Consumption and Community: The Subcultural Contexts of Disparate Marijuana Practices in Jam Band and Hip-Hop Scenes

The use of marijuana has become a normative illicit practice within many youth subcultures. As such it remains important to identify how subcultures shape the nuances of their respective participants' marijuana consumption practices and how these practices shape social interaction patterns. This research highlights how different subcultural contexts influence interaction rituals surrounding marijuana consumption. Findings are based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork within the hip-hop and jam band scenes. We assess how the symbolic systems framing subcultural norms and values influence marijuana consumption practices and how these in turn reinforce the subcultural system. We examine the implications these practices have for producing varied levels of consumption and providing different experiences of community.