The Code Switch and Drug Use

JSTOR: Benoit et al., 2003

A recommended reading for anyone interested in ethnicity and ethnic self-identification, or the colloquial meanings of "race" differences.

We need to abandon that term in scientific discourse. Leave it to others. Ask them "Exactly what do you mean by 'race' when you use that term?"

Another word choice issue for scientists: I cannot recommend this article's vocabulary of "hard drugs" ( versus "soft drugs" ) in that it places too much stress on the "demon drug."

A drug is an agent in the agent-host-environment triad. Are some infective agents "hard agents" and others "soft agents"? Tell that to anyone who lost a loved one to "the common flu" or to those who were infected with Ebola virus and survived.

A misplacement of explanatory power.
Represents confused pharmacological thinking.

But read the article and judge for yourselves. Some potentially great ethnographic material in this article, and the term "code switch" is worth learning. Applicable in immigration and cross-cultural studies generally.