Abstract
This article seeks to contribute to the questioning of the classic biomedical and psi interpretations on overdoses and skin cuts that sometimes affect young people and adults who use drugs intensively. While skin cuts have mainly been considered part of the symptoms defining "borderline" disorders, overdoses have been explained as the excess of ingested substances that the body can metabolize. From an ethnographic approach in outpatient treatment to intensive drug users in metropolitan Buenos Aires, we seek to collaborate with the questioning of the classical expertise, exposing various dimensions that intertwine in both practices: body decay, saturation ways of feeling pain, barriers to access to health care and survival strategies in hostile environments.
Key words:
drugs; corporeality; deterioration; overdose; skin cuts