title: Youthful drug use and drug subcultures.
abstract: Drug involvement is such an intensely social behavior that it lends itself to the notion of a subcultural existence. The social aspects of drug involvement generate a value system that is different from the dominant order. Using a longitudinal sample of college students, the findings indicate two distinctively different types of drug use, marijuana-only versus illicit drug involvement, that correspond to a subcultural or contracultural phenomenon. The elements of a subculture or contraculture are amenable to empirical measurement and can be differentiated from the dominant value system. Marijuana use reflects a type of subculture activity that maintains ties to the conventional order. Illicit drug use, on the other hand, is a contracultural activity, representing a pronounced break with the dominant culture.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D006801:Humans; D010379:Peer Group; D012380:Role; D012919:Social Behavior; D012925:Social Conformity; D012931:Social Environment; D012932:Social Facilitation; D012933:Social Identification; D012945:Social Values; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*