ABSTRACT This study examines what happens to pharmaceutical products after they have been provided, purchased, consumed and discarded. Based on an archive of medical materials, constituted over three years of collecting waste in public sites around South Africa’s Eastern Cape, I analyse the uses of these products in relation to two key developments in post-apartheid history: new forms of healthcare provision and consumption; and the diversity of formal, adaptive and illicit uses of pharmaceuticals. I highlight the example of the opioid analgesic – codeine – among the most accessible and widely abused pain-killers in South Africa’s pharmaceutical compendium. Through comparing local instances of codeine abuse, I draw historical connections between current and past uses of proprietary (‘over-the-counter’) medicines. The ‘pharmatrash’ in this study is the product of global developments: modern scientific research, its technological and commercial applications, and the expansion of the pharmaceutical market in the twentieth century. These materials are also resonant of national developments: the democratisation of healthcare, the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, and patterns of material acquisition and consumption. This article explores the social and political meanings of this ‘detritus of democracy’ in contemporary South Africa.

中文翻译：

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南非的“Pharmatrash”：民主残骸的当代史

摘要 本研究考察了药品在提供、购买、消费和丢弃后会发生什么。基于三年多来在南非东开普省周围公共场所收集废物的医疗材料档案，我分析了这些产品的使用与后种族隔离历史的两个关键发展：新形式的医疗保健提供和消费; 以及药物的正式、适应性和非法用途的多样性。我强调了阿片类镇痛药——可待因——的例子，它是南非药物纲要中最容易获得和滥用最广泛的止痛药之一。通过比较当地滥用可待因的情况，我在当前和过去使用专有（“非处方”）药物之间建立了历史联系。本研究中的“制药垃圾”是全球发展的产物：现代科学研究、其技术和商业应用，以及 20 世纪制药市场的扩张。这些材料也与国家发展产生共鸣：医疗保健的民主化、传染性和非传染性疾病的负担，以及材料获取和消费的模式。本文探讨了当代南非这种“民主的碎片”的社会和政治意义。传染病和非传染病的负担，以及物质获取和消费的模式。本文探讨了当代南非这种“民主的碎片”的社会和政治意义。传染病和非传染病的负担，以及物质获取和消费的模式。本文探讨了当代南非这种“民主的碎片”的社会和政治意义。