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• Saturday, March 14, 2009 01:28 PM

  Pedinska

  I just read your question to Canuckistan Bob as I was about to post this - I think it answers your second question. I could probably provide examples (one that comes to mind - the Yanomami).

  Pedinska wrote: Your comment brought to mind societies that live close to nature (frequently and improperly, IMO, labelled "primitive"). Drug use is/was common, often an integral part of the spiritual pursuits of the society at large.
  
  Makes one wonder if there is any literature out there that addresses whether or not these communities have issues with drug abuse and, if so, how it is/was addressed.

  In another life, I had the opportunity to participate in several cross-cultural studies, and so surveyed dozens of "primitive" cultures. I don't recall the concept of "drug abuse" appearing in any of those cultures that used them for ritualistic purposes. (BTW, in most societies that used drugs for this purpose, it was only men who used them, since they were generally the keepers of religion.)

  Drug/alcohol abuse is usually a result of contact with "civilization" (or it is designated so by the civilized).

  There have been quite a few anthropological studies on drug use, many funded by governments to help "inform" drug policy, such as this one, funded by the NIMH.

  GANJA IN JAMAICA: THE EFFECTS OF MARIJUANA USE, Vera Rubin and Labros Comitas. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1976.

  It focused on Jamaica and compared the use of marijuana there and in the U.S. In this study, which examined several aspects of marijuana use, anthropologists found that between 60 and 70% of rural Jamaicans used marijuana. The Jamaican attitude was that it made them more productive, which the researchers tested and confirmed. This is contrasted to the attitude in the U.S. that that marijuana makes people who smoke it less ambitious and less productive. Marijuana is also, of course, used ritually in Jamaica.

  Of course, the results of studies such as these are ignored and we impose our cultural values on others...

  From the blurb: In the Caribbean islands, ganja, crack cocaine and the policy responses to them have triggered a social disaster. The islands, under US pressure, have adopted a region-wide policy of criminalization. Specialized drug courts have been created and traditional cultural practices around ganja consumption have been criminalized with serious human and social consequences.
  
  From the Introduction: Political stability depends on adherence to the social contract, 'yet the rule of law is never secure inless it is sanctioned by the moral order'. But in Jamaica 'the state agencies classify ganja as a drug when the popular culture does not'. This descrepancy between popular practice and the law acts like a cancer in society-state relations.

  "Caribbean Drugs: From Criminalization to Harm Reduction," By Axel Klein, Marcus Day, Anthony Harriot, http://tinyurl.com/boh6np

  More here: http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/2407.html

  —EJ Read EJ's other letters
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