Trajectories of Aging Long-Term Mexican American Heroin Injectors: The "Maturing Out" Paradox
OBJECTIVE:
To
examine the applicability of the "maturing out" theory to a sample of
aging Mexican American men who are long-term heroin injectors.
METHOD:
Ethnographic
data were collected as part of a cross-sectional study of aging Mexican
American heroin users in Houston with 20 current heroin users.
RESULTS:
Findings
indicate that dysfunctions that emerge in the heroin lifestyle lead not to
cessation but rather to "maturing in," a specific process of social
readjustment that returns the heroin user to a stable maintenance pattern of
use instead of a recovery phase. This process of paradoxical maturing out can
be attributed to the unconditional social support provided to the heroin user
by family, peers, and the tecato subculture embedded in Mexican American
communities.
DISCUSSION:
Results
highlight the implications for the intersection of heroin-related conditions,
natural age-related impairments, and cognitive functioning that make this
population increasingly susceptible to adverse health consequences.
No comments:
Post a Comment