Imagen social de las drogas y de las personas que las consumenCreencias, estereotipos y actitudes

Résumé

The historical picture of drug consumption in Spain is strongly influenced by the use of heroin that occurred in the late 70s and early 80s, without there being a lot of previous knowledge of the concept of drug, even ignoring the effects caused by the use of other substances of this type much more established in lifestyle, such as alcohol or tobacco. The social image that people have about both the drugs and people who consume them plays a fundamental role in the relationships that this collective has with the rest of the society and, therefore, also with the professionals dedicated to their treatment and rehabilitation. So, it is necessary to know and detect the phenomena of stigmatization that favour the social exclusion for drug abusers to work to remove them. In that sense, this work intends to deal with the existing social image about the drug users, through the analysis of concepts such as stereotypes, prejudices and the stigma suffered by the drug addicts and how these phenomena influence on the social exclusion of the collective. To do this, through an own designed questionnaire, a study which aims to analyze and compare some of the beliefs, stereotypes and attitudes to both the drugs and people who consume them was carried out. It was done on a sample of university students associated with non-formal education who are attending the Degree in Social Education at the University of Salamanca, by comparing them with other students of the Degree in Working Relations and Human Resources of the same University.