Session 5a: Alternative Interpretations of Dependency Discourses
Chair: John Morra

Health, Alcohol Consumption and the Issue of Intoxication
Kieran Bonner
Human Sciences Initiative, St. Jerome's University in the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

After a brief exposition of the concept of the grey zone of health and illness, I will investigate the medical research on alcohol consumption, particularly in relation to intoxication. Intoxication is considered by medical science research to be a serious health risk.  The WHO takes a very strict approach to alcohol consumption, now calling even moderate consumption a 'low risk' (as against a safe) activity. This paper will address the temptation to intoxication encompassed in social contexts in relation to the phenomenon of sociability. The frame of reference of medical science will be seen to be different to the frame of reference that makes the experiential truth of the magic territory opened up by social intoxication available. Drawing on the work of Gadamer and Plato, this difference will be examined in reference to the grey zone between health and well-being. The interrelation between sociability and intoxication will be developed as a feature of well-being.

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Evolution of the Meaning of Drug Dependence as a Disease in the Eighties and the Nineties under the Impact of AIDS in the United Kingdom
Hervé Hudebin
l'IRIS, Institut de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les enjeux sociaux - Sciences sociales, politique, santé, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Paris Nord, France

Historical studies of the social construction of the drug problem and the way this process affected both public policies and their target populations demonstrate that the evolution of the meaning conferred to drug dependence as an illness or a disease is strongly affected by the wider historical, social and political context. This broad assertion is based on the analysis of the interaction between political, ideological, moral, professional, expert, media and militant discourses. Such an analysis may also involve a consideration of the way this social construction process produces specific depictions of the body of the drug user, which also act as metaphors for wider social evils and diseases.
However, the aim of the proposed paper is to showthat the construction of professionally and institutionally accepted approaches to treatment and care is not only affected by the political, moral, ideological, professional and resources issues at stake. Understanding this process also implies a consideration of another key factor, namely the interaction of social and health workers and professionals with the deteriorated, suffering bodies of drug users, the moral and practical dilemmas raised by this experience and the way they are solved or managed. Conversely, depiction by drug users and their advocates of suffering bodies is also an important factor in the evolution of the above mentioned approaches to treatment and care as well as, albeit to a lesser extent, of drug policies.
This paper is based on a political science PhD thesis dedicated to the adaptation of UK drug policies to AIDS prevention in the eighties and the nineties. This research involved interviews with health and social workers and professionals, as well as with civil servants, and also an extensive analysis of the scientific and professional literature, evaluation reports and administrative documents related to the drug issue.

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