Yuet Wah Cheung on Steve Sussman's “Perspectives of ‘Functional Failure’”

Abstract

My immediate reaction to this paper is that it lacks a deep understanding of what drug use/misuse is. It is written from a conservative, treatment-centered perspective, assessing failure/success from conventional social norms surrounding what should be a normal person’s role in society versus alcohol/drug use. Such a perspective equates drug use/addiction with failure, and so analyzing different functional failure associated with drug addiction is just a tautology. Such a perspective is out of touch with the current drug use culture, especially among young people. A lot has been said and discussed in the literature on the longitudinal study of young drug users in Britain conducted more than ten years ago by Howard Parker (a British sociologist), whose term “normalization of recreational drug use” is admirably powerful in understanding party drug use of young people today. Much of drug use/misuse takes place in clubs/parties, and more and more young people, not only from disadvantaged families and neighborhoods but also in more well-to-do families and among working youths, are engaged in recreational drug use. As such, drug use brings more benefits (e.g., an escape from harsh reality in a “postmodern” society in which competition is severe, following conventional rules does not necessarily pay off, and insecure feelings loom large due to the “risky society” young people are living in) than damage due to drug dependence. My current research of the use of psychoactive drugs among young people here points out very clearly that many young drug users do not define party drug use as “drug addiction”, not even drug misuse. They see it as just one of the many bad habits that they have (older people like us have many bad habits too!). While some of them do get into addiction problems after a period of use, many just “abuse” drugs as part of their everyday life, well accepted by many peers, during the period of adolescence only. Many of them quit after they start a new stage of life, or at least are able to en