Background
The de-stigmatisation of substance use through public awareness and shifting opinions has long been central to activist and reform efforts. However, a growing body of scholarship underscores that stigma is rooted in deeper social injustices and power imbalances (Link & Phelan, 2014; Tyler & Slater, 2018).

Objectives
This paper theorises drug-related stigma by positioning it at the intersection of normative cultural frameworks and the political economy of contemporary neoliberal societies. It interrogates how specific stigma formations—centring on the powerless and deprived rather than the powerful and affluent—become accepted as uncontested truths.

Approach
Drawing from Goffman's (1990) notion of stigma as “a blemish of character” and Crehan’s (2016) interpretation of Gramsci’s (1971) “common sense” as socially embedded truisms, the paper explores diverse contexts, including the pharmaceutical industry, politicians' encounters with illicit drugs, drug market violence and exploitation, welfare dependency, and the social media shaming of people who use drugs in harmful ways.

Findings
The core argument proposes that “drug talk”—the sum of all things said and instinctively known about illicit drugs and the risks they pose—reflects and reinforces class-based stigmas and status distinctions. Through it, the less productive, the flawed consumers, and other marginalised subjects of the (neo)liberal order, are marked.

Implications
Engaging with the conference theme of culture and moralities, this contribution invites critical consideration of how stigma ultimately operates as a political force, rooted in common sense discourse, shaping the parameters and boundaries of drug policy, as well as potentially inhibiting change.