Tracing the “Event” of Drug Use: “Context” and the Coproduction of a Night Out on MDMA

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.

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Abstract

In this article I propose that current research addressing the mediating role of “context” in youth illicit drug use can be complemented by examining drug use “events.” Events analyses capture the temporality, dynamism, and multiplicity often lacking in research into contexts of use. Drawing on Actor Network Theory, I conceptualize the drug-use event as a process of successive mediations, whereby shifting relations bring about transformations and actions including drug use. The methodological aspects of “tracing” drug-use events are discussed before an account of an event in which a young man takes MDMA at a music festival in Melbourne, Australia. Building on this account, I illustrate the value of this approach for rethinking how we conceive of contextual influences on drug use, and suggest how analyzing events could assist the project of harm reduction.