Drugs, Leisure, Consumption and Harm (original) (raw)

Using the new Deviant Leisure perspective allows us to understand the consumption of substances in the context of consumer capitalism and its inherent harms, which according to Žižek (2008), is where the real trouble lies. A fundamental theme sustained throughout the ensuing discussion illustrates the harms arising from global capitalism in relation to substance use. The aim is to illustrate how the contradictions inherent in neoliberal capitalism are not only responsible for some of the harms discussed, but also the ambiguities and paradoxes inherent in the realities of substance use in contemporary society, which contribute to pervasive feelings of objectless anxiety and insecurity (Hall and Winlow, 2015) as our ‘unquestioning commitment to consumer capitalism’ contributes to a range of socially corrosive and subjective harms (Smith and Raymen, 2016: 2).