Anthropological Studies in Drug Use Contexts: An Introduction to Theoretical, Methodological, and Ethical Aspects

In this chapter we seek to provide a brief introduction to the theoretical, methodological, and ethical aspects of anthropological studies in drug consumption contexts. We draw on the analysis of the specialized academic bibliography on ethnographies of drug use and our field experience in research with crack users. We have been able to outline a historical overview of ethnographic research with drug users from the North American academic production, which we believe to be the most influential in this particular matter. We have seen how the goals of the research have broadened over decades, and how they have come to position themselves within something much broader: drug policy. We have been able to expose how in contexts of illegal practices, entering and remaining in the field is always a challenge. What requires anthropologists to learn when to give and when to deny in order to insert themselves in the economy of exchange always present in the contexts of drug consumption.