Abstract

LYNCH, Fernando M.. El sustrato étnico de la política de drogas: Fundamentos interculturales y consecuencias sociales de una discriminación médico/jurídica. Runa [online]. 2007, vol.28, pp.141-168. ISSN 1851-9628.

From an anthropological perspective focused on the incidence of cultural diversity in the definition of laws in modern states, we consider that the historical fact of the prohibition of psychoactive drugs is based on the opinion that qualifies as a vice certain habits belonging to members of different cultures. Drugs which are considered unlawful are precisely the ones associated in its moment of spreading in the U.S.A. -epicentre of the standard policy- with foreign minorities: the opium with the chinese, the cocaine with the african-americans and the marihuana with the hispanics -as well as mushrooms and cactus with the aborigines. As a conclusion we observe that, carried out at an international level as an instrument for neocolonization, the global policies on drugs justify a repressive attitude that, criminalizing behaviour considered socially "deviated" -which turns into an "illness" due to the judgment of medical authorities-, eventually perpetuates a way of undercover ethnical discrimination.

Keywords : Drug; Cultural diversity; Politic; Ethnic discrimination.

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