To date, very little academic work has explored drug use as part of contemporary popular culture. This collection of readings will apply an innovatory, multi-disciplinary approach to this theme, combining some of the most recent research on the 'normalisation' of drug consumption with fresh work on the relationship between drug use and popular culture.

Introduction Part 1: Context, theory and history Introduction 1. An introduction to theoretical approaches and research traditions 2. Mental health and moral panic: drug discourses in history Part 2: Considering the 'normalisation thesis' Introduction: an overview of the normalisation debate 3. Definitely, maybe, not? The normalization of recreational drug use amongst young people 4. The 'normalisation' of 'sensible' recreational drug use: further evidence from the North West Longitudinal Study Part 3: Representing drugs in and as popular culture Introduction 5. Drugs and popular music in the modern age 6. Drugs, the family and recent American cinema 7. Under a cloud: morality,ambivalence and uncertainty in news discourse of cannabis law reform in Great Britain 8. The symbolic framing of drug use in the news: ecstasy and volatile substance abuse in newspapers 9. Drug dealers as folk heroes? Drugs and television situation comedy 10. 'Junk, skunk and Northern Lights - representing drugs in children's literaturePart 4: Identities, cultural practices and drugs Introduction 11. Echoes of drug culture in urban music 12. Drugs and identity: being a junkie mum 13. Women, drugs and popular culture: is there a need for a feminist embodiment perspective? 14. The drugs of labour: the contested nature of popular drug use in childbirth Part 5: Drugs, normalisation and popular culture: implications and policy Introduction 15. Systemic 'normalisation'? - mapping and interpreting policy responses to illicit drug us