White dragon pearls in Hong Kong: a study of young women drug addicts.

Abstract

Drug addiction among young people is on the increase; Hong Kong with its complex social problems shares this trend, including in it both young women and young men. Contributing to this trend are weakening social taboos and changing personal reasons for drug use. To understand some of the forces attracting and keeping young women in Hong Kong's drug subculture, 14 drug addicts under 25 were interviewed regarding their socioeconomic position, drug history, and personal and social attitudes. Answers show widespread poverty, weak family relationships, early school leaving and lack of vocational training, unstable job history, and movement into quasi-legal and illegal occupations such as dance hostess and prostitute. These factors are reinforced by feelings of lone liness, yearning for a good family life but the inability to achieve it, lack of clear life goals, and perceptions of an indifferent, uncaring society. Combined, these lead to a gradual drift toward drugs. The drug subculture provides the companions...