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Normal Drug Use: Ethnographic Fieldwork Among an Adult Network of Recreational Drug Users in Inner London

NCJ Number
189067
Journal
Substance Use and Misuse Volume: 36 Issue: 1 and 2 Dated: 2001 Pages: 167-200
Author(s)
Geoffrey Pearson
Editor(s)
Karen McElrath, Dale D. Chitwood
Date Published
2001
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This qualitative research study explored recreational drug use among adults in an inner London neighborhood.
Abstract
In the 1990's, the question arose in Britain as to whether the use of illicit drugs had become “normalized”. The most commonly used illicit drug among young people in Britain is cannabis. Previous evidence has pointed to certain forms of illicit drug use that are now commonplace. This article addressed the question of recreational drug use (mainly cannabis and cocaine) among a neglected group, adults. The use of drugs was “normalized” within these adult networks, not in the sense that everybody used drugs all the time, but that the use of illicit drugs was seen as an entirely routine aspect of everyday life. The use of certain illicit drugs, under certain circumstances, was regarded as normal practice. The use of illicit drugs was seen as a cultural normalization rather than a statistical norm. In the debate of normalization, a different body of evidence was presented acknowledging tolerant attitudes towards certain kinds of illicit drug use that had become firmly embedded in mainstream British culture and not only among the young. In summation “normal” adult recreational drug use requires a new public health agenda for living with drugs in the new century. References

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