Conceptions of Risk in the Lives of Club Drug-Using Youth

Abstract

This paper describes current patterns of club drug use and local conceptions of risk among New York City area youth. The data is drawn from a NIDA-funded ethnographic study of club drug initiation among “Bridge and Tunnel” youth. The paper entails an examination of the harmony and discontinuity between folk models of risk within this population and professional models of risk. The author explores how club drug-using youth conceive of risks related to club drug use, specifically ecstasy, and how such conceptions compare and contrast with current professional models of risk. These conceptions of risk are crucial to understand, as they form an informal logic by which club drug practices are guided. Ultimately, the author examines how the relationship between folk models and professional models might inform health promotion efforts targeting youth.

Keywords:

• club drugs
• ecstasy
• ethnography
• folk models
• risk
• risk assessment
• risk management
• youth

Notes

^a Informed consent was obtained from all respondents for the in-depth interviews as per the approved IRB protocol. The study operated under a Federal Certificate of Confidentiality to ensure protection of sensitive data elicited from respondents. All names within this paper are pseudonyms.

^bThese youth self-identified with a variety of racial and ethnic identifiers. For the sake of brevity, they have been subsumed under specific identifiers. For example, “Latino” included youth who identified as Latino, Hispanic, and Latin American. “White” includes youth who identified as European, white, and Caucasian.

^cFor more information on Dance Safe's pill testing program, visit www.dancesafe.org or www.ecstasydata.org.

^dThis quote comes from Dr. Leshner's article “Club Drugs are Not ‘Fun Drugs’,” accessible via www.clubdrugs.org, a NIDA-supported informational website about club drugs. Aside from a series of brief articles issued from NIDA, the website also contains basic information about club drugs, trends and statistics, and news updates.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian C. Kelly

Brian C. Kelly, Ph.D., is a medical anthropologist educated as an undergraduate at Fordham University and as a graduate at Columbia University's Department of Sociomedical Sciences. His topical areas of research interest include drug use, sexual health, and youth cultures. He continues to conduct ethnographic research in the New York City metropolitan area. The foci of his current projects include club drug use among New York area youth and drug dealing among suburban youth.