The substance of youth - the place of drugs in young people's lives today

By Perri 6, Ben Jupp, Helen Perry and Kristen Lasky, November 1997

2. Some sub-cultures of drug use

Much of this study is concerned with the oveall similarities and differences in outlook between drug users and non-users. This allows us to investigate the validity of images of drug users. People might interpret the generally similar outlooks of non-users and recreational users as indicating that young people hold consistent views irrespective of their sub-culture. But this is not so. For instance, certain social groups in Wythenshawe and Brighton have a culture of independence, others do not. But in Brighton recreational users tended to be the more independent, while in Wythenshawe non-users were. In other words, drug taking and attitudes can be associated at the local level, but these relationships were not consistnet nationally and therefore are not significant at the national level,

By way of introduction, we highlight the local diversity of youth cultures in which drugs may or may not be taken. We do not describe all the social groups from which we interviewed memebrs, but give the reader a flavour of the differences. The views described are chosen to indicate some of the most important sub-cultures we came across.

Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe is a large council estate on the southern outskirts of Manchester. Built predominantly after World War II it comprises mainly houses, not the high-rise blocks associated with problem estates. Yet over the decades it has become known locally as an area of high crime and concentrated deprivation, where houses are hard to let.

Recreational users
The lack of jobs and opportunities in Wythenshawe has produced a group of recreational users who take drugs at least partly just to fill time and to provide a bit of stimulation. George (22, recreational users) left school at 16. Six years on, he is unemployed with few career prospects, like most of his friends. For them, drug taking is nothing to do with clubbing. It is just part of getting through the day. "I think we left school too early", says George:

At 15 or 16 I didn't know that if I didn't get anywhere at school, I'd end up with no job. If I'd known then I'd have ended up doing what I wanted, like being a solicitor or something. It's too late now - I've got a criminal record. I could be a mechanic now, I suppose. But I'm not confident enough.

Wythenshawe's environment also influences resident's attitudes. For instance Fi, an 18-year-old recreational user who wants to go back to college next year to study tourism, highlights the high level of crime in the area when she says of the police:

If there were no police here, everyone would be dead and do things as they liked. These days lads fight until one of them dies. It's mainly knives and screwdrivers. That's boys for you.

Non-users
Many of the non-users we interviewed were single mothers. Some expressed more ambition than their predominantly drug-using peers and boyfriends. Others felt a hopelessness about their situation. Most looked up to those trying to sort things out. Susan (19) described one of her friends:

She tries her best to get on with life. She's a planner and I'm not, so I really admire her for making plans and for feeling confident making them.

Yorkshire

Recreational users
In an old mining village in South Yorkshire we interviewed a number of 17- and 18-year-old recreational users who were all part of a very strong social group. John (18) is on the dole. Like many of the group, he has moved in and out of employment since leaving school at 16 - he has been a scaffolder, factory worker, butcher - partly depending on the rate of pay being offered, and partly on his mood. For now, he says:

I get through the day mainly by being drugged up. Go round to mate's houses...Ideally I would like to be playing football. I used to play for the pub team. It's a good team.

There's a very strong sense of community around here. But I reckon the consrtium (of friends) will split up after the summer. We're all talking about it, and I'm not going to be a 19-year-old throwing snowballs.

Drug taking is an important part of the group's social life. John enjoys:

taking cannabis, ecstasy and speed all together. We take cannabis through bongs which takes you up. 'E' enhances any other drug. Speed just speeds you up.

While drug taking may be encouraged by the group, another member of the group, an apprentice joiner, described how they tried to help one member who had "been taking too much":

We've all been trying to help him get off the speed addiction. We used to take him home and went around to the bloke supplying him, saying that he's coming off. Every person contributed to help pay off his debts. Tried to get him a job. He's not keen, but we're trying. Once he's got a job he'll be okay.

Non-users
One of the groups of non-users we interviewed in Harrogate had limited exposure to drugs and tended to feel that they were generally bad for you. For example, Claire (18) is doing her 'A' levels:

I'm going to Newcastle for Fine Arts in September. I lived in Surrey for 10 years. I came here when I was 16.

I have no intentions to take drugs, don't feel the need to, don't want to. It's bad for you...If you start meddling, you're messing about with your body. It's not meant to have those drugs in it ruining it.

Sarah (18) held a similar attitude:

I hope I'd never try drugs - same with smoking. It's a slippery slope. But if anything, I might try pot. But I prefer reality, really - it gives you more of a high...not that I know, because I don't.

Brighton and Kingston

Recreational users
Most recreational users we spoke to in Kingston and Brighton said they felt using drugs was just another form of indulgence, along with drinking. Tony, 1 22-year-old English student at Kingston University, said:

I spend quite a lot of time in friends' rooms listening to music, smoking marijuana - that's a large percentage of my life. And the pub, drinking, for fifteen hours a week. It's really bad - I feel really guilty [that I'm not studying].

His fellow student, Jane, said:

I smoke quite a bit of gear - it relaxes me. It's nicer than alcohol because there's no hang-over and it's a lot more relaxing.

Steve (18), a first-year physics student, was one of the few people we spoke to for whom drug taking was a significant part of his self-expression. He described life as being:

about being happy, but you won't be happy if people around you aren't happy. So it's about working at it so that you and everyone you know do as well as possible.

Clubbing and drugs were all part of that, yet Steve said:

I don't want to use anything which is addictive because if you are addicted you are not in control.

An interest in drugs seemed to wear off many students as the end of their studies approached Liz was typical of third-year students. She had done a lot of clubbing in her first and second years, but was going off it now. She prefers to meet up with people just to see them:

Losing control is a big problem. It's one of the things which puts me off the whole scene really. Even though clubbing is really fun, when you see people who are completely out of it, it's really scary...I've seen people get into real messes. Even if I feel confident in myself, I still worry. I really enjoy it, but worry about the side-effects of doing things in excess.

Liz had finals in a month's time and said she wouldn't be taking any drugs until after her exams.

Among the young unemployed, we found a similar trend away from drug use in older groups. Sarah (24) is a trainee dispenser in a chemist's in Kingston:

I'm gradually settling down now - I don't go out as often as I used to. I used to always go to a club on Saturdays. But it wastes a Sunday. I was glad last weekend that I went to my boyfriend's. I'm beginning to think there's more to life generally, not just sitting around. A lot of my school friends got to that point years ago. I've got to start thinking about money, trying to be more sensible. My boyfriend is at the same stage. He said he didn't want to go to a rave [last weekend] - I wasn't sure. He's younger than me but he's lived away [from home] since he was 15. His parents divorced when he was very young and he moved around a lot. I think that's why he [acts] older - he had to look after himself from an early age.

The main exception we found to the pattern of 'maturing out' in one's early twenties was among some interviewees in Brighton. Here we met recreational users who had come to the city in search of a "good life". Rob, a 24-year-old accountant, reported that:

A lot of people are here for the express purpose of having a good time...So if you're here you have to take advantage of it. A holiday for 52 weeks of the year - people pay money to do this sort of thing. You can do whatever you like: get as mad as possible, or take it easy. Most people aren't working, but people do things to pay the rent.

Mark (24) said:

I did sociology at Newcastle - I'm from Hull - and I heard Brighton was a nice place to live. I worked as a computer engineer in St Albans, got money together and travelled to India for five months. Then I was in England for six months, and India again for six months, then Brighton. You hear all about [Brighton] on the travelling circuit, so I thought I'd check it out. I've been here over a year. I hope now to go on to South America for around six months.

He works as a volunteer in a community centre:

My job is okay to facilitate something else - it's the right area. But unless I really need cash, I don't ever want to do a job just to survive again - it's soul-destroying. The best thing my dad ever said was find a job you enjoy because you spend a lot of time [doing it].

Mark advocates the legalisation of drugs because, he says:

You'd have guaranteed quality, and government control, taking the power away from criminal organisations. It annoys me that some criminal organisation is getting my money and pumping it into something I don't necessarily agree with. It could create a lot of revenue - [releasing] police officers and [earning] tax. [The government] could give out information, instead of that "E kills" rubbish. Because of that everything the government puts out, no-one believes. All drugs have a downside, but they're not normally the ones advertised - on the mental sides we're not even given information.

Non-users
In Brighton and Kingston most non-users we interviewed did not take drugs simply because they have different leisure priorities. They did not have a particular opposition to other people's drug use. Paul is 16:

I enjoy going out with my mates. I go to work and at night go to some publs and clubs. In the summer I go fishing on boats with my cousins in Newhaven. I've been working at the King Alfred Leisure Centre for over a year, every weekend and in half-terms most days. I enjoy fishing because it keeps you busy and active, and going out at night because you can unwind from what you've been doing during the day. I enjoy working because I get money so I can go out.

Paul thinks that only crack, cocaine, and heroinb are "really dangerous drugs", but that there is "not much wrong with cannabis". Saqlan, who is 16, has priorities other than drug taking:

At school there are just a group of people who use drugs - half-asleep and drop-outs basically...But it's up to them, none of my business if they keep to themselves.

Saqlan agreed slightly that cannabis should be legalised.

Among a similar middle-class group in Kingston, not taking drugs was again presented mainly as a lifestyle choice. Laura (20) is outgoing and part of a big group of friends but had no interest in any drugs, including alcohol and cigarettes. She says:

I wouldn't do it, even if I knew what was in it - which I think is one of the main reasons people don't. I eat chocolate - I know it's not good for you - but things like that (drugs) don't have any appeal. Staying awake all night is the only attraction - but a lot of people use that as an excuse. You still spend twenty quid. I've been clubbing with everyone on 'E' - it's no problem, except the different wavelengths. No one has ever pushed it on me - people are not really like that. I find people respect you more if they know you don't do anything. Some say they wish they were the same.

But Laura didn't mind other people taking drugs:

I understand - you pay a lot (to go to clubs) and you want to stay awake. I fall asleep around 4. I've seen far more people lose control on drink than on drugs. Drink is a far bigger problem...People are not going to stop taking drugs, like they won't stop drinking.

Problem users
Many of the problem users interviewed had a different outlook on life from the non-users and recreational users we spoke to. But they were not a homogenous group in themselves. In Leeds we interviewed a group of problem users who spent their time far more communally than those we met in other parts of the country. Chas was older than the rest. His house was the place where most of the local heroin users congrgated. Chas used to live in a commune in another part of the city and deal in cannabis:

I think we're a bit of an unusual group because we all stick together. If one is poorly, we will sort them out with brown or tablets...we won't have methadone - it's more addictive - so we'd rather have DFs [tablets]...One of the lads who comes to the house sells them all the brown. If I think someone has had too much I say, "Look, don't do this." If someone can't fix we'll do it for them to make sure that they do it right. We have strict rules. No drinking. If you drink, the brown's out. Clean pins. If there's any arguement, we solve it between us. We try not to steal, we have rules.

Reports from other memebrs of the group suggested this was a rather idealised account of the situation, but the sense of belonging to a group was clearly strong.

Problem users in Wythensahawe tended to have grown up in the area. Tez (22, problem user) lives with his mother. He describes himself as having been an addict for six to eight months. Like many in Wythenshawe, he placed great emphasis on the importance of family. For Tez, like a number of problem users we interviewed, his family were an important source of support in helping him overcome his problems:

I think I'm quite lucky that I have the chance to get away. One of my best friends dies of an OD. I'm going to live in Scotland in July with an uncle and auntie, get away from this place. I'm sick of pumping heroin. My friend dying made me take notice. Not that I'm stupid, but I needed a kick up the arse.

In Brighton, many of the problem users had moved to the town from elsewhere. Steve (34) came down from Liverpool two years ago to try to get off drugs:

I was off for four months and walked straight into a job when I first arrived. Got back into the gear when I had loads of stress with my ex-girlfriend.

In Kingston, we met a large range of problem users. Many of the clients of Kaleidoscope (a drop-in centre) do not fit a traditional junkie stereotype. Diane (39) is a post-doctoral researcher in pharmacology. She said:

I've been using heroin for 17 years...Heroin's like a sexual buzz - a very pleasant sensation.

Diane's social group centred on drugs:

We're a drugs set, a drug group. The drugs are part of it because we are all heroin addicts...We're a group of six. Very different personalities, but we all believe that as drug users we have a choice.

The young people we interviewed indicated a range of sub-cultures within the broad bands of drug users and non-drug users. These national variations in young people's attitudes according to sub-culture require that policy is designed for and targeted at the local level.