Cocaine Rituals in Club Culture: Intensifying and Controlling Alcohol Intoxication

• DOI: 10.1177/0022042620986514
• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Author: Marit Edland-Gryt
• Date: 01 April 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022042620986514

Journal of Drug Issues

2021, Vol. 51(2) 387 –404

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DOI: 10.1177/0022042620986514

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Article

Cocaine Rituals in Club Culture:

Intensifying and Controlling Alcohol

Intoxication

Marit Edland-Gryt1,2

Abstract

Clubbing is an important part of the nighttime economy, and cocaine use is, for some young

people, an essential part of this clubbing culture. However, the interaction rituals around the

use of powder cocaine in this context remain understudied. This study is based on qualitative

interviews with young adult recreational cocaine users (n = 28) and explores how they use

cocaine in club settings, in relation to rituals and drinking culture. The analysis identified three

main explanations for using cocaine: (a) unity with friends because of shared transgression, (b)

the high as a “collective effervescence,” and (c) the possibility to control, extend, and intensify

drinking to intoxication. These three explanations illustrate how cocaine rituals were deeply

integrated in drinking-to-intoxication rituals, and how the illegality of cocaine use reinforced

feelings of unity with friends. In the nighttime economy, cocaine use and its related rituals are

used to intensify and control alcohol-fuelled partying.

Keywords

cocaine use, interaction rituals, controlled loss of control, alcohol, recreational substance use,

young adults, intoxication

Introduction

Clubbing is a central part of many young adults’ lives. In Norway, the club culture is alcohol

driven and drinking to intoxication is a common phenomenon in the Nordic countries (Kuntsche

et al., 2004; Mäkelä et al., 2001), as in other parts of the Western world (Measham & Brain, 2005;

Moore, 2010). Alcohol use encompasses certain rituals, and drinking together carries important

symbolic and social meanings (Douglas, 2013; Järvinen, 2003), such as creating a shared feeling

of unity (Rothenbuhler, 1998). Despite the cultural primacy of drinking, many also wish to aug-

ment their drinking experiences and to make the night out more special by using other sub-

stances, such as cocaine. This study aims to advance our understanding of these phenomena, by

focusing on the users’ perceptions of their cocaine use in relation to drinking to intoxication and

drinking rituals. In addition, it also aims to show how powder cocaine use may be an integral part

of the alcohol-based club culture, and how it intensifies drinking to intoxication in club settings.

This study challenges the dominant view of cocaine use as primarily pharmacologically driven

1Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

2Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Norway

Corresponding Author:

Marit Edland-Gryt, Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Post Box

222-Skøyen, Oslo 0213, Norway.

Email: Marit.Edland-Gryt@fhi.no

986514JODXXX10.1177/0022042620986514Journal of Drug IssuesEdland-Gryt

research-article2021

388 Journal of Drug Issues 51(2)

(i.e., for “the high” and euphoria) and facilitates an understanding of cocaine use from a more

complex sociocultural perspective.

Currently, cocaine is ranked as the second most frequently used illegal drug in European coun-

tries (EMCDDA, 2019) and appears to be repositioning itself as the stimulant drug of choice.

Cocaine is often described as a problematic drug, due to its associations with dependence (Dackis

& O’Brien, 2001; Nutt et al., 2010; Uosukainen et al., 2015). In the Norwegian nightlife context,

powder cocaine is the most frequently used illegal drug after cannabis, while there is little use of

crack cocaine (Nordfjærn, Bretteville-Jensen et al., 2016) and, in a study of the Norwegian stu-

dent population, cocaine use ranked third, after cannabis and MDMA (Heradstveit et al., 2020).

Powder cocaine is seen as a drug that is frequently used by socioeconomically privileged groups:

“The glamour makes the difference,” notes a Danish study (Demant et al., 2011). Unlike canna-

bis, which is much more widely accepted, and heroin, which is not accepted at all in clubs,

cocaine occupies an ambiguous position, being perceived as neither clearly harmless nor clearly

dangerous (Demant & Ravn, 2010).

Previous research on the use of cocaine has been dominated by pharmacological and toxico-

logical approaches (Esteve-Arenys et al., 2017; Kuypers et al., 2015; Zyoud et al., 2017). Studies

have shown that the combination of cocaine and alcohol produces a new substance in the liver,

cocaethylene (Harris et al., 2003), which is a pharmacologically active metabolite of cocaine

formed in the body (Jones, 2019). This metabolite takes longer to be eliminated than cocaine

alone,1 may in itself increase euphoria, and may be one of the reasons why the combination of

cocaine and alcohol is a favored combination (Andrews, 1997). Psychological aspects of cocaine

addiction have also been thoroughly studied (see, for example, Gawin, 1991). Only a handful of

studies have examined the cultural aspects of cocaine use (Decorte & Slock, 2005; Grinspoon &

Bakalar, 1985; Waldorf et al., 1992; Williams, 1989), typically investigating the use of both pow-

der and crack cocaine, or mainly crack cocaine (Fagan, 1994), despite potentially substantive

differences between these two user groups (Martin et al., 2014; Palamar et al., 2015). In the cur-

rent study, cocaine refers to recreational use of powder cocaine, which has not been much studied

within social science. Decorte (2001), drawing on data from Belgium, examined both snorting

and injecting use and user perceptions, finding that becoming a “controlled cocaine user” was

primarily a process of gaining knowledge about the product, and that the social definition of

drugs and their users were important. One mixed-method study from the Netherlands examined

recreational cocaine use (van der Poel et al., 2009) and found that cocaine was used together with

alcohol on the same occasion, but provided limited insights into the culture surrounding use. In a

study from Denmark, Demant (2010) investigated combined alcohol and cocaine use in a club

setting. He found that some used cocaine to control their alcohol consumption, and as a way to

manage a night at a club, and that cocaine was perceived as a social drug.

The current study builds on these findings and extends them by further investigating explana-

tions for using cocaine in combination with alcohol from a theoretical perspective, applying

interaction ritual theory (Collins, 2004). In this study, it is the motivation for using cocaine, and

not the negative aspects of cocaine use, that is primarily in focus.

Interaction rituals related to drinking and clubbing

Society is held together more intensely at some moments than at others. And the “society” that is held

together is no abstract unity of a social system, but is just those groups of people assembled in

particular places who feel solidarity with each other through the effects of ritual participation and

ritually charged symbolism. (Collins, 2004, p. 41)

Theoretical frameworks of interaction rituals related to intoxication and the context around sub-

stance use can help us understand more about how cocaine users perceive and comprehend their