Young People and Drugs (From Drugs and British Society: Responses to a Social Problem in the 1980s, 1989, P 64-76, Susanne MacGregor, ed. -- See NCJ-133990)

• NCJ Number: 133991
• Author(s): L O'Bryan
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Routledge
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Focusing on young heroin-users, solvent-users, and their non-using friends, a 2-year field study was conducted from 1984 to 1986 to describe patterns of drug taking in inner north London and to identify subcultural, economic, and personal factors associated with initiation into drug-taking, its continuation, and escalation.

Abstract

Several common threads emerged in interviews with heroin-users and solvent-users: the importance of opportunity, peer-group pressure, and users' emphasis on a "hard man" image. One of the most obvious differences between the users of different drugs is that of age; heroin-users all were older than the glue-users. Heroin-users also had a longer and more varied history of risk-taking and perceived the greater risk associated with using heroin as more appropriate to their self-image. A possible link between family background and pattern of solvent-use exists, but no such pattern emerged with the heroin-users.