Pleasures of immunization : the bio-politics of psychoactive substances

The article is an attempt to analyse the emergent practices around designer drugs in the perspective of Roberto Esposito’s biopolitics. New psychoactive substances are understood as technologies that - at the same time - support and subvert the logics of immunization, reestablishing the relationship between subject and object. The author juxtaposes post-Foucaultian and post-Lacanian theories of drug addiction as two possible ways of understanding the realtion between the drug and its user, both failing to account for the agency of the object itself. The excessive nature of designer drugs makes them immune to legal procedures, but also at the same time, reveals the shortcommings of critical discourse analysis. The author emphasizes the need to incorporate the accomplishments of new materialism and object-oriented philosophy into the realm of cultural studies analysis. Following Dunne’s design theory, he describes new ways of knowledge production in designer drugs communities, and examines them in the context of biohacking and bio-DIY communities. The article is aimed at establishing the biopolitical theory of drugs, that provides a better understanding for contemporary media practices around designer drugs.