Unlocking the spiritual with club drugs: a case study of two youth cultures.
Karen Joe-Laidler, Geoffrey Hunt
Substance Use & Misuse September 2013 DOI: 10.3109/10826084.2013.808067 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Comparative qualitative study Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Young people in San Francisco and Hong Kong who use club drugs |
| Key findings | The authors argue that spirituality plays a dual role in drug use: religious involvement and spirituality can protect against substance use, while the quest for spiritual experience can also motivate psychoactive drug use. In their comparative study, ecstasy use in San Francisco and ketamine use in Hong Kong became associated, in distinct dance party settings, with a spiritual awakening of self-awareness and liberation. |
Abstract
Researchers have become increasingly interested in the link between spirituality and the use and misuse of drugs as well as intervention. First, studies have pointed to spirituality and religious involvement as a protective factor against substance use. Second, the quest for spirituality can play a role in drug use. This article has two aims. First, it seeks to examine the features of spirituality connected with both recovery from drug misuse and psychoactive drug use. Second, it seeks to understand the latter in the context of contemporary youth culture. We draw from our comparative study on club drug use among young people in two cultural locales-San Francisco and Hong Kong, where two different drugs, ecstasy and ketamine, have become associated in different dance party settings with a spiritual awakening of self-awareness and liberation.