Review Of Merrill Singer's Drugging The Poor

In Drugging the Poor: Legal and Illegal Drugs and Social Inequality, the author, Merrill Singer hypothesizes that drugs, both legal and illegal, are responsible for widening the gap between the wealthy and the poor in society. From the perspective referred to as Critical Medical Anthropology (CMA), Singer attempts to bridge the relationship between political-economic factors and social inequalities with the distribution and use of all drug-like substances. CMA is the "theoretical perspective in medical anthropology which stresses the importance of political and economic structures, especially global capitalism, on the health of human populations (also known as the political economy of health)" (Joralemon 2010, Glossary). Singer uses CMA to equate the black-market with legal drug corporations, examine “drug capitalism”, and uncover their correlation to the drugging of the poor (Singer 2008, viii).

On one hand, there is the aboveground drug economy that is made up of Big Tabaco, Big Alcohol, and Big Pharma, who although engage in many illegal acts themselves, and provide products that are just as damaging to a person as their illegal counterparts, are viewed as acceptable, and even beneficial to society. While on the other hand, the underground economy made up of cartels and gangs is viewed as detrimental to society, even though they engage in the same acts, including philanthropy, that the legal corporations are (Singer 2008, 32). This divide in perception, and ultimately acceptance, is due to social