The normalisation of cannabis use among young people: Symbolic boundary work in focus groups

Abstract

This paper analyses ‘techniques of neutralisation’ among young people discussing cannabis in focus group interviews. The paper is based on data from focus group interviews with young Danes followed from when they were 14–15 years old in 2004 until they were 18–19 years old in 2008. In this period, the participants' attitudes towards cannabis undergo a radical change from being negative and sceptical into being predominantly positive and accepting; a change we describe as a ‘normalisation’ of cannabis use. Four techniques of neutralisation are identified in this process. First, the participants redefine the setting of cannabis use, simultaneously creating a new type of togetherness: relaxed social intoxication. Second, the effects of cannabis use are transformed from being ‘strange’ and ‘unpredictable’ to being ‘controllable’ by the individual user. Third, participants change their classification of cannabis in relation to other substances. While 14–15 year olds draw a clear dividing-line between alcohol and illegal drugs (including cannabis), 18–19 year olds put cannabis on the same footing as alcohol but differentiate it from ‘hard’ drugs. Fourth, participants dichotomise cannabis use into spontaneous, social use, which they accept, and habitual, individual use which most of them reject. In combination, these four techniques of neutralisation turn cannabis into a normal drug: not normal in the sense that everybody uses it but normal in the sense that cannabis use is seen as legitimate by both users and non-users.