Dope is to get high: a preliminary analysis of intracultural variation in drug categories among heavy users and dealers.

Users' definitions and classifications of drugs diverge from officially recognized systems and vary among themselves. They manifest a preoccupation with the experience of being high and reflect the relationship of the drug-using subcultural coalition to the mainstream of American life. Types of categorizations support recent descriptions of types of users reported in the literature as well as indicating areas of diffusion of drug use.