Marijuana and lifestyle: Exploring tolerable deviance

Abstract

Recreational marijuana use has, in the past four decades, evolved from a practice that was prevalent only within certain marginalized groups, or subcultures, to one that is now broadly established throughout society. With this diffusion, particularly among the middle classes, use of the drug has become increasingly tolerated by law enforcers and general public alike. Despite continuing prohibition, significant numbers of otherwise conventional adults persist in using marijuana on a regular basis. On the basis of in‐depth interviews with 30 middle‐class adult users, I explore the patterns of use that evolved from their former group‐oriented experiences. As tolerable deviance, marijuana use has become a rather more personal aspect of lifestyle that is commonly found outside of the subcultural groups with which it was once associated. Accordingly the concern here is with marijuana's perceived practical uses for work and for leisure—those factors seen as warranting its inclusion as a routine component of people's everyday lives.