Chasing Dragons: Security, Identity, and Illicit Drugs in Canada

337 Pages·2008·2.488 MB·English

by  Kyle Grayson

Recto Running Head i
CHASING DRAGONS
Canada has received significant attention of late for initiating a
government-sponsored medical marijuana program and for its flirta-
tion with marijuana decriminalization. These initiatives have con-
tributed to Canada being seen by Washington as a reluctant ally or
even as a potential threat. The result of this impression is increasing
American pressure on Canada to adopt more robust domestic security
policies. At the same time, the Canadian public sees itself as uphold-
ing values that differ from those held by its neighbour to the south.
These values are supposedly reflected in a distinctive security outlook
that reasonably responds to potential threats, in sharp contrast to the
overreactions of the United States.
Chasing Dragons challenges these assumptions of difference and
exposes the politics of security in Canada and the policy that they
make possible. Focusing on the issues surrounding illicit drugs, Kyle
Grayson examines how the discourses and practices of security policy
in fact contribute to the construction of Canadian national and cultural
identity. This analysis is also relevant beyond Canada. Acrucial con-
tribution of this book is to identify the dangers of underestimating the
centrality of race and geopolitics to civic conceptions of nationality in
liberal societies.
Chasing Dragons reconsiders the meaning of security and discusses
avenues for resisting the insecurity produced by liberal states in the
post-9/11 world. This critical approach reveals the pervasiveness of
power in contemporary Canadian society, how this power is hidden,
and the consequences for progressive social politics.
KYLE GRAYSON is a lecturer in International Politics at Newcastle
University.
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Contents iii
KYLE GRAYSON
Chasing Dragons
Security, Identity, and Illicit Drugs
in Canada
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
iv Contents
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2008
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8020-9287-8 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-8020-9479-7 (paper)
Printed on acid-free paper
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Grayson, Kyle
Chasing dragons : security, identity, and illicit drugs in Canada / Kyle
Grayson.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9287-8 (bound). – ISBN 978-0-8020-9479-7 (pbk.)
1. Drug control – Canada. 2. National security – Social aspects – Canada.
3. Internal security – Social aspects – Canada. 4. Nationalism – Canada.
5. Marginality, Social – Political aspects – Canada. 6. Drug abuse – Canada.
I. Title.
HV5840.C3C39 2008 363.450971 C2007-906681-X
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to
Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts
Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the
Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents v
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
1 Introduction 3
Drug Pushing and the Simulation of Canadian Identity 3
Chasing Dragons/Chasing Canada 7
Discourse and Power/Relations 13
Neo-Parrhesia and the Discourse of Drugs in Canada 17
Methodology and Method 21
Genealogy and Illicit Drugs 28
Structure 32
2 The Theory/Practice of Security and Identity 37
Introduction: (Re)Thinking Security 37
Security and Securitization 39
Securitization and Criminalization 42
Identity and Security: Moving beyond the Via Media 43
Security and Identity as Performative and Performance 45
The Significance of Security and Identity 51
Understanding the Politics of Security and Identity 53
3 Situating Canadian Geonarcotics: Canada, the United States,
and the Performatives of Canadian Identity 56
Geopolitics 60
Geonarcotics 63
Perform(at)ing Canada in Geonarcotics 68
vi Contents
Canada and the United States 80
Conclusions and Beginnings 93
4 Race and Illicit Drugs in Canada: From the Opium Den
to New Drug Khatastrophes 95
Introduction: ANew Drug Khatastrophe 95
Critical Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity 97
Early Canadian Nationalism and Race: The Canada
First Movement 100
Race and the Limits of Diversity 103
The Social Gospel and the Regulation of the Canadian
Body Politic 109
Biopolitics and Governmentality in the Early Securitization
of Drugs 111
The New Right, New Racism, and Contemporary Canadian
Biopolitics 113
Returning to the New Drug Khatastrophe 116
Conclusions 123
5 AGenealogy of the Body of the Canadian Drug User,
Part I: From Criminal Addiction to Medicalization 125
The Body Politics of Illicit Drug Regulation 125
From Victim to Criminal Addict 129
The Sick Addict? Treatment of Drug Addiction and
the Medical Community 137
Challenging Criminal Addiction: The Return of
Medicalization 141
Criminal Addiction Reconsidered? Marijuana and the
Discourse of Drugs in Canada 147
The Le Dain Commission 152
Responding to Le Dain 155
6 AGenealogy of the Body of the Canadian Drug User, Part II:
From a National Drug Strategy to Medical Marijuana 158
The Politics of the Possible in the ‘War on Drugs’ Era 158
Decriminalization and Medical Use 161
The Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs: Mandate
and Framing 164
Representation of Drug Use/Users 167
Representations of the Medical Community 170
Recommendations 173
Contents vii
Parliamentary Special Committee on Non-Medical Use
of Drugs 175
Representations of Drug Use/Drug Users 176
Representations of Law Enforcement 178
Representations of the Medical Community 179
Issues and Recommendations 180
Findings and New Starting Points 182
(Re)Reading Canadian Identity through the Canadian Drugs
Discourse 184
Conclusions 193
7 The (Geo)Politics of Dancing: Illicit Drugs and Canadian
Rave Culture 197
Genealogy of Rave 203
Ecstasy 208
Rave in Toronto 212
Banning Rave and the Allen Ho Inquiry 219
Designer Drugs and Raves 228
Smokes, Booze, and Rave 232
Conclusions 234
8 Conclusion 237
Selling Fear, Buying Security, and Constructing Canada 241
Return of the Dragon 246
ACanadian War on Drugs? 248
Beyond a War on Drugs? 250
Appendix: The Progression of Canadian Drug Law –
Key Events 255
Notes 265
References 275
Academic 275
Media 287
Government and Other Primary Sources 304
Index 309
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Contents ix
Acknowledgments
This monograph has been published with the help of a grant from the
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through
the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I am
appreciative of the three anonymous reviewers whose close readings
and helpful suggestions as a part of this process enhanced the breadth
and depth of this manuscript. Of course any errors or omissions
remain my own responsibility.
While at York University, I was blessed to have received tremendous
support, encouragement, and intellectual guidance from Margaret
Beare, Daniel Drache, David Dewitt, and David Mutimer. In particular,
each of these individuals displayed both intellectual honesty and a
willingness to mentor, qualities that helped foster my own profes-
sional development. I am also deeply appreciative of the intellectual
safe havens provided by the York Centre for International and Security
Studies, the Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and
Corruption, and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, and for the
efforts of their staff, including Joan Broussard, Sarah Whitaker, Laura
Taman, and Joan Shields.
Anumber of my colleagues, including Samantha Arnold, J. Marshall
Beier, Collen Bell, Ryerson Christie, Elizabeth Dauphinée, Mark
Heeler, Alison Howell, Tina Managhan, and Cristina Masters, par-
ticipated in intellectual engagements that greatly contributed to my
growth as an academic; they also added the requisite level of wit nec-
essary to survive the banalities that define contemporary life. I have
the continuing good fortune of great colleagues at the University of
Newcastle Upon Tyne in the United Kingdom. In particular, I am
thankful to Jocelyn Mawdsley, Simon Philpott, and Nick Randall for
x Acknowledgments
going well beyond the call of duty to make me feel welcome in my
new home and for helping me acculturate into a new environment.
I appreciate all of the support that my family and friends have given
me. To my parents, thank you for always having my best interests at
heart. To my grandparents, thank you for instilling the importance of
obtaining an education.
Finally, there are two people to whom I owe an impossible debt. To
my wonderful wife, Denise, who has been exceptionally understand-
ing of the peculiarities of academic life and extremely forgiving of all
the disruptions these can cause, I could not have done this without
you. To my daughter, Elle, you are my world and my inspiration. I love
you both very much.
Kyle Grayson
Newcastle Upon Tyne
September 2007