ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how legal identity is negotiated in online discourse practices by analyzing Internet narratives concerning drug use. Previous studies of the virtual discourse of drug use such as the collection by Murguia et al. (2007) use ethnographic and survey-based methods as well as qualitative analysis to assess Internet forum users’ participation, intentions and attitudes to psychoactive substance use and the role of the virtual environment in shaping them. Results are interpreted from the perspective of the social psychology of individuals and groups (Barratt: in press) or from a legal perspective in terms of implications for public policy (Gatson: 2007).
