The field of drugs in Portugal: médicalisation and legitimisation in the construction of a prohibition

Abstract

The socio-political framework of drugs in Portugal is that of a specialised «field», legitimised through an absolute prohibition. This article analyses the results of an investigation on the social representations of drugs as seen by parish-priests and doctors, subsequently relating them to the way in which political agents and doctors symbolically formulate the prohibition. The latter is presented in three cognitive plans, all critically analysed: (a) the semantic space in which drugs are inscribed, which target their users as non-persons, (b) one of the principles that most structures thinking and behaviour in relation to drugs: the notion of pharmacological climbing, and (c) the belief that «drugs cause crime».