Youth, Drugs, and Nightlife

This book, which is unique in its focus on the rave drug scene in the US, examines the relationship between the scene, party drugs, and identity. Hunt et al., social and cultural anthropologists and sociologists at the US Institute for Scientific Analysis and the US National Institute of Health, interviewed 300 ordinary young people in San Francisco who attended raves, as well as DJs and promoters, to understand how they view the dance scene, how they portray their role in it, the meanings they attach to their involvement and their use of drugs, the element of pleasure, the role of alcohol, polydrug use, the awareness of the negative effects of drugs, and issues of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, with a chapter focusing on Asian Americans. They also address the historical development of the rave scene around the world and legislation that targets youth drug use at raves. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Geoffrey Hunt is a social and cultural anthropologist, who has had nearly thirty years' experience in planning, conducting, and managing research in the field of youth studies, and drug and alcohol research. He is a senior research scientist at the US Institute for Scientific Analysis and the Principal Investigator on three US National Institute of Health projects. He has published extensively on substance abuse, especially alcohol and drug use and evaluating community prevention and intervention programs.

Molly Moloney is a senior research associate at the Institute for Scientific Analysis. Trained as a cultural sociologist, her research focuses on gender, ethnicity, and identity within street gangs and within club-drug scenes. She has published on fatherhood among gang members, on regulating the nighttime economy in San Francisco, on club-drug use among Asian American youth, on gender theory, on global television and television critics.

Kristin Evans has a degree in sociology and psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. As a research associate at the Institute for Scientific Analysis in San Francisco she was project manager of two NIH-funded projects, on "Club Drugs and the Dance Scene" and "Asian American Youth, Drugs and the Dance Scene." Previously she worked on street gang projects. She has published a number of articles with Geoffrey Hunt on gang girls and drug use, and on drugs and the dance scene.