@article{ref1,
title=""I wonder what age you grow out of it?": negotiation of recreational drug use and the transition to adulthood among an Australian ethnographic sample",
journal="Drugs: education, prevention, and policy",
year="2016",
author="Green, Rachael",
volume="23",
number="3",
pages="202-211",
abstract="Aims: Positioned by work of normalisation researchers, this article examines how &quot;recreational&quot; styles of drug use were negotiated by young adults in relation to emerging &quot;adult&quot; identities. <br><br>METHODS: Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in Perth, Western Australia. This involved 18 months of field observations within a network of approximately 60 non-service-engaged 18-31 year olds among whom amphetamine-type stimulant use was a common activity and 25 in-depth interviews with a sub-sample (average age, 25 years) who used illicit drugs at least monthly. <br><br>FINDINGS: While most participants began to &quot;age out&quot; of drug use by their mid-twenties, the process was uneven and individualised. Some did not perceive a need to &quot;quit&quot; using drugs at all. While health and wellbeing and work-related responsibilities informed decisions by many to use less frequently of &quot;quit&quot;, negotiation of non-stigmatised and &quot;normal&quot; identities - especially among friends and partners - appeared to most strongly inform decision-making. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Values associated with &quot;ageing out&quot; of illicit drug use are more nuanced and contested than have been depicted within typical accounts of &quot;normalised&quot; drug use. This study found that they are complicated by uncertain and protracted transitions into adulthood in contemporary society but also by the continued stigmatisation of drug users.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0968-7637",
doi="10.3109/09687637.2015.1128883",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2015.1128883"
}