NCJ Number
179030
Journal
Substance Use & Misuse Volume: 34 Issue: 12 Dated: 1999 Pages: 1689-1707
Editor(s)
Stanley Einstein Ph.D
Date Published
1999
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper analyzes the rhetorical framing of country statements from the general debate in the 1994 and 1995 meetings of the Commission on Narcotics Drugs (CND), a United Nations political organ that meets each year in Vienna.
Abstract
Altogether, 57 countries contributed to the CND general debate in 1994, and 60 contributed in 1995. Despite the U.S. drug czar's questioning of its applicability, the imagery of the nature of the drug control effort was overwhelmingly of war, struggle, and conflict. The dominant rhetoric of the CND general debate was expressed in terms of a fight between the forces of good and those of evil, with the forces of evil at least temporarily winning. Such a Manichean view of the world resonates with common ways of thinking in both Christianity and Islam, and thus fits with many national cultural frames. It was also a good fit with the classic worldview of each side in the Cold War, with the Communists demonizing capitalism and the western countries arrayed against an evil Communist empire with hidden, subversive tentacles everywhere in the world. Although there was consensus that the war was being lost, there was also agreement that international cooperation and solidarity can turn the tide against the international drug criminal enterprise. Calls for the decriminalization of drugs were viewed as an unacceptable surrender in the "war." Historical resonances of this rhetorical framing and possible future developments are discussed. 14 references