Ideal Types

1Every individual is unique, but individuals are also products of cultural and social environments. They adopt social routines and learn to respect rituals and codes that make their behaviour more predictable than it might appear to be at first glance. Therefore a single individual’s behaviour can be compared to that of many others. From the diversity of human actions, sociologists try to bring out patterns in individual behaviour that have an internal logic. With the help of a model, they attempt to impose order upon what appears as disorder.

2In the preceding chapters we have tried to give as realistic a description as possible of the consumption patterns of amphetamine-type stimulants in Thailand. This corpus of information now needs to be organised to create a model that can be used to both summarise the Thai situation and place it in broader perspective. We shall use a tool called the “ideal type”,1 the existence of which we owe to the sociologist Max Weber. The ideal type enables us to construct a composite profile of yaa baa users based on certain “characteristic traits”. Once arranged in chart form, these characteristics make possible an operative synthesis that can simplify reality without misrepresenting it. The procedure allows us to find order in the apparent disorder without deviating too significantly from the empirical given.

3The framework of our model consists of two variables that structure alternative yaa baa consumption patterns. The horizontal axis denoting stimulation differentiates two primary motivations for yaa baa consumption: that for recreational pleasure, and that for work. The vertical axis corresponds to consumers’ interest regarding their involvement with the yaa baa trade. Interest is negative for those whose consumption is a cost factor and positive for those deriving income from it. These intersecting axes yield four distinct situations corresponding to “strong profiles” of consumers and to “philosophies” of consumption. The four profiles by which all consumers are more or less distinguished include the regular consumer, the nocturnal consumer, the borderline consumer, and the expert consumer.

4A regular yaa baa consumer looks for stimulation to increase his physical capacity to resist fatigue. He may need this capacity to continue working, complete a task, or acquire knowledge. Whatever the pursuit, the ideal-type regular player finds himself in a race against the clock. Even if his income increases by the time the race is finished, the income thus derived is not obtained directly from yaa baa because the regular consumer is not involved in its trade. The regular consumer is in this sense a fighter who seeks to increase his perseverance against his enemy, the passage of time, to which the consumer’s productivity and efficiency are linked. Yaa baa is consumed by regular users for its stimulating capacity alone and can be replaced by a legal stimulant. The regular consumer is the only one who uses yaa baa in solitude.

Four Ideal Types of Methamphetamine Consumers

Three Principal Categories of Methamphetamine Consumers

5The nocturnal consumer uses yaa baa as a form of recreation for an evening’s entertainment with friends. Stimulation gained from its use is for no other motive than to enable the user to prolong a pleasurable situation. Time loses its value completely; the user can either be “caught up” or “lost” at will, depending on the orientation. Similarly, money poses no problems while under the influence — though it most likely will the following day. The cost of yaa baa is an expense the nocturnal consumer is quite willing to cover. His sense of belonging to the group gives meaning to his drug consumption, and serves to justify it.

6Yet under the cover of entertainment, the nocturnal consumer, through his act of consumption, participates in an encounter that is less routine than that of the regular consumer, but one no less competitive. The nocturnal consumer perpetually seeks opportunities for ostentatious display, and the methamphetamine tablet itself proves that he knows the “right way” to be fashionable. His consumption is more impulsive and occasional than regular. Yaa baa is a necessity, but for the nocturnal consumer its consumption is ritualistic as opposed to functional.

7The borderline consumer2 likewise seeks stimulation through drug consumption, but his means of doing so are generally less pleasure-focused and time-specific than those of the nocturnal consumer. Even if the borderline user’s practice is social, the drug-taking behaviour itself is motivated by the individual user’s psychological state that is troubled or anxious. The borderline consumer typically turns to yaa baa in difficult times, such as after losing a job or failing an examination. Under circumstances such as these, yaa baa comforts, consoles, and reassures. In the absence of alternatives, it dawns upon the borderline user that selling yaa baa would allow him to build up a small nest egg with minimal effort and finance his own consumption at little cost. Methamphetamine here plays a functional role by helping the user cope with adversity in daily life. Despite failure or troubles, he can maintain self-esteem. He needs the buoyant effect of yaa baa to retain a foothold in life and keep from sinking into a marginality that could bring about social stigmatisation.

8The borderline consumer is not yet a full-fledged expert in the underground world of yaa baa. He is still “on the margins”, occupying the boundary between legal and illegal livelihoods. The borderline consumer is an ideal type of neither-here-nor-there. Neither young nor old, neither employed nor unemployed, the choice between a legal existence and an illegal one is one that the borderline consumer has yet to make.

9As against this, the expert consumer has truly entered the world of trafficking and illegal activities. His passage into the underground economy renders him highly stigmatised and with few opportunities to return to a legitimate existence. This being the case, the expert accepts his marginality. He becomes a yaa baa professional wherein trade is his main source of income and his social network is restricted to other players in the underground system: friends, acquaintances, those who prescribe the drugs, and protectors. This is a dangerous position in Thailand since illegal trafficking can incur a sentence of capital punishment. To experience yaa baa under these circumstances is no longer a means of pleasure, but a tool for work-related stress management that comes with being a dealer, allowing the user to stay alert to the threats of vengeance, denunciation, and repression that characterise encounters in the underground drug world.

10These profiles are valid only for describing the essence of distinct behavioural patterns. They are pure constructions but as we will see, constructions that come to life when applied to the everyday realities and career paths of actual yaa baa users. Through first charting these concepts as they are actually lived, and then comparing them, we can obtain a dynamic table of methamphetamine consumption.

Comparing Ideal Types and Profiles of Actual Consumers

11A variety of consumers have profiles similar to the ideal typical regular consumer. They could be students who are playing it safe in their quest to pass exams, or peasants, drivers, labourers, or fishermen who push themselves to work harder in order to supplement their income. The regular yaa baa consumer is a worker who fears, above all, that the effects of fatigue could thwart his plans.

12The ideal typical nocturnal consumer resonates with the multitudes of young peer groups in contemporary Thai society who aspire only “to be together”, a companionship achieved through conversing, competing, quarrelling, or simply going out to a disco together.

13The ideal typical borderline consumer reflects the reality of those who live on “small jobs” between periods of employment and unemployment; homeless children too young to be real dealers and too poor to attend school, who “peddle” drugs; and refugees who take to prostitution and risk psychological and social decline in hopes of attaining a better standard of living.

14The borderline consumer is a decisive stage that can foreshadow passage into the underground economy. The full-fledged expert, on the other hand, has fully come to terms with his status of “trafficker”. Professional yaa baa dealers, retailers, distributors, and stockists, as well as government servants who benefit by supporting such illegal activities,3 are close to this ideal type. Their experience of yaa baa as users is intertwined with extremely lucrative trading activities.

15Thus, superimposing profiles of actual yaa baa consumers upon the ideal typical ones reveals three populations of users, namely, students, workers, and the poor.

A Dynamic Perspective

16If we can pin down ideal type profiles of yaa baa consumers at a single historical moment, then how might we begin to understand the development and interconnections of such profiles over time? It is difficult to speculate about long-term historical trends from what is in essence a ten-year-old phenomenon; the outcome of paths being tread by present-day yaa baa consumers in Thailand and elsewhere is still uncertain. Nevertheless, despite the absence of long-range historical data, we can transform this static chart of those involved with yaa baa into a more dynamic one through extrapolating from the limited data available and surmising from what we have already determined to be the main conceptual types. A dynamic table enables us to identify possible passages from one ideal type to another, and differentiate between those with “exits” and those without, between those who are condemned to continue with their consumption and those who are not.

17For instance, both the empirical data and the ideal type profiles acknowledge that a generational divide separates young consumers from the older ones — two user populations mostly unaware of the other’s existence. Old and young seldom interact except when both inhabit the world of the borderline consumer, a profile where the dividing line between generations tends to disappear. If we are trying to understand the development of particular careers among yaa baa users, then the data and ideal typical models that we already have would discourage us from assuming that a 45-year-old worker who today takes yaa baa to fight fatigue would have been a former “young” consumer of the drug.

18As a first step in constructing the dynamic chart, we can observe possible movements from one status to another. In Thailand a school-goer will aim to become a university student, failing which he will seek an existence outside of the university by cultivating ties with a close-knit peer group. In any case, if he is already using yaa baa while in school, his habit can continue as such afterwards. The only question is whether he will continue to do so under the auspices of a “stable” job or not, and if not, whether the alternative will be falling in with a group of unemployed or otherwise marginal persons who have become dealers.

19Young Thais who have finished school risk being tempted into becoming borderline yaa baa users. For them, as for people of more marginal social identities such as uneducated street children, prostitutes, refugees, or heroin addicts, the regularities of existence as a small-time dealer can seem appealing as such individuals face questions of what to do with their lives. The threat of unemployment, a prospect that many workers faced during periods such as the 1997 crisis in Southeast Asia, can also propel individuals who have jobs into drug-dealing activities of the borderline consumer.

Passage of Users from One Status to Another

Ability to Exit from the Yaa Baa Circuit

20A player in the yaa baa trade who occupies the position of borderline consumer is caught in a current heading toward escalating levels of illegality. The borderline player has only partially mastered the codes of the illegal market. He straddles the intersection of the two systems, and his social and economic circumstances largely determine whether and how he will experience the passage from a semi-legitimate world to a fully-illegitimate one.

21At the borderline level, the consumer still has hope of one day exiting from the “yaa baa system”. But the longer he remains a borderline player, the more likely it becomes that he will have a long “career” in the underworld economy by ascending to an important position in the hierarchy of dealers and thus becoming a professional yaa baa trafficker. The eventuality of borderline individuals turning professional is all the more probable as Thailand’s methamphetamine economy continues to expand.

22Young school graduates and others on the margins of society are not the only populations prone to cross from borderline to professional involvement in the drug trade. Those in government administration are also vulnerable. If a corrupt official has compromised himself and risks being exposed, he has no alternative but to enter the “system” and place himself at the service of the professional yaa baa trade. Even if he can retain his administrative position by seeking protection from higher-level corrupt bureaucrats or elected officials, any career hopes must now be hitched to the underground economy; ahead of him lies the prospect of illegal trade of even larger proportions.

23The ease or difficulty of extricating oneself from yaa baa use depends on one’s position in the consumption chart. The motivation to quit can be created when, for instance, the user is somehow made aware of the danger of taking yaa baa. A colleague’s road accident, a university friend’s addiction or a parent’s warning are factors that can cause a truck driver, a college student or secondary school pupil to give up the habit. An exit is made all the easier if the user’s involvement with yaa baa reaps no financial rewards. Alternatively, foregoing involvement with yaa baa becomes difficult when its consumption is connected to the user’s direct economic dependence on its sale.

Scope and Limitations of the Model

The Arrival of Ecstasy: A Social Distinction and a New Division

42At first glance it seems doubtful that a phenomenon such as the use of illicit drugs, which appears to be limited to particular subcultures of society, could possibly have implications for how society works as a whole. And yet this is indeed the case if we consider it part of the social process of distinction, an analysis developed by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu conceptualises society as a symbolic struggle for prestige and power between dominating and dominated classes. The weapons of this struggle are economic and cultural capital, and the objective to be achieved is “distinction”, in two senses of the term. The first is the capacity to determine symbolic differences between objects of consumption. The second is to differentiate oneself from others with regards to taste, judgement, and cultural capabilities.16 This social and cultural struggle for domination is essential for how a given society is established and maintained. Thus the two opposing parties — the distinguished on one side and the ordinary on the other — can only exist in relation to one another. It is their relationship that, even when contentious, gives meaning to cultural practices such as the consumption of illicit drugs.

43Illicit drug use is in fact not uncommon in this symbolic fight. Such practices enable some people to distinguish themselves from others and assert their superiority, which in turn provokes others to contest the first group’s claim to power and prestige.17 The struggle is generally turbulent, as the socially-recognised value of objects and behaviour undergoes continuous change. What was “in” yesterday is “out” today, when an item of consumption or a behaviour becomes commonplace.

44Until very recently, yaa baa was the only ATS available in the Thai market. The fact that the stimulant had long been used by ordinary people such as drivers and labourers gave it a reassuring image. Searching for new means of distinguishing themselves, elite youngsters who wanted to experiment with drugs had no other option but to try it. As we have seen, however, although yaa baa pills are of varying colours and shapes, these variations do not reflect actual differences in a standardised manufacturing

45process that could distinguish the product according to discriminating registers of price or effect. Thus methamphetamine carries little symbolic value in the distinction process and cannot in itself function as an element of social stratification. As a youth phenomenon, yaa baa has spread to young Thais en masse, without delineating concomitant social distinctions among its users.

46However, the unanimity with which Thai youth have taken to ATS has been shaken by the very recent appearance of a new product in the country — ecstasy. This psychotropic drug, imported from Europe, is sold at a much higher price than yaa baa and carries none of the latter’s mass appeal. Ecstasy is targeted exclusively at consumers belonging to the well-to-do class.

47Yaa “e”, the Thai name for ecstasy (pronounced with an “i” as in English) conveys an image of popular consumption as fashionable as Miu Miu apparel or Oakley eyeware.18 Local consumers do not believe this drug is dangerous because it is imported from the West. “My friends and I would never take yaa baa”, swears Yuri, 27, a young Bangkok photographer and ecstasy user. But does he mean he would never take it, or “never again”? He does not elaborate. But it is certain that claims about one substance being safer than another — as if ATS were produced under ISO norms of Afnor, the French association for standardisation — are very often used to justify a switch between types, for instance, moving to yaa “e” after having sampled yaa baa. Giving up yaa baa for ecstasy is most likely done to show that one has exclusive tastes and the means to afford them.

48Such displays are made possible by the relatively high visibility of ecstasy tablets on the nightclub scene in Thailand. In discos, imported yaa “e” has a more prominent reputation than that of local yaa baa. The drug acts to generate admiration from one’s peers as well as heighten the sense perceptions of the person who consumes it. Thus ecstasy is most popular among young individuals seeking recognition from the group.

49It is now possible to return to Bourdieu’s theory to place the above in perspective. The desire for distinction among those who use illicit drugs tends to make one substance obsolete in favour of another newer, more fashionable drug. Some observers think the arrival of ecstasy in Thailand could lead to a rapid decline in the market for yaa baa. If this is the case, the yaa baa “epidemic” may be nothing but a fad and so likely to die out.19 Whatever the case, individuals’ proclivity to use psychotropic drugs will never disappear altogether. One product simply drives out the other, a process that occurs in piecemeal fashion because it is largely the discriminating price of the drug deemed fashionable that makes it popular with consumers.

50The fact that young people in Thailand are constantly moving from one trend to another is indisputable. They might be shifting from one drug type to another, or one kind of social behaviour to another. Whatever the case, their ostensibly non-conformist actions reveal conformist preferences at work. It was not so long ago that opium was very much in vogue on Thai territory. When the government took measures to eradicate it, opium was replaced by heroin. Then, with the appearance of methamphetamine, consumption practices changed once again. Each time the preceding wave generates some residual users who remain attached to a product, but the overall movement between products continues.

51The formation of an “ecstasy elite” within the general market segmentation of psychotropic drugs points to new social class polarisation in Thailand. Referring to the organisation of Western societies, Alain Touraine suggests that vertical society — one’s position in a top-and-bottom structure of social classes — is giving way to horizontal society, or one’s placement in relation to the “fashionable centre” or the “unfashionable periphery”.20 Applying this conceptualisation to the Thai case yields organization that is both vertical and horizontal. One form is not giving way to another; rather, the society is a product of the cumulative effects of each.

52In Thailand, rank and status hierarchies continue to be important pillars of social structure. Simultaneously, young Thai’s adherence to a single fashion — the latest — represents a sense of belonging to a centre, a sole reference point. The horizontal organisation of Thai society is subject only to the disparity between city and countryside, which remains quite marked despite the mobility of the population. A young Thai now intensely experiences two worlds at once. He belongs to a rigidly-identified vertical class based on dominant and subordinate relations, and also aspires to the middle range of a horizontal axis of culture where extremes are considered negative and where an urban “modern” lifestyle is preferable to a rural “traditional” one.

53ATS is perfectly in keeping with this dual logic. Yaa baa has enabled one younger generation of Thais to distinguish itself from the rest along a vertical axis of rank and class. And if ATS has united this section of the population, the recent arrival of ecstasy shows that these products can also reinforce status-based social distinctions.

54However, the yaa baa pill, a product of “modern chemistry”, also symbolises the habits and fashions of the West for young Thais that can be measured along a horizontal axis of centre and periphery. Experiencing the effects of the drug, users have a feeling of participating in Life with a capital L, of having a hold on the world. As a perceived “global” product, methamphetamine is perfectly suited to a population that measures itself on a scale of global consumerist values. Yet this perception is ironic given that yaa maa, the antecedent of yaa baa, was first used by labourers in the country’s sugarcane fields — an irony that seems to be lost on members of Thailand’s current younger generation, whose ability to acknowledge their ties to the past is weak at best.