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Bruce K. Alexander (CAN) - Přednáška
KONFERENCE / KONGRES / PŘEDNÁŠKA

Bruce K. Alexander (CAN) - Přednáška

úterý 3.10.2017 od 18:00
ARTBAR, Brno

O akci

Compared to other areas of scholarship, the field of addiction is an intellectual disaster area. Countless theories claim to explain addiction. But none of them has had much impact on the growing addiction problem in the modern world and most conflict fundamentally with each other. How can we be Rational about Drug Regulation when we are so confused about the nature of drug addiction?

As Thomas Kuhn has shown, this kind of confusion marks a stage in intellectual history where a “paradigm shift” is needed and expected. The paradigm shift begins when a different question emerges. I believe that the shift is already underway. It is a shift from asking about the cause of addiction in addicted individuals – which has gotten us nowhere – to asking about the cause of addiction in the structure of the societies that are the most plagued with it. This global historical approach was first suggested by Plato’s writings in ancient times, but was largely forgotten. However this question re-emerges in the great social critics of the 18th through the 20th centuries, including Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Franz Kafka.

 

Více informací

I will present a historical paradigm for understanding addiction that begins with my adventures in a tiny place called Rat Park in the 1970s and continues with a guided tour of modern western civilization. These ideas are summarized in my book, The Globalization of Addiction: A study in poverty of the spirit (Oxford University Press, 2008; 2010) and my more recent writings, found at www.brucekalexander.com

I will use this historical paradigm as a basis for re-examining Rational Drug Regulation. I will be speaking from the context of the current major drug panic in North America, one of several moral panics that have broken out in the last 150 years in my homeland. For example, a decade ago we had a similar great uproar about the dangers of methamphetamine. The current opioid panic is instigated by a substantial surge in overdose deaths that are linked to opioids, particularly heroin, oxycodone (by prescription), and fentanyl (sold illegally). The current panic is strong even in Vancouver – where I live – although we already have a seemingly rational system of harm reduction and relatively mild criminal prosecution that is perhaps similar to that of the Czech Republic (Zábranský & Bullington, 2007, Journal of Drug Issues).

Canada’s current response to this opioid overdose problem is mostly based on making safe opioid drugs more available to addicted people. There is almost no inclination to go back to an American-style War on Drugs. However, I will argue that, in addition to harm reduction for people addicted to opioids, there must eventually also be free access to some opioids – and stimulants as well – for the general public, to avoid the importation of extraordinarily potent and therefore dangerous drugs like fentanyl. I will also argue that, in a country as ethnically diverse as Canada and perhaps the Czech Republic, rational drug availability should be regulated locally rather than nationally or internationally.

Finally, I will argue that Rational Drug Regulation can only be a small part of the solution to the growing addiction problem. The fundamental structural problems that make addiction increasingly prevalent in the modern world must ultimately be addressed. Why not now?

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