DOPE READING

Two New Perspectives On Drug Culture

Drugs are a part of both mainstream and underground culture, have been used
for everything from relaxation to medicine and have created their own
lifestyles. This drug culture is explored in two recent books, Patrick
Matthews' Cannabis Culture and Marek Kohn's Dope Girls: The Birth of the
British Drug Underground.

Initially, drug culture was forced into the underground because the
substances were illegal. Recently, though, marijuana has started to lose
its status as an illicit drug and is starting to be comparable with other
legal substances like caffeine and alcohol. In making the transition from
underground to mainstream, as Matthews notes, cannabis has lost much of its
culture. No longer can you tell a marijuana smoker by their physical
appearance, rhetoric or state of mind.

Instead of a culture, Matthews offers the idea of a contemporary cannabis
'connoisseurship' that he defines as "a set of expectations, a way of
talking about the experience, the rituals of sharing joints, and an idea of
how stoned to get and how to behave when stoned, all of which matter." In
this way, he likens cannabis consumption to wine-not surprising as his
background is in wine tasting.

Matthews looks at cannabis from both an insider and outsider perspective.
He admits that he smoked often in his youth, but gave it up to raise his
family.

Consequently, this made him feel out of touch with the contemporary
'cannabis culture.' He remedies this by traveling to one of the birthplaces
of cannabis use, Morocco, and the global cannabis capital, Amsterdam,
interviewing experts. However, by interjecting his research with personal
anecdotes, he allows his pro-cannabis biases to seep through.

Matthews discusses the debate over legalizing marijuana for both medicinal
and recreational purposes, a debate which has pushed cannabis further into
mainstream culture. First, he interviews medical experts to determine the
actual medicinal benefits of smoking marijuana, though is unable to find
much hard evidence. He also travels to Amsterdam where he attends the
prestigious annual Cannabis Cup. Where do journalists find assignments like
this one?

Though interesting, Matthews' research seems scattered, and at times overly
intellectual. He offers no new insights on the debates on marijuana, but
rather summarizes many of the existing viewpoints. Most of his statistics
are focused on British consumption levels. Regardless, he crafts an
interesting look at historical and contemporary cannabis cultures spanning
the globe.

In Dope Girls, Kohn explores the birth of underground cocaine and opium use
in Britain in the early 20th century. Because of its nature, these stories
of the drug underground-stories such as flourishing interracial and
homosexual relationships-were never recorded by mainstream history.

Kohn examines how racial biases in 1920s and 30s in London lead to drugs
being declared illegal. Although their harmful nature was cited as the
official reason for the law, Kohn points out that this may be a cover up
for the racial biases of the white lawmakers. Some, for example, made
allegations that Chinese men used opium to lure white girls into their
bedrooms, likely an urban legend that stemmed from a white man's fear of
losing his girlfriend to an Asian man.

Once drugs became illegal, their users had to find illicit means of
obtaining them and the entire culture was forced underground to avoid
prosecution. This corresponded with the rise in jazz music, and thus was
born the underground nightclub.

By unearthing this history, Kohn is both qualifying and challenging it. He
points out that the upper class white patriarchal society feared the social
changes these drugs could potentially bring about, and thus drugs became
looked at in a derogatory light. Users became "dope fiends" and "menaces."
However, Kohn still criticizes the direct inferences that forced these drug
cultures underground by pointing out that many upper class white men and
women had drug problems of their own.

Kohn focuses specifically on women's use of drugs as a social phenomenon in
both the upper and lower classes. Interestingly, upper class women would
throw "morphine tea parties," whereas lower class singers, burlesque
dancers and actresses became addicted to the rush cocaine produces in order
to perform into the wee hours of the morning. He uses these examples to
point out the social divide, and to highlight how some illegal drugs are
more socially acceptable within different classes.

He also looks at the proliferation of drug use, specifically opium, among
sailors, soldiers and doctors. His examples are all documented cases,
backed up by newspaper articles of the time, and he also includes many
photographs, advertisements and comics to further illustrate how drugs were
perceived by mainstream society.

Kohn's tone is much more formal than Matthews', and although both books
have their flaws, they both offer an incredible amount of trivial
information that will surely impress friends sparking up a joint at a party.

Cannabis Culture By Patrick Matthews Bloomsbury $19.15, paperback, 276 pp.

Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground By Marek Kohn Granta
Books $19.15, paperback, 202 pp.