Poly and Tricky Dick: The drug war origins of the term “polydrug use”

Abstract

Polydrug use is presented as a particular drug-use phenomenon when the combination of substances is and always has been the practice. The origin of the term is found in the early years of the war on drugs under the Nixon administration in the US, when it was used to justify the intensification of repressive measures against drug users and to counter the growing accommodation and normalisation of cannabis. Only by presenting cannabis as the first step towards the use of harder drugs could the repression of this largely innocuous and widely used substance be justified. Drug users were presented as “polydrug users”, which offered an explanation of problematic use as rooted in the drug user, the addict, who would switch substances in accordance with availability and price. Having become established for political reasons, the term has become entrenched because it resonates and vividly describes social practice. Yet it does not add to understanding of social reality but occludes and confuses because it presents “polydrug” as a particular and peculiar pattern of consumption and not as the norm.