Essay on the Social Life of Smokes: Drug Use and Exchange

This essay delves into the complex social dynamics surrounding drug use, specifically examining Robin Dwyer's article, "Social Life of Smokes." The essay explores the process of heroin exchange in Melbourne, highlighting how it functions within a social context and how cultural values influence the acceptance of drug use. Dwyer's research, which utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods, reveals the intricate patterns of drug exchange, comparing it to the seemingly innocuous act of sharing cigarettes. The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding these social behaviors within the context of demand and supply, and how they contribute to the establishment of traditions. The analysis draws on Dwyer's observations of Vietnamese drug dealers and their customers, exploring the social interactions within the Melbourne marketplace and the broader implications for understanding drug use and social norms. The essay also provides references to related studies and articles on drug use, social behavior, and the impact of drugs on society. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding the social context of drug use and its role in shaping individual behaviors and societal norms.

The social life of smokes
Word count: 798
In a mind boggling structure of civilisation, it’s very hard to evaluate
the existing pattern about some of the evil practices that are taking
place. It has been regularly seen that individuals customarily
acknowledge malevolent movement and start positioning it beneath
the arrangements of some social esteems as a part of social practice.
One of them is consumption of drugs. The unlawful intake of drug is
becoming a social issue across the globe. On the off chance that the
developed countries like European or American landmasses have
shaped strict laws to inhibit the spread of medication use in the
general public, there are a couple of nations where these things are
connected as a social practice and individuals have a tendency to
acknowledge them and utilize them too. In the article (Robin Dwyer)
“Social Life of Smokes: Process of Exchange of Heroine in the Market
place , the issue of drug use has been elevated”.

Truth be told, a descriptive view has been composed from the part of
the book whenever the usage of drugs has been indicated. It can awe
the crowd with its genuine encounters and how individuals in the
Melbourne, the Vietnamese street dealer could respond to the
propensities like utilizing heroin or smoking. The article turns out to
be more significant with regards to consuming the drug abuse
alongside the exact perceptions of the author, who goes to the edge
of within showcase where he dissects the progressing inclinations of
the general population who are accustomed to having drugs as a
measure of their social life.
 At first, Dwyer defines the process of exchange in a positive
manner as he defines the habit of exchange as, “Exchange is
interesting, because it is the chief means by which useful things
move from one person to another; because it is an important
way in which people create and maintain social hierarchy;
because it is a richly symbolic activity – all exchanges have got
social meaning.” (Dwyer, 2014)

 According to the definition, exchange seems to be a kind of
medium through which, things and assets that are movable are
carried from person to person with a positive purpose,
however, in the modern context, things of illicit objectives too
move from person to person like the exchange of heroin that
he takes into consideration further in the article.
Study conducted by Dwyer
 The study conducted by him made a few people as his
participants regarding exchange of cigarette .
 The main purpose of the study was to link the process of heroin
exchange with the habit of sharing his cigarette.
 One question sticks to his mind that in a social gathering people
do not mind sharing of cigarette then why the usage of heroin
has been banned?
 Dwyer reaches to Vietnamese drug dealer in Melbourne where
he observes everything.

 Dwyer uses the quantitative along with qualitative method to
observe and record the tendency of sharing the heroin.
 the key feature of this study was it gives arise to the multi
culture values as they are able to fulfil their needs with the
mechanism of demand and supply.
 “My analysis draws on two years of participant observation
among Vietnamese heroin user–dealers in a street-based
heroin marketplace in Foots cray, a suburb of Melbourne,
Australia’s second largest city. I begin with an account of
cigarette gift exchange between myself and research
participants. These exchanges were a key way through which I
was incorporated as an ethnographer into the social field of the
drug marketplace. For me as a smoker, cigarette exchange is so
taken for granted that I engaged in it unreflexively throughout
my fieldwork. It was only later that its enduring and recurring
qualities became apparent. My reflections on these processes
stimulated my identification and observation of broader

processes of exchange around drugs. Thus, cigarette exchanges
between myself and drug marketplace participants became an
integral source of data and understandings concerning how the
drug marketplace operated.” (Dwyer, 2014)
 “During the fieldwork period, most drug transactions occurred
in and around Footscray’s open-air mall, and they were
dominated by Vietnamese dealers and their mainly Aussie
customers. The category Aussie includes a mix of people from
Anglo-Celtic and second-generation southern or eastern
European backgrounds. In this marketplace, the term is used to
refer to people who are not ‘Asian’, Aboriginal or African. The
designation Asian, or the more specific Viet, is employed by the
Vietnamese when referring to themselves.” (Dwyer, 2014)
(Placeholder1)
 During the course, the case study can be identified with the
social conduct of the individual and its connection with the
habit of accepting the factors traditionally.

 This is not only one pattern which has been watched but also
few different markets across the globe where individual
approach and finally it becomes the tradition after the few set
of patterns.
References
Dwyer, R. (2011) “The social life of smokes,” in Fraser, S. and Moore,
D. (eds) The Drug Effect: Health, Crime and Society. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, pp. 19–34. doi:
10.1017/CBO9781139162142.003.
Fraser, S., & Moore, D. (Eds.). (2011). The Drug Effect: Health, Crime
and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
doi:10.1017/CBO9781139162142
Foundation for a Drug-Free World. (2018). What is Heroin? How is
Heroin Made? What is Heroin Made of? - Drug-Free World.
[online] Available at:
https://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/heroin.html [Accessed
1 Apr. 2018].

Keane, H. (2018). AHR 57 (November 2014): Helen Keane: Cigarettes
are No Longer Sublime. [online] Australianhumanitiesreview.org.
Available at:
http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-
November-2014/keane.html [Accessed 4 Apr. 2018].
Keane, H. (2018). AHR 57 (November 2014): Helen Keane: Cigarettes
are No Longer Sublime. [online] Australianhumanitiesreview.org.
Available at:
http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-
November-2014/keane.html [Accessed 5 Apr. 2018].
Köpetz, C., Lejuez, C., Wiers, R. and Kruglanski, A. (2018). Motivation
and Self-Regulation in Addiction.