The aim of this study is to examine how young people look at and perceive drugs by studying how they discuss and reason about drugs. The essay's main interest is not whether young people use drugs or not. We are primarily interested in how young people talk about drugs. The questions that we want to get answered are: What are the beliefs that young people have about drugs, drug use and drug users? More specifically we seek answers to which images, symbols and attributes that young people links to drugs, drug use and drug users. What is important in young people's construction of beliefs about drugs and drug users? More specifically, which are the information sources and reference groups that young people assigns significance? We used focus group interviews as the research method. A group of girls and a group of boys at the aged of 18-20 participated in the study. As an analytical tool we used a hermeneutic interpretation analysis. We found that young people uses distinctions when they talked about drugs, drug use and abuse. Young people did for instance distinctions between alcohol and drugs, between soft and hard drugs, and between use and abuse. Alcohol was something that young people could use in the everyday life. Soft drugs, such as cannabis, were associated to party while hard drugs, such as amphetamine, were associated to social deprivation. Young people associated certain symbols, attributes and images to users and abusers. For example, they describe an abuser with words like torn and smelly. It also showed that the drug's importance will depend on the social context of the location and can differ between different contexts. This was clearly evident in the interview when the drugs on Stureplan become a symbol of status and party and when the drug occurs in a social vulnerable area, it became a symbol of mental weakness and social problems. The distinctions that young people do, speaks for a normalization of drugs. In order to create an image of drugs, young people use normative and comparative reference groups. The normative reference groups included influential people such as parents and coaches. The young people‟s comparative reference groups were the media such as TV, films and papers. The comparative reference groups became important to the young people in the lack of normative reference groups. Their reference group, from which they get their information about drugs, is significant in how they create their own image of drugs and drug users.

Studiens syfte var att analysera hur svensk dags- och kvällspress framställer narkotikabrukare. Metoden som användes för att besvara syfte och frågeställningar var en kritisk diskursanalys. Studiens teoretiska grund var socialkonstruktionism och kritisk diskursanalys i relation till Goldbergs (2010) stämplingsteoretiska modell. Resultatet visade på beskrivningar av narkotikabrukare som kriminella, utsatta, offer och beroende. Vad som också framkom var en bild av narkotikabrukare som en helt vanlig person, en Svensson med familj, barn och fast anställning. De diskurser som uttyddes var en förövardiskurs, en offerdiskurs och en normaliseringsdiskurs. Utifrån den stämplingsteoretiska modellen kunde det tolkas som att både offerdiskursen och förövardiskursen är stigmatiserande och således med i skapandet av avvikare medan normaliseringsdiskursen kan sägas vara icke-stigmatiserande för narkotikabrukare. / The purpose of the study was to analyse how the Swedish daily and evening press portraysdrug users. The method used to answer the purpose and questions of the study was a critical discourse analysis. The theoretical basis of the study was social constructionism and critical discourse analysis in relation to Goldberg's (2010) stigma theory. The results showed descriptions of drug users as criminals, victims and addicts. What also emerged was an image of drug users as an ordinary person with a family, children and full-time employment. The interpreted discourses were an offender discourse, a victim discourse, and a normalization discourse. Based on the stigma theory, it could be interpreted that both the victim discourse and the perpetrator discourse are stigmatizing and thus involved in the creation of deviants while the normalization discourse can be said to be nonstigmatizing for drug users.

Polisutbildningen i Sverige formas delvis utifrån ett ideal av polisyrket där den även är tänkt att förebygga ett alltför autonomt perspektiv på yrkesrollen. I föreliggande studie lades fokus på vilka faktorer polisstudenter anser ha störst inverkan på mötet mellan polis och narkotikabrukare samt vilket utfall mötet kan tänkas ha. Även deras syn på hur Polisens roll i det narkotikaförebyggande arbetet ser ut. Detta eftersom tidigare forskning visat att synen på yrkesrollen drastiskt förändras till ett mer autonomt perspektiv när polisstudenter kommer ut i yrkeslivet. Den stämplande effekt som kan ske vid mötet mellan narkotikabrukare och polis kan enbart inte ses som en konsekvens av det polisiära arbetet, utan främst som ett symtom av den avskräckande lagstiftning som Polisen är tänkt att upprätthålla. Resultatet i innevarande studie visade på att respondenterna ansåg att där fanns ett gemensamt ansvar över utfallet av mötet mellan polis och narkotikabrukare. Det framkom även att polisstudenterna såg Polisens roll som främst avskräckande, medan det mer förebyggande arbetet föll på övriga samhällsaktörer. / Previous research has shown that the meeting between police and drug users may induce a negative labeling effect for the drug user. The Police training program in Sweden is partially formed by an ideal perspective on the police profession, which is also supposed to prevent an all too autonomous perspective on the police profession. In this study, focus remained on police students' view on which factors played the biggest role in the interaction between drug users and police. Furthermore, there was a focus on which consequences may come from the meeting. Also, the students’ view on the role of the police profession was . This is because previous research has shown that police students' view of the role was examined. The reason for this being that previous research has shown that the role drastically changes to a more autonomous perspective once the student starts working as a police officer. The labeling effect that may occur in encounters between drug users and police officers cannot be seen solely because of the police work, but primarily as an unintended consequence of the deterrent laws that the Swedish Police are legally obliged to uphold. The results showed that the respondents deemed there to be a mutual responsibility for the outcome of the meeting between drug users and police. Additionally, the respondents viewed the Police as an organization whose main responsibility is deterrence, while the more preventive work falls upon other social organizations.