review by Lucy Gibson

University of Manchester (UK)

Dina Perrone's study of "club kids" based in New York City presents an illuminating analysis of the cultural and situational context in which club drugs are used. While most literature on drug use tends to focus on users from impoverished communities and the harm they experience, The High Life challenges the typical drug user stereotype by showing the "hidden" deviant behaviour of seemingly conformist, affluent and well-educated young adults. Perrone opposes America's war on drugs and argues that the focus of drugs policy should shift from a criminal justice approach (abstinence-only strategy) to a more balanced response that includes principles from both the cultural and health fields and focuses on the well-being and lifestyles of drug users.

The book begins by outlining two assumed flaws in America's current drug war: that drug users have a pathology, which is the only factor leading to the "drug problem"; and that all illegal drug use leads to harm. Perrone challenges these assumptions by asserting that the "...culture and capital of the user and the social environment in which the drugs are used greatly influence use, abuse, and harm" (p.2). Chapter One builds on the introduction by providing an overview of how Perrone met the club kids and offering initial insights into their lives. Moreover, the chapter describes the ethnographic field methods deployed to study the participants' use of club drugs such as MDMA, methamphetamine (crystal meth), ketamine and GHB. The book is based on Perrone's observations, discussion with club kids during fifteen months of fieldwork and interviews with eighteen club kids aged between 22 and 33.

The subsequent chapters are separated into two parts: (I) Club Kids' Dance Culture and (II) Drug Use among the Club Kids. The first part examines the club kids as a subcultural group by assessing how they correspond to subculture literature and earlier drug-using subcultural groups such as hippies, mods and skinheads. The book demonstrates that, in contrast to traditional subcultural groups, club kids do not wish to reject the dominant culture, but rather, they adhere to the consumerist norms of conventional American society. Club kid culture and the clubbing experience are explored using theories of consumption, commercialisation and globalisation, and by situating the club kids within postmodern theories of the nature of late capitalism. Throughout Part One, Perrone neatly uses the club kids' perceptions of clubbing, its importance and the suitability of using drugs in club settings to illustrate the fantastical, "carnivalesque" and commodified nature of contemporary club culture.

The second part of the book explores the club kids' patterns of drug use. Perrone shows how club kids maintain their jobs and uphold family responsibilities whilst using relatively large quantities of drugs. Through their social and economic privileges, the club kids are able to avoid criminal justice sanctions and limit harm. The author employs a theoretical framework, which refers and adds to the prior work of Norman Zinberg, to describe how factors (drug, set, setting, timing and capital) in club kids' lives allow controlled and safe drug use. Perrone expands on Zinberg's (1984) framework of "drug, set and setting" by adding supplementary concepts of timing and capital drawn from primary data. Timing and capital include both club kids' resources and stages or transitions in the life course. The author demonstrates how a drug's properties, the setting in which the drug is used, the user's mood (set), resources (capital) and phase of life-trajectory (timing), shape drug using practices and impact on the relationship between drugs and harm. Perrone uses rich and detailed quotations from her respondents to demonstrate how club kids negotiate drug use to minimise harm and avoid criminal justice penalties, while also revealing the larger contradictions in club kids' lives.

Chapter Seven provides a final discussion of the study's findings and offers a wider examination of their implications for drug policy in the U.S. Perrone pertinently argues that "...Socially and economically privileged drug users, such as the club kids, are better equipped to manage their clubbing and drug-using behaviors than are less privileged users...The war on drugs is disproportionately a war on poor people. Thus, White, middle-class users are more capable of concealing their drug use and escaping public and police detection than their lower-class counterparts" (p.205). For Perrone, the War on Drugs has been lost and future policy should de-stigmatise users and help to minimise the harm resulting from drug use rather than concentrate on arrest or punishment.

Perrone's study offers a convincing account of the social, cultural and environmental factors that shape drug use among club kids. The book provides a fascinating insight into club kids' lives and how regular drug users are able to occupy conventional social roles and sustain typical social relationships. However, two minor criticisms remain. Although numerous references to relevant work are evident throughout the book, the statement "...cocaine can benefit those with asthma" (p.130) is not supported by academic evidence and readers may want to know the basis for such a claim. Moreover, recent post-subcultural literature (e.g. Bennett 1999; Bennett and Kahn-Harris 2004) has been omitted from the discussion. Perrone states that club kids are not a subculture in the traditional sense of the term. Yet, she continues to use this term to describe the club kids as a distinct social group.

That aside, the book offers a stimulating analysis of club kids' drug use by highlighting the reasons for clubbing, and exploring club kids' motivations, and cultural practices. Perrone provides a thought-provoking discussion that challenges the majority of literature on drug use. The study is invaluable for students of electronic dance music culture as it questions current failing policy in the U.S. and offers new ways of conceptualising the culture and context of drug use.

References

Bennett, Andy. 1999. Subcultures or Neo-tribes? Rethinking the Relationship Between Youth, Style and Musical Taste. Sociology, 33: 599-617.

Bennett, Andy and Kahn-Harris, Keith. 2004. After Subculture: Critical Studies in Contemporary Youth Culture. London: Palgrave.

Zinberg, Norman. 1984. Drug, Set, and Setting: The Basis for Controlled Intoxicant Use. New Haven: Yale University Press.