Daily Routines and Sources of Income

Abstract

Research has suggested that once drug users become addicted, two sets of activities dominate their daily lives and routines. These are ‘consumer activities’ and ‘income-generating activities’ (Goldman, 1981; Faupel, 1991; Stephens, 1991). ‘Consumer activities’ refer to behaviours associated with locating, purchasing and using drugs; these have already been discussed in Chapter 4. ‘Income-generating’ activities are the methods used to raise sufficient funds to purchase illegal substances as well as meet other living expenses, and these will be discussed below. Pearson (1987a) has argued that income-generating and drug-consuming activities constitute a dismal compulsion that structures the lives of addicts like the beat of a metronome. Nevertheless, Pearson (1987b) also recognizes that the daily rituals of obtaining money, buying or ‘scoring’ heroin, and using the drug may offer attractions for some individuals, particularly those who do not have alternative routines and structures of meaning and identity — such as might be provided by work or family commitments (cf. Rosenbaum, 1981).