The Responsible Citizen of the Welfare State: An Analysis of Norwegian Health Authorities' Discourse and Governing of Legal Opioids

Abstract

In this article, we seek to research how the Norwegian health authorities communicate and govern regarding ‘legal opioids’, used to ease long term, non-terminal physical pain. The conduction of this research is based on the visible increase in usage of legal opioids and the increase in occurrence of overdoses caused by the drugs in Norway. In addition to this, we attempt to understand the presence of legal opioids in the Norwegian society from the perspective of neoliberalism, arguing that the increase in usage of legal opioids is connected to neoliberalism in the welfare state. The thesis uses Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory to detect discourses in the communication of the health authorities, finding two different discourses - one negative, health and science-oriented discourse, and one positive, which is socioculturally oriented. Based on these findings, we utilize Foucault's terminology about power in order to detect how the authorities govern the consumption and presence of legal opioids in the Norwegian society. We find that the positive discourse is highly present in their governing, allowing for individuals themselves to be responsible in regard to their consumption, and their termination of use. Using these findings, we discuss what role neoliberalism plays, first in terms of legal opioids’ presence in society, followed by a consideration of whether the case at hand can be relevant in social aid and education, as other important components to the welfare state. The thesis finds that the authorities’ governing of the individual makes the individual responsible for its own usage of legal opioids and well-being.