Third ISA Forum of Sociology (July 10-14, 2016)

JS-19

Drug Use and Local and Global Public Policies of Health: New Tensions, Complementation or Changes for Not Change?

RC15 Sociology of Health (host committee)
RC42 Social Psychology
RC49 Mental Health and Illness

Language: English and Spanish

Global policies affecting drug use congregate aspects of security, terrorism and health. Locally, health promotion strategies become complex by their interaction with a wide variety of social practices: use of leisure, nightlife, tourism, but also risk behaviors, addictions and/or crimes. 
Moreover, some states have ventured into marijuana legalization use, which have introduced new political tensions with neighboring countries where the criminalization continues, since they are becoming a structuring axis of drug-users’ collective action. 
The debate is open, social actors are numerous and motivations are different. Among the arguments put forward, there is the intention to decriminalize so as to respect individuals freedoms and facilitate access to underserved populations; but arguments are also powered by actors with more economic interests, oriented to the profitability of new markets, than civil rights ones; at stake is also a greater medical power on privacy, privatization of health services, and a greater emphasis on assistance but not necessarily in prevention. 
How is the global-local tension expressed in strategies for health promotion and prevention? Which new challenges propose the changes in legislation? Are different social actors disputed, complemented or changed so that nothing changes? 
We expect papers to analyze:

• Local socio-historical processes and their relationship with the global policies; 
• Stakeholders involved in the processes of change or aimed at the status quo; 
• New notions of health and drug use in the decriminalization context;
• Framework that enable/hinder actions aimed at prevention and health promotion in drug-use contexts.

Posters: