DRUG USE: EXPERIENCES, SOCIAL CONTEXTS AND PERCEPTIONS Chair: Catrin Smith Chair: Catrin Smith

0241 - HIGHS AND LOWS: NEW PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES (NPS) AND CITY LIFE Sarah Soppitt (United Kingdom)¹; Adele Irving (United Kingdom)¹

1 - Northumbria University

The aim of this paper is to consider the significance, impacts of and good practice responses to the use of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) (also referred to as ‘legal highs’) by young people at risk of (re-)offending. Prompted by an increase in levels of anti-social behaviour and offending among young people as a result of NPS in the North East of England, this paper presents the findings of a recently completed study which sought to gain a detailed qualitative picture of the use of NPS by vulnerable young people aged 10-24 years old and inform the development of an effective (multi-agency) whole-city response. Through a mixed-methods approach (involving a workshop, focus groups, interviews and a survey with young people, stakeholder interviews and a large-scale consultant event), the research explored young people’s knowledge of and attitudes towards NPS, motivations for use, issues of supply, patterns of consumption, the effects of NPS on their health and wellbeing and organisational responses. The research revealed the highly complex nature of the young people’s attitudes

185 unpredictable nature of NPS and legislation around NPS cause for organisations. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the research for the city’s strategic response to the use of NPS by vulnerable young people.

0242 - DRUG DEALING WITHIN THE GAY CLUB SCENE IN LONDON: HOW PEOPLE OBTAIN THEIR OWN DRUGS.

Christine Schierano (Italy)¹ 1 - London Southbank University

According to the first report on Drug and Alcohol use among the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) population in England, conducted by the Lesbian & Gay Foundation, the LGB population appears to have a higher likelihood of drug use and binge drinking, higher likelihood of substance dependency, and face greater barriers to help-seeking in relation to substance use when compared to the general population. The propose of the research presented here is a) to investigate the drug use and drug supply within the gay club scene in London; and b) consider how the culture of drug use in the scene may influence the market itself.

Anderson (1998) explains that cultural identity plays an important role within drug use and drug abuse, suggesting that personal and social marginalization may influence drug use and that an individual’s own self-identity may lead them to identify within a drug using culture. At the same time, much recent research suggests that within ‘recreational’ drug using (sub)cultures, users obtain their drugs through “social supply” networks rather than from “real dealers”, although the distinction between social supplier and real dealer is not always clear cut (Taylor and Potter, 2013).

This research aimed to investigate the drug market around the London gay club scene using qualitative methods (in-depth interviews and participant observation) with active drug suppliers and drug users.

As with any market, illegal drug markets are based on demand and supply. It is normal that demand is flexible and it increases and decreases rapidly due to external factors that influence its dynamics.

With drug use so firmly embedded in the culture, the illegal drug use linked to the gay club scene requires an endless supply. When drug use becomes a ritual of a particular subculture or cultural identity, the distribution may be affected. Drugs such as GHB/GBL, Mephedrone and Crystal Meth are now used to socialise (as well as to ‘aid’ dancing and sex) and both the use and distribution of those substances can be compared with the use and distribution of substance such as cannabis and ecstasy in other recreational drug use scenes (e.g. Parker, 2000).

0243 - LEGITIMISING ADULT RECREATIONAL DRUG USE: THE CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE OF NORMALISATION AND NEUTRALISATION THEORIES, A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS APPROACH Rebecca Askew (United Kingdom)¹

1 - Manchester Metropolitan University

Recreational drug use continues to be a significant area of academic interest within the field of criminology. The vast amount of research within this area has focused on explaining and theorising young people’s recreational drug use, this is unsurprising as, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, the 16-24 age group has consistently been the most drug involved age group since the self-report survey began. Rates of drug use reduce from the mid-twenties age range onwards, and continue to dwindle throughout the life course (Home Office, 2014). However, since 2011/2012 there have been slight increases in recent drug use for the over 35 age groups. Less attention has been paid to the existence of recreational drug use in adulthood and the maintenance of rather than desistence from this illicit consumption.

This paper explores how adult recreational drug takers legitimise their illicit substance use.

Twenty-six in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals between the ages of 30 and 59, who had taken drugs in the past year and have otherwise conforming lifestyles, through parenthood, jobs and careers and long-term partnerships. A branch of discourse analysis, discursive psychology, was used to explain how drug use was, described, reasoned and accounted for by the participants. The analysis was underpinned by assessing the contemporary relevance of the normalisation thesis (Parker et al, 2002) and neutralisation theory (Matza and Sykes, 1957 and later revised by Maruna and Copes, 2005). This resulted in the development of three discursive frameworks, which demonstrate the different ways in which illicit drug use can be legitimised. The paper concludes by outlining how the contribution of discursive psychology applied to adult recreational drug use has opened up new considerations within the sociology of deviance.

0244 - FEMALE INJECTING DRUG USE, SOCIAL DISCREDITATION AND RESISTANCE Catrin Smith (Australia)¹

1 - Griffith University Background:

Little is known about rural women’s involvement in injecting drug use (IDU) and about the various roles women play. This is due, in part, to an assumption that illegal drug taking is an urban, male ‘problem’. Here, we can see the ways in which criminological discourses construct knowledges about illegal drug use and drug users. While rural female injecting drug users

187 responses to, injecting drug use. In this paper, I explore, through the analysis of ethnographic data the meaning of injecting drug use in the context of rural women’s lives and how living in a rural community of place shapes women’s experiences and perceptions of ‘risk’ behaviour.

Methods:

This paper is based upon ethnographic accounts of the lives and experiences of twenty active female injecting heroin users in the rural communities of North Wales, UK. North Wales is a socially and economically disadvantaged region, witnessing crises in the agricultural sector and local economy as well as housing decline in recent years. Life history interviews, shorter follow-up interviews and many more informal discussions were conducted with the women over a twelve-month period. The women were recruited through ‘network’ sampling techniques. All interviews were audio-recorded with the respondent’s permission and transcribed verbatim for analysis using the constant comparative method of generating and linking categories.

Findings:

The women all provided rich ethno-depictions of their lives, their experiences of injecting drug use and how living in a rural community of place impacted on them and their IDU careers. In their accounts, a number of overlapping themes emerged about injecting drug use, rural gender roles and relations and the management of the rural self. In the women’s accounts, we can see evidence of the multiple roles these women (attempt) to manage (drug user, mother, daughter, lover, etc.) and the social discreditation processes experienced in their day-to-day lives as ‘known’ IDUs. Much of this social discreditation in rural communities seems to be premised upon the individualisation of women’s drug use. Here, women are characterised as having in some way failed in their adult responsibilities as women. However, the women interviewed were not passive recipients of social discreditation processes and the paper concludes with a discussion of some of the responses from the self and the ways in which women respond to, and resist, the persistent negative imagery of female injecting drug users as ‘polluted’ women in a local community of space.

3.16 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EXPLANATIONS FOR CORRUPTION