Drug Use and the State (Part 1)
Legalization is a double-edged sword
See photo credits below.
The following is an excerpt from p. 249-251 of the Conclusion, “Undoing Drugism” from my new book, Drugism (2022):
In the summer of 2015, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling that legalized same-sex marriage.[i] It was in many ways a landmark moment. At the time, I had a boyfriend who worked for the Human Rights Campaign, canvassing in DC to rally support for same-sex marriage. We could hardly believe what had happened, and yet we also immediately realized how much more work there was to do.
A year or so later, I encountered a book entitled Undoing Gender by Judith Butler. Butler is a renowned author and educator known for rigorous critical theory grounded in queer, non-gendered perspective. Undoing Gender, as its title indicates, picks apart the notion of gender and explores how it is used in ways which are socially harmful. In the book, Butler also offers critical insight into what gay marriage and the normalization of queerness can mean for those who are queer—more specifically, the ways in which these things fall short of the total liberation they seem to promise.
Butler’s criticisms of the shortcomings of gay marriage struck a chord. That these ideas were published in 2004 was impressive in itself. The book articulated thoughts and feelings I had but never expressed, and introduced me to new ideas as well.
Reading Butler’s book, I noticed that nearly all of it applies to people who use illegal drugs.
Reading Butler’s book, I noticed that nearly all of it applies not only to people who are queer, but also to people who use illegal drugs. Butler’s exploration of legitimacy within the framework of government sanctioned marriage offers a stunning reflection of the issue of legitimacy within the framework of government sanctioned drug use. If one reads Undoing Gender and substitutes queerness with illegal drug use, the prose suddenly becomes an incisive treatise on the relation between illegal drug users and the state. For example, take the following passage:
For a progressive sexual movement, even one that may want to produce marriage as an option for nonheterosexuals, the proposition that marriage should become the only way to sanction or legitimate sexuality is unacceptably conservative.[ii]
When we substitute sexuality with drug use, marriage with legalization, and nonheterosexuals with users of illegal drugs, the passage looks like this:
For a progressive drug movement, even one that may want to produce legalization as an option for users of illegal drugs, the proposition that legalization should become the only way to sanction or legitimate drug use is unacceptably conservative.
What do we learn? Butler brings up urgent points about the role of the state, the normalization of deviant behavior, and the interplay between the two. Within any stratified society, there are behaviors which are deviant to the ruling class even while they are normal to others, and as a result, they are often prohibited. In queer culture, the resulting tension expresses itself primarily as the fight for gay marriage. In drug culture, it expresses itself currently in the fight for decriminalization or legalization. But Butler asks a very fundamental and important question: why? What benefits are achieved with legitimacy?
The state strives to dictate normalcy, but it never fully can.
Butler argues that the very act of requesting legitimacy from the state (i.e., gay marriage or drug legalization) grants the state an authority which it does not truly possess: the ability to dictate normalcy.[iii] The state strives to dictate normalcy, but it never fully can; thus prohibited behavior continues to flourish. Butler insists that we make a fundamental mistake when we assume the state to be the sole arbiter of legitimacy.
Along those same lines, drug users make a fundamental mistake when we assume the state is the sole arbiter of legitimacy. While there are definite benefits to state recognition (freedom from arrest, regulated supply of drugs, etc.), it also has its limitations, even drawbacks. This is where the above-quoted passage comes into play: the idea that legalization is the only way to sanction drug use is unacceptable. Especially so if legalization is piecemeal and selective (one drug at a time) rather than comprehensive (all drugs).
Undoing Gender also explores what happens after deviant behavior is normalized, or, as Butler writes, “alleviated of its guilt.”[iv] As soon as a given type of deviant behavior is normalized, the same social anxieties which had previously been attached to it are usually projected onto some other deviant activity. The problems which spring from those social anxieties are therefore not solved but simply shuffled around a bit.[v]
While there are definite benefits to state recognition, it also has its limitations, even drawbacks.
“The demand to be recognized,” Butler explains, “can lead to new and invidious forms of social hierarchy.” It is therefore of utmost importance for marginalized groups to challenge “the very norms of recognition supplied and required by state legitimation.”[vi]
Butler’s argument, when applied to drugs, illuminates why piecemeal drug legalization is not in itself a solution. We can see quite plainly, for example, that while the political status of people who use cannabis is improving globally, people who use opioids face tougher challenges than ever before, largely as a result of prohibition and its attendant social stigmatization. If we can legalize one drug, we can legalize all of them—and it is far past time we do.
If we can legalize one drug, we can legalize all of them—and it is far past time we do.
However, the argument presented in Undoing Gender also points to another dilemma which we are bound to face even in the wake of full legalization…
[Read Part 2 here.]
Endnotes:
[i] Hurley, “Supreme Court’s landmark…”
[ii] Butler, Undoing Gender, 109.
[iii] Ibid., 104.
[iv] Ibid., 111.
[v] Ibid., 112.
[vi] Ibid., 115.
Sources:
Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. Routledge, New York, NY. 2004.
Hurley, Lawrence. “Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizes gay marriage nationwide.” Reuters, Jun 26, 2015.
Photo credits:
One dollar bill from Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-dollar_bill
US Capitol building from Mini Museum at https://shop.minimuseum.com/products/us-capitol-building-steps
Police car sirens from WHYY at https://whyy.org/articles/new-jersey-dashboard-law-enforcement-internal-affairs-investigations/
One-hundred dollar bill from Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-hundred-dollar_bill
Click here to order your copy of Drugism.
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