ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is about a special group of young people who have sought out objects and activities that are seen as dangerous, unethical and disgusting. They have developed a lifestyle in which drugs and criminal activities are everyday ingredients and in doing so, have done exactly what their parents, school and other representatives of modern society have warned them not to do, and have given an account of major themes in the subculture of the users before they started to use heroin. The book describes their interaction with each other as a form of socialization process in which their perspective of reality changes. It analyses the opportunities the young heroin users have to create a form of respectability once they have developed a serious addiction.
