Unlocking the Spiritual With Club Drugs: A Case Study of Two Youth Cultures

Researchers have become increasingly interested in the link between spirituality and the use and misuse of drugs as well as intervention. First, studies have pointed to spirituality and religious involvement as a protective factor against substance use. Second, the quest for spirituality can play a role in drug use. This article has two aims. First, it seeks to examine the features of spirituality connected with both recovery from drug misuse and psychoactive drug use. Second, it seeks to understand the latter in the context of contemporary youth culture. We draw from our comparative study on club drug use among young people in two cultural locales-San Francisco and Hong Kong, where two different drugs, ecstasy and ketamine, have become associated in different dance party settings with a spiritual awakening of self-awareness and liberation.