Drug use and professional life: exploratory research

A few studies have been carried out abroad. The Anglo-Saxon countries, Switzerland and the Netherlands have recently explored this subject. The principal works on the use of illicit psychotropic drugs by persons integrated into a business environment deal with the methodological difficulties ranging from accessibility to these so-called “hidden” populations to the construction of the samples and their representativeness. 

The research we have carried out focuses on 41 people, aged from 24 to 491, who have been carrying on a business activity for more than a year and who use illicit substances other than cannabis at least 10 times per year. We have a qualitative approach which favours the experience and comments of the individuals. 

The angle of analysis consisted of exploring the interweaving of the private practice represented by the use of illicit substances and the fact of belonging to a business environment. This position implies that these people succeed in managing the use of illicit substances while maintaining their status and their social image, without resorting to specialised structures or institutions and without exposing themselves to the legal penalties that accompany their practice. How do they do this? How do they reconcile the fact of being regarded both as someone who works and possibly assumes responsibilities and as a deviant element in society?

We will first try to explain the motivations most commonly expressed in the interviews, the effects sought by the users in taking psychotropic drugs and some of the problems linked to them leading a double social life. Then we will set out the various logics of drug use in relation to business activity, before tackling the social dimension within the business environment and the strategies for individually managing this situation.