Artikel

Abstract

■ Aim The point of departure of this article is a campaign undertaken during spring 2003 by the Swedish NGO Föräldraföreningen Mot Narkotika (Parents Against Narcotics). The organisation started in 1968 as a group of parents getting together and offering each other mutual support as well as carrying on an open house enterprise for misusers in an apartment in Stockholm, the organisation has now become an important participant in Swedish official drug discourse. The campaign in question was directed towards all parents in Sweden with children born in 1991. The purpose of this study is to analyse how FMN as an important actor in Swedish drug policy talks about youth, alcohol and drugs through their campaign and how the subject positions ‘teenager’ and ‘parent’, are established through this talk. ■ Method The analysis of the campaign material centres on discussing what properties are linked to these subject positions, how parents and youth/teenagers are described. ■ Results and Conclusion Normal adolescence tends to be seen as never involving drug use and there is a tendency to see the relationship between teenagers and their parents as a relationship characterized by inherent conflict and hostility, sometimes manifested in metaphorical terms suggestive of war. The conceivable consequences of this, as well as of other central divisions in the data – such as the nuclear family as an inherently good unit and misuse as choice – are discussed in the article.