Tracing the “Event” of Drug Use: “Context” and the Coproduction of a Night Out on MDMA
Contemporary Drug Problems September 1, 2014 Ella Dilkes‐frayne 65 citations
Current research on youth illicit drug use often examines 'context' as a mediating factor, but this approach misses the temporality, dynamism, and multiplicity of actual drug-taking. Drawing on Actor Network Theory, the author conceptualizes a drug-use event as a process of successive mediations, where shifting relations bring about transformations and actions including drug use. The article discusses methodological aspects of tracing such events and provides an account of a young man taking MDMA at a music festival in Melbourne, Australia. This approach offers a new way to rethink contextual influences on drug use and could assist harm reduction efforts.