University students and the normalisation of illicit recreational drug use

Autor: van den Bos, Arne, Blaauw, Eric, Bieleman, Bert
Přispěvatelé: Addiction Sciences and forensic care
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Youth Studies, 1-13. Taylor & Francis
STARTPAGE=1;ENDPAGE=13;ISSN=1469-9680;TITLE=Journal of Youth Studies
ISSN: 1469-9680
1367-6261
DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2022.2053668
Popis: The last decades have seen an increase in the use of illicit recreational drugs. In this article we take a detailed look at the current state of normalisation of the three most popular illicit recreational drugs among Dutch university students in the Netherlands (MDMA/Ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamine) by zooming in on five established aspects of normalisation and expanding on one of those aspects: social accomodation, by adding a behavioural subcomponent (setting of use). For this purpose, we used quantitative data, obtained from four studies (2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020) among Dutch university students in a prototypical university city in the Netherlands (Groningen). Results show that three aspects of normalisation are clearly observable. The drugs are perceived as highly accessible, the last year prevalence of use is high, and experimenting, especially with MDMA/Ecstasy, is common. Accurate knowledge of the drugs and acceptance of occasional use, account in some measure for social accommodation. However, as students do not talk openly about their drug use with everyone in their environment, one cannot speak of cultural accommodation. Thus, although clear signs of normalisation of illicit recreational drugs, especially MDMA/Ecstasy, are observable among Dutch university students, there is no full-scale normalisation of these drugs.
Databáze: OpenAIRE