in different ways in the lives of different people. The chapter also discusses how qualitative data can complement epidemiological literature about transitions between kinds of opiates and to intravenous drug use. In performing this analysis, the chapter also addresses the role of agency in the construction of the ‘opiate addicted’ subject.

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  1. School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    George C. Dertadian

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  1. George C. Dertadian
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Correspondence to George C. Dertadian .

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Dertadian, G.C. (2019). Beyond ‘Addiction’: Dependence, Injecting and Transitions in Opiate Use. In: A Fine Line. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1975-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1975-4_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1974-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1975-4

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