Drug use by adolescents is usually viewed as the result of personal vulnerability to peer pressures and drug pushers. This book provides a new perspective, which is sociological rather than epidemiological, understanding patterns of drug taking in the context of ordinary social interaction. In this social worlds analysis, adolescents' own concerns with boredom, depression, social identity, friendship, access to drugs, self-control and folk pharmacology replace the professionals' focus on deviant behaviour.
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About the Author:
Barry Glassner is the author of the national bestseller "The Culture of Fear". He is a professor of sociology at USC, and he lives in Los Angeles.
From Library Journal:
The first chapter compares epidemiological, political, and social explanations of adolescent drug use. The remainder of the book relies on participant-observation and in-depth interviewing to decribe the "social worlds" of adolescent users and nonusers. The intent is to understand drug use not as deviance but as an aspect of social interaction. There is very heavy reliance upon excerpts from interviews with 100 teenagers. Fewer excerpts and one more good chapter of theoretical explanation would be helpful, but as it stands the book provides an interesting descripton of drug use from the points of view of young users and non-uers. For serious students of adolescent drug use. John Broderick, Sociology Dept., Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherSt. Martin's Press
- Publication date1987
- ISBN 10 031221992X
- ISBN 13 9780312219925
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages301