The present text aims to provide a retrospective look at the genesis and evolution of ethnographic studies on psychoactive substance use in the West. These studies began in the 1930s in the USA, with the Chicago Sociological School being of particular relevance.
For this sociological school, the best way to study the new ways of life of the growing industrial society was direct observation in the many different social contexts that were rapidly proliferating (neighbourhoods, ghettos, working conditions and workplaces, housing…) as well as the study of newly formed subgroups: youth street gangs, delinquents, musicians… and the so-called “drug user subculture”. In 1950, a significant change occurred when theories of social deviance were proposed. These theories focused attention on the actor’s perspective, confronting the stereotypes of (criminality, social deviance and mental pathology, which were promulgated by sciences such as medicine, psychiatry, criminology, psychology and even sociology) – and which in reality still remain in the imaginary of our society.
Anthropological studies on drug use in our territory, inevitably linked to the field of medical anthropology, have been one of the most important and influential in the scientific and political debate on the subject.
