Uso de drogas: a alter-ação como evento

Abstract

This article asks the cast of questions and answers that we usually formulate regarding the uses of drugs and take into account another way of thinking about these practices. It suggests that it is not enough to inquire "why do people use drugs?" and "which is the meaning of the drug's use?"; neither to be contented with the answers that are presented when these questions are placed, because they usually conclude by "mistake", "lack" or "weakness". It proposes other questions: "what happens with practices like these?", "what kind of experiences users and drugs realize?" Therefore, we also propose other answers. Those new answers point out the existence of events (the 'high' of drugs) that bring paradoxical agencies of self-abandon. The article propose that the 'high' event is not a by-product of users' subjective fantasies, neither a by-product of substances' objective determinations, but asks for modalities of (in)action such those present on the paradox of passion or on deep plays. It supports that the 'high' event points out singular ways of engaging in the world, ways where substances are indispensable mediators. Finally, it suggests that better than ask who controls the 'high' is to ask if the 'high' occurs or not, or, after Gabriel Tarde, if alteraction exists or not.