Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of tables; Acknowledgements; 1 Understanding and researching drug taking: lessons from the past; 2 Theorizing decisions about drug taking; 3 A balancing act? Weighing up the costs and benefits to health and well-being; 4 The meaning of pleasure and risk in a cultural context; 5 The journey to adulthood; 6 At the crossroads: life journeys and drug journeys; 7 Drug taking and risk assessment reconsidered; Appendix; Notes; References; Index
Summary
This book describes how a group of young people make decisions about drug taking. It charts the decision making process of recreational drug takers and non-drug takers as they mature from adolescence into young adulthood. With a focus upon their perceptions of different drugs, it situates their decision making within the context of their everyday lives. Changing lives, changing drug journeys presents qualitative longitudinal data collected from interviewees at age 17, 22 and 28 and tracks the onset of drug journeys, their persistence, change and desistance. The drug journeys and the decision ma
