Subcultural Aspects of Drug Use

1. Subcultural Aspects of Drug Use Lecture 6

2. What to Expect in this Lecture • What are Subcultures? • Formation of Drug Subcultures • Characteristics of Drug Subcultures • Closeup of Street-Heroin Subculture • Careers in Drug Use

3. What are Subcultures? • Most generally, we can say that subcultures are “cultures within cultures” • They are part of the larger culture, but they are also set apart and distinct • Deviant subcultures are organized around behavior patterns which are in conflict with dominant cultural norms and values • General characteristics of subcultures • Boundary Maintenance Mechanisms • Distinctive Norms • Specialized Knowledge • Distinctive Social Organization Subculture Dominant Culture

4. Formation of Drug-Using Subcultures • Generally found where drugs are illegal or strongly disapproved • Historically, emerged prominently after the Harrison Narcotics Act and other prohibition measures • Albert Cohen suggests that subcultures emerge where there are a number of people who share a common “problem” • Wherever drugs are made illegal, certain problems are posed: • How to obtain drugs • How to obtain money to buy drugs • How to avoid arrest • How to avoid potential health risks • Users join together to solve the common problems they encounter

5. Characteristics of Drug Subcultures • Erich Goode identifies the following characteristics: • Use normally occurs in a group setting • Others with whom one uses are usually intimates of long-standing association • Value consensus • Value convergence • Group cohesion around drug use and related activities • Self-identification based on drug using activity

6. Case Study: The Street Heroin Subculture • Began to emerge in the 1920’s following the Harrison Act • Primarily found in urban centers • Can be described with respect to 4 broad dimensions: • Boundary maintenance mechanisms • Distinctive norms • Specialized knowledge and skills • Distinctive social organization

7. Careers in Drug Use • We might define a career as “…a series of meaningfully related statuses, roles, and activities around which an individual organizes some aspect of his or her life” (Faupel, 1991, p. 24) • Three attributes of careers in this definition: • Careers have a temporal quality • Activities of careers are an organizing framework for one’s biography • Careers have a subjective component that provides a basis for individual identity

8. Types of Careers

9. Contingencies of Heroin-Using Careers