Citizenship and inclusion: drug users, democracy and voices from the summit
Kirsty Hammet
HIV, HCV & Related Programs, Communicable Disease Control Branch, Population Health, Strategic Planning & Population Health, Department of Human Services
Contact Email:   kirsty.hammetdhs.sa.gov.au

Government regulation of activism varies according to the welfare regime type and can be understood as a strategy of social risk management during high modernity. The discursive location of drug policy concerns in narratives of social inclusion resonates with “third way” social capital and is perhaps a welcome shift from the muscular rhetoric of “Tough on Drugs”. However, the forms of participation in society envisioned for drug users under social capital policy frameworks warrant further exploration, as public policy can work to either support the building of social capital or to actively undermine it.

The activities and relationships of the drug policy community driving Australian drug policy development have been understudied. Considered as an open policy forum on drug related issues, the 2002 South Australian Drug Summit provides a snapshot of this community and its emergent membership in action. This paper examines the discursive roles of public and expert voices in constructing “drug use”, “drug users” and strategies for their reintegration into community life during this policy building process. Implications for forms of social capital building among drug-users and for their participation in civic life are discussed.

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