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The Sociology of Drug Use 15 3 Drug Use and Social Change Secondary Analysis of the British Crime Survey (1994-8) and Youth Lifestyles Survey (1998/9) Michael John Shiner London School of Economics and Political Science Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Social Policy 1 UMI Number: U228627 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U228627 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Signed jSiOVoli- Michael John Shiner I 1 I > S S <9 Abstract During the second half of the twentieth century illicit drug use went from being something that was very unusual to something that most young people had at least some experience of. This apparent transformation has been attributed to the advent of post-modernity and is said to require a new explanatory framework. Established perspectives, it is argued, have been rendered obsolete as drug use has moved from the margins to the mainstream of British youth culture and as traditional distinctions between users and non-users have disintegrated. Based on two large-scale nationally representative household surveys, this thesis examines the evidence for such claims. It begins by developing an empirically grounded classification of drug use, before going on to consider how young adults’ use of illicit drugs varies according to a range of characteristics. Significant differences are noted on the basis of demographic characteristics, broader lifestyle choices and position in the life-course. These differences show that recreational drug use typically occurs in the context of a distinctly hedonist lifestyle which is heavily concentrated among young people in the early stages of the transition into adulthood. Alongside active participation in the night-time economy, regular binge-drinking and frequent drunkenness, drug use appears to provide young people with a means of making sense of their position in the social structure and celebrating freedom from adult roles and responsibilities. It follows from these findings that increases in drug use have been facilitated by the cultural and structural changes associated with development of modernity, particularly the extension of early adult transitions and the growing emphasis on leisure. That said, increases in drug use have not taken the sudden or dramatic form that is sometimes suggested and this implies a certain degree of continuity. It also indicates that established perspectives have rather more to offer than is generally supposed. 3 Contents List o f figures and tables 5 Acknowledgements 8 1. Introduction 10 2. The sociology of drug use 15 3. Methodology 49 4. Classifying drug use 81 5. The demography of drug use 117 6. Consumption and subterranean play 151 7. Just a phase? 189 8. Drug use and social change 230 Technical Appendix 245 References 287 4 List of figures and tables Figures 1 Career of polydrug use (mean difference in years of age when first used, all users aged 12-30) 106 2 Prevalence of drug use by age and occupational class or highest qualification percentage that ever used cannabis, the hallucinants and/or cocaine, all adults) 122 3 Prevalence of drug use by age and sex (percentage that ever used cannabis, the hallucinants and/or cocaine, all adults) 129 4a Young adults’ drinking styles - BCS (percentages) 168 4b Young adults’ drinking styles - YLS (percentages) 169 5 Young adults’ smoking habits (percentages) 171 6 Young adults’ domestic circumstances by age (percentages) 201 7 Odds of desistence by age (multivariate analysis, young adults) 208 8 Odds of desistence by domestic circumstances (multivariate analysis, select categories only, young adults) 215 9 Odds of desistence by age and domestic circumstances (multivariate analysis, select categories only, young adults) 219 10 Prevalence of recent drug use by age and sex (percentages, young people) 221 11 Participation in the night-time economy by domestic circumstances (young adults) 226 Tables 1 Variables included in the analysis 58 2 Legal classification of drugs and associated penalties under British law (1971- 2002) 85 3 Harmfulness of the main controlled drugs - Independent Inquiry 90 4 Prevalence of drug use among young adults and medico-legal classification 96 5 Frequency of recent drug use (percentages, young adults) 99 6 Strength of association between use of hallucinants (Kendall’s tau-b, young adults) 101 7a The changing status of ecstasy (Kendall’s tau-b, young adults) 103 7b The changing status of cocaine (Kendall’s tau-b, young adults) 103 8 Average age when illicit drugs were first used (all users aged 12-30) 105 9 Extent of young adult drug users’ repertoires (number of drugs used) 109 10 Reasons for non-use among young adults (percentages) 112 11 Social and harms-based classification of illicit drugs use 115 12 Prevalence of drug use by parents’ occupational class (percentages, young adults) 118 13 Prevalence of drug use by occupational status (percentages, young adults) 120 14 Prevalence of drug use by sex (percentages, young adults) 127 15 Probability of drug use by sex (multivariate analysis, young adults) 128 16 Prevalence of drug use by ethnicity (percentages, young adults) 131 5 17 Probability of drug use by ethnicity (multivariate analysis, young adults) 133 18 Probability of drug use by religiosity (multivariate analysis, young adults) 135 19 Changing effects of ethnicity - YLS (regression coefficients, multivariate analysis, young adults) 137 20 Probability of drug use by neighbourhood type - BCS (multivariate analysis, young adults) 141 21 Prevalence of drug use by unemployment (percentages, young adults) 145 22 Probability of drug use by unemployment - YLS (multivariate analysis, young adults) 146 23 Young adults’ use of leisure time - BCS 164 24 Young adults’ drinking habits 166 25 Prevalence of drug use by participation in the night-time economy (percentages, young adults) 173 26 Probability of drug use by participation in the night-time economy - BCS (multivariate analysis, young adults) 174 27 Prevalence of drug use by drinking style - BCS (percentages, young adults) 175 28 Prevalence of drug use by drinking habits - YLS (percentages, young adults) 176 29 Probability of drug use by drinking style - BCS (multivariate analysis, young adults) 178 30 Probability of drug use by drinking style and drunkenness combined - YLS (multivariate analysis, young adults) 179 31 Prevalence of drug use by smoking habits - YLS (percentages, young adults) 181 32 Probability of drug use by smoking habits - YLS (multivariate analysis, young adults) 182 33 Probability of drug use by early onset drinking and/or smoking - YLS (multivariate analysis, young adults) 184 34 Probability of drug use by drinking and smoking habits combined - YLS (multivariate analysis, young adults) 185 35 Young adults’, work and domestic circumstances 199 36 Young adults’ domestic circumstances (combined) 203 37 Prevalence of drug use by age (percentages, young adults) 205 38 Probability of drug use by age (multivariate analysis, young adults) 207 39 Prevalence of drug use by work status (percentages, young adults) 210 40 Prevalence of drug use by domestic circumstances (percentages, young adults) 211 41 Probability of drug use by domestic circumstances (multivariate analysis, young adults) 213 42 Probability of drug use by age and domestic circumstances (multivariate analysis) 218 43 Drinking habits and participation in the night-time economy by age (young adults) 224 44 Design factors for 1998 BCS and 1998/9 YLS 248 45 Cannabis lifecycle model (BCS) 257 46 Cannabis lifestyle model (BCS) 259 47 Hallucinants lifecycle model (BCS) 261 48 Hallucinants lifestyle model (BCS) 263 49 Cocaine lifecycle model (BCS) 265 50 Cocaine lifestyle model (BCS) 266 51 Cannabis lifecycle model (YLS) 274 52 Cannabis lifestyle model (YLS) 276 53 Hallucinants lifecycle model (YLS) 278 54 Hallucinants lifestyle model (YLS) 280 55 Cocaine lifecycle model (YLS) 282 56 Cocaine lifestyle model (YLS) 284 7 Acknowledgements One way or another I have been thinking about this project for almost ten years, during which time I have accrued a great many debts of gratitude. The original study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (R000222872), which, along with the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate at the Home Office, also provided access to the necessary data. Particular thanks go to Tracey Budd, Claire Flood-Page, Victoria Harrington and Siobhan Campbell (all of RDS) and to Nina Stratford (National Centre for Social Research) for their patience in answering my numerous queries about the data; and to Chris Hale (University of Kent) for his advice about the analysis. At the outset of the study I was based at Goldsmiths College, University of London, but subsequently transferred to the London School of Economics and Political Science. I am grateful to both institutions for supporting my studies and to Tim Newbum for fulfilling the role of supervisor throughout. Tim has been extremely generous with
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