Article - What do young people gain from drug use?

[Alice]

Original article by Joanne Bryant of UNSW and Sarah MacLean of the University of Melbourne, published yesterday at The Conversation:

http://theconversation.com/what-do-young-people-gain-from-drug-use-18878

In contrast to War on Drugs rhetoric, many young people report that illicit drug use is manageable, pleasurable and creates social opportunities.

The idea that illicit drugs could hold value in the lives of young people is bewildering to most people, who tend to assume that illicit drug use is necessarily destructive. This becomes even more distressing for many when the young people involved are still teenagers.

Certainly, the concept is anathema to Australia’s drug prevention policies, which tend to take the form of a War on Drugs. Drug users are construed as mad, bad and dangerous. The normative view of illicit drugs is that they inevitably produce compulsions of human behaviour, and that people that use them are surely pathological, irrational and in need of help.

Even so, if you ask young drug users about their substance use, many will tell you that drugs play a range of roles in their lives. Yes, they can create problems, but drugs can also be pleasurable and create social opportunities.

Social studies

The idea that young people gain something from their drug use is found in a number of social science studies, including our own separate studies conducted in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Sydney study of disenfranchised drug users aged 16 to 24 years found that they used drugs to manage daily stress and to escape the difficulties of their day-to-day lives. They also reported using drugs as a means to build or strengthen friendships or other relationships, to alleviate boredom and to have fun.

The Melbourne study of regular alcohol and other drug users aged 13-15 years found that they used drugs for similar reasons: for pleasure and to have fun, to improve social ties, and sometimes as a means to cope with the negative aspects of their lives. Participants argued their drug use was generally controlled (although some of their accounts indicated it was not), that their futures would involve competent substance use and that they did not require formal treatment.

A UK study of 16- to 22-year-old drug users also found that drugs served particular purposes in young lives including to help them relax, stay awake while socialising and alleviate a depressed mood.

Cultural gains

Put together, these studies point to certain gains. By using drugs, young people enjoy their bodies and the company of their friends. They strengthen social ties and gain a sense of shared identity and belonging in groups of other young people.

But perhaps more importantly, young people gain specific kinds of cultural capital or identities that are valued within their social circles by using drugs. By saying that they use drugs to facilitate social life, for pleasure or to manage stress, the young people in these studies say they use drugs with intention.

They see their drug use as purposeful and, in doing so, they see themselves as rational and competent “managers” of their own drug use. This has particular relevance to young people precisely because they are young. That is, their “youth” already positions them socially as incomplete subjects or “unfinished adults”.

For those who are marginalised and at risk of disengagement from mainstream institutions such as school, the need to be seen as competent in an area of life is particularly acute.

So, using drugs contributes in powerful ways to a young person’s view of themselves as self-managing and mature. Their drug use is, for them, one marker of adulthood. Therefore, at least for the short term, self-managing and autonomous identities are an important form of cultural capital within the environments that are built by young people through their drug use.

Acknowledging the gains from drugs

These social science studies should not be misconstrued as being uncritical of young people’s drug use. They carefully describe the sometimes serious problems that drugs can create in young lives: a sense of stigma, problems with school and family, poor mental health, involvement in crime and vulnerability to assault and overdose. Also, any cultural capital gained through drug use is unlikely to be recognised as such in wider social circles.

But if we hope to manage the harms associated with illicit drugs, it is necessary to acknowledge that young people gain something from their drug use and that stopping drug use entails a loss for them.

Drugs are used in pursuit of mature and self-managing identities. Young people who see their drug use as purposeful in this way will reject approaches for treatment or prevention that construct their drug use as compulsive and pathological, and themselves as somehow inadequate as a result.

[Sallubrious]

I didn't read through the links (my connection is just barely functional ATM) so maybe I'm just making assumptions but I've got to wonder how they got the answers in regards to the social aspects of drug use.

When I was an adolescent drug use was a very social thing and if I wasn't smoking pot or drinking I wouldn't have had much of a social life at all. At the time I never even considered the social aspects of drug use and I probably wouldn't expressed that it was important in that respect unless I was asked a context specific question in regards to the social aspects of it.

They've raised some pertinent points, an adolescent taking drugs is for the most part normal, someone in that age group who chooses not to take drugs can often be a social outcast or at least unpopular with their own age group.

Parents need to accept these facts and be involved with their childs/adolescents lives to stay in the loop and give guidance rather than judgment. When they become judgmental and anti-drugs they are seen by adolescents to be trying to shut down their kids social lives. At least that's how I felt.

[tripsis]

Good article.

[PhoenixSon]

it also teaches how blades have two edges

how views change and have more then two sides

how friends turn to fiends

how angels sink to their kneels

how candles can be burnt from two sides and melt into none

of how things can change and no-one else is to blame

how mistakes teaches

how scars remind us of our past

to motivate or demotivate our time spent bent

buckled and comfy while the world spins us by

but to add to the magic in each in others lives without any substances but our very own minds

somewhat better then that rat in a cage

a mind enriched with lessons learnt

some not pretty

some are petty

some are chains that can drain

time and tide does not wait

for any mad dog howling at the moon for it too fall into its lap

Edited November 11, 2013 by PhoenixSon