Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #102760

Brian C. Kelly, MA, MPhil, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, 722 W 168th St, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10032, 212 662-4769, bck12@columbia.edu

National prevalence studies show that youth remain key consumers of club drugs such as ecstasy and ketamine. These substances have attained instrumental status in a number of club subcultures. Accompanying the entrenchment of these substances in certain subcultures has been the circulation of specific conceptions of risk related to club drugs. These conceptions of risk directly shape the harm reduction strategies put into practice by youth within these subcultures. Many youth involved in club subcultures do not have regular contact with health outreach organizations. Yet, many harm reduction practices surge from within these subcultures and are maintained through a normative, self-sustaining process operating organically within these communities. Rather than requiring constant attention from professionals external to the subculture, these youth have developed “intraventions” – prevention activities sustained within communities themselves – aimed at reducing the harms associated with club drug use, especially ecstasy. Based upon data from several years of ethnographic research in New York City club subcultures, the author discusses the “intraventions” currently circulating within club subcultures. He explores how we may use these “intraventions” as stepping-stones for engaging club drug-using youth in an effort to augment their knowledge in such a way that builds upon their existing harm reduction strategies rather than imposing professional knowledge upon unwilling subjects. Ultimately, the author suggests ways to integrate professional public health interventions with the subculturally based “intraventions” currently circulating among club-going youth.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to recognize the ways in which youth conceive of the risks associated with club drug use, to identify the harm reduction practices indigenous to club subcultures, and apply club drug interventions in a way that build upon existing community resources.

Keywords: Drug Use, Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.