Opiates for the masses: constructing a market for prescription (pain)killers

Melina Sherman

Journal of Cultural Economy, 2017, vol. 10, issue 6, 485-497

Abstract: This paper examines the discursive and material construction of the ongoing US opioid epidemic. It argues that the epidemic cannot be understood apart from the reciprocal relation of cultural and economic processes that have made possible the formation of a market for prescription painkillers. Through an analysis of the articulation and interaction of medical, cultural, political, and market discourses, the author shows how these have been mobilized within a network of actors and institutions in ways that govern the economic life of opioid products. Dramatic transformations in the domain of pain management have coincided with shifting attitudes toward drug use in popular culture and transformations in health and regulatory policy to orchestrate the materiality of an enormous market for opioid products and make intelligible the problem of a nationwide ‘epidemic’ of opioid use and abuse.

Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jculte:v:10:y:2017:i:6:p:485-497

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DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2017.1352010

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