The Teenage Transition: From Adolescent Recreational Drug Use to the Young Adult Dance Culture in Britain in the MID-1990s

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of some of the most recent research surrounding the use of prohibited or illicit drugs by young people in Britain. Current research on the prevalence of illicit drug use identifies an unprecedented rise in such use by increasingly diverse groups of young people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. Presenting here for the first time 4 years of data from the University of Manchester northwest longitudinal study of English adolescent drug use, the paper looks at patterns of use of different drugs, differential experiences with these drugs, and characteristics of use and non-use throughout the mid-teens. Along with this transformation in adolescent drug use has been a similar rise in the prevalence of drug use by young adults, which is located in the context of the dance party or ‘rave’ scene in Britain, linked to the ‘dance revolution’ and to a wider youth culture that reflects an acceptance of drug use both by users and non-users as a part of young people's leisure. This has led the authors to identify a process of ‘normalization’ of recreational drug use among young people with resulting legal, education, employment, and health implications.