Working and “Drugging” in the City: Economics and Substance Use in a Sample of Working Addicts

Abstract

Employment status is often treated as a “risk factor” in epidemiologic studies of drug use. The process that underlies the supposed relationship has remained, however, essentially unexamined. This article uses life history data to look at the relationship between work and drug use in a sample of addicts from Baltimore City, Maryland. The narratives constructed by these individuals demonstrate that the processes involved in creating and maintaining drug- and nondrug-related identities are neither linear nor straightforward. Rather, managing complex, emergent identities is a product of the economic situation, the organization of the drug scene, and the larger milieu in which these addicts operate.

Key Words:

• Economics
• Identity
• Baltimore City
• Ethnography
• Theories of addiction