Lewis Case Study

Case Study: Lewis, M 2011, ‘Heroin, the Heap, and the sleep of the dead’, in Memoirs of an Addicted Brain, Scribe Publications Pty Ltd, Victoria, Australia.

Processes surrounding the production and consumption of drugs are largely shaped by the influence of their legal status. The prohibition of drugs force users into segregated groups, in which drug use is equated with social bonding. In examining Lewis’ (2011) case study, ‘Heroin, the

Heap, and the sleep of the dead’, it is shown that individuals with personal grievances find satisfaction not only in the neuropharmacological effects of drug use, but also the social bonds that arise alongside it.

Lewis’ (2011) case study focuses on the social and neuropharmacological properties that

contribute

Indeed, hippies “surround the use of drugs with elaborate mythology suggesting a variety of benefits to be derived from “going out of one’s mind”” (Howard 1969, p. 43). Drug use is an integral part of the group’s culture, and the unity of the group is appealing to socially and politically stigmatised individuals. Therefore, whilst drug prohibition has led to rejection of drug users by mainstream society, it has also indirectly created social bonding within drug-using subcultures.

Drugs have been used by humans throughout history for healing purposes, and may be used in response to emotional trauma caused by social rejection. Individuals who have personal and social struggles, as argued by Maté, may be drawn to problematic drug use as a coping mechanism. Maté argues that “it is impossible to understand addiction without asking what relief the addict finds, or hopes to find, in the drug or the addictive behaviour” (2008, p. 38). In Lewis’ case study, he details feeling “wrong” in his sober state, reflecting this notion (2011, p. 128).

However, it is important to note that this phenomenon has not emerged recently. According

Lewis states, “their involvement with drugs made them more magical and more impressive in my eyes” (Lewis 2011, p. 138), reflecting the ideas of

Manderson (1995). As Manderson describes the fetishism of drug imagery and paraphernalia

(Manderson 1995, p. 810), this argument is furthered by asserting that groups who use drugs are themselves viewed as a form of paraphernalia. The construction of otherness gives way to a

“double sided” (Manderson 1995, p. 805) view, in which drugs that are perceived as damaging are also equally viewed as alluring. Within particular social settings, for example, Rastafarian culture, moral entrepreneurs construct images of drugs and related paraphernalia that are positive, conflicting with hegemonic depictions. Therefore, in viewing drug using social groups as an extension of paraphernalia, this dual nature is also applicable to their image. However, unlike typical paraphernalia, social groups also offer social bonding, which is attractive to socially marginalised persons. As previously mentioned, psychopharmacological effects alone do not account for the effects that drugs have on individuals. According to McKim, “…even with