Drug Addiction and Social Control: the hegemonic meanings of drug addiction in media and drug rehabilitation service in Hong Kong

For over 50 years, the major conception of drug addiction in Hong Kong comes from representations of heroin addiction in media. But in recent 10 years, the trend of drug addiction among youth in Hong Kong has changed from heroin to ‘recreational drugs’ like ketamine and ecstasy. Despite the discrimination between the traditional hard drugs and new party drugs, the media present drug addiction as equivalent to irrationality and immorality. However, for many youth drug users, the moral and disease conception of drug addiction is not applicable in narrating their drug-taking experiences. The discrepancy between conventional drug discourses and the live experience of youth drug users produces disorders among addicts, drug rehabilitation and preventive education.

This study aims at figure out the existing meanings of drug addiction and the corresponding disorders in mass media and drug rehabilitation. A historical analysis on the government antidrug policy was conducted to figure out the relationship between anti-drug policy, gospel drug rehabilitation and conventional drug discourses. A textual analysis on 100 government anti-drug advertisements and discourse analysis on 26 local TV news documentaries about drug addiction in last 30 years were also conducted to examine the mediated drug discourses. Besides, ethnographic researches in local drug rehabilitation centers have been conducted to reveal how social workers and drug addicts consume the current drug discourses.

Many concepts of drug addiction and drug addicts can be considered socio-cultural constructions of particular set of historical and social contexts (Keane, 2002; Spooner, 2005). Foucault (1970) sees such construction in terms of discourses. Following the suggestion of Willig (2001) on the analysis of discourses, this study pays attention to the iterative process of distinguishing between different drug discourses through studying the discursive formation of ‘drug addict’ as the core subject in relevant to other related subjects (e.g. social workers, relatives). It is found that a ‘go through’ narrative is commonly found in anti-drug advertisements and news documentaries, which centers on ex-addicts and drug rehabilitation practitioners to tell the recovery story. The ‘go through’ narrative is also prominent among drug users and social workers in drug rehabilitation and it constitutes to a “Prodigal Son Returns Home” discourse that encapsulates the medical, moral and legal drug discourses on the subject positions of drug addicts, addicts under rehabilitation and ex-addicts. Youth drug addicts adopt the ‘prodigal son’ identity to various extents, but their agency is restricted under the discursive components of the “Prodigal Son Returns Home” discourse and can be formulated by four discursive strategies, which include: “Indifference”, “Adoption”, “Adaptation”, and “Affirmation”.