I nuovi scenari del consumo di sostanze psicoattive: una lettura sociologica

[Autom. eng. transl.] The consumption of psychoactive substances represents a widespread, multidimensional and uneven phenomenon in time and space. Sociological analysis has provided various interpretative paradigms aimed at investigating consumption practices and the etiology of consumption: once considered purely as deviant behaviors, expression of a widespread social malaise, the phenomenon was then sociologically read as a form of deviance resulting from a process of social construction and, again, as a sub-cultural practice. Today, in the light of the changes that characterize the patterns of use and the meanings attributed to it, theoretical approaches have spread that analyze the phenomenon according to the so-called normalization thesis. The present contribution is aimed at analyzing, in a critical key, the different interpretative models mentioned above in light of the changes that characterize consumption patterns.