ABSTRACT

This chapter will detail the role that illegal drug use plays in the life of the participants today, thus bringing the story that we began to tell in Chapter 3 up to date. Six facets of the current use of the participants will be explored: the participants’ drugs of choice, their sources of drugs, the frequency and consistency of their consumption, the set and setting of their use, their reasons for use and the effect that they feel illegal drug use has had on their lives. We will see how the participants have managed to integrate drug use into their present circumstances, and encounter their generally sanguine and relaxed attitude towards it. We will also examine how illegal drug use has become of value to the participants in assisting them in their attempts to cope with various stresses and strains that are exacerbated by late modern conditions. And, in line with the argument made in Chapter 3 , we will suggest that the relief that illegal drugs currently provide to our participants can never be taken for granted, vulnerable as it is to transitions and turning points in other aspects of life, particularly given the emergence of so-called permanent liminality (Szakolczai 2000) as one of the defi ning features of the contemporary social world.