Styles of Middle-Class Adolescent Drug Use

Becoming a middle-class adolescent drug user is part of the broader social process of moving into certain adolescent social life styles. The drug world reflects the structure of the adolescent social world and one's identity and position within the latter set the conditions for gaining entry to the former. The cultural milieus of the social type groups structure the run of drug experience, leading to different styles of drug use, kinds of drugs used, subjective experiences, and characteristic types of drug users. There is a continuity between the life styles of the various drug-using social type groups and different styles of drug use.