The aim of this article is to discuss how we theoretically can understand the relationship between a specific intoxicating drug and a specific holiday discourse, in this case the relationship between the drug cannabis and the backpackers' discourse. Starting from the term performance, which is divided into different forms of performance—directed, identity-oriented, and nonconforming—I try to grasp the process of materialization: how matters or substances ascribe meaning. In this article I discuss how the backpacker discourse is historically formed by the 1960s/70s hippie discourse, and further, how the drug cannabis is a part of this picture. Cannabis is used as a marketing instrument when the backpackers' discourse is promoted. There is a link between an ideology described in the hippie discourse and different forms of performance, such as identity-oriented, where cannabis is referred to as “natural,” and intoxication as a happy, nonviolent alternative, connected to solidarity, and the nonconforming performance, which can be a performance showing shame in relation to travelling and illicit drug experiences, or a resistance performance which aligns with the official Swedish drug discourse in order to present Swedish backpackers positively.
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Merete Hellum (2010) studied this question.
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