Si C. N.
Lebeaux (1958), Industrial society and
social welfare, New York: Russell Sage Founda D E F I N I N G T H E S I T U AT I O N
tion, pp. 299-303.
15. For a discussion of the socialization of
medical students toward a generally detached
attitude, see Lief & Fox (1963), pp. 12-35. See also
M. J. Daniels (1960, November), "Affect and its
control in the medical intern," American Journal Becoming a Marihuana User
of Sociology, 66, 259-267.
16. The following incident illustrates how a Howard S. Becker
patient may exceed the limits. Mrs. Lane, a young
married woman, was considered by the physi
cians a "seductive patient," although her tech
nique was subtle and her behavior never improper.
After examining Mrs. Lane, an intern privately The use of marihuana is and has been the
called my attention to a point in the examination
when he was pressing on the patient's ovaries focus of a good deal of attention on the part
and she remarked to the nurse: "I have this pain of both scientists and laymen. One of the
in intercourse until my insides are about to come major problems students of the practice have
out." The intern told me that Mrs. Lane said that addressed themselves to has been the iden
to the nurse, but she wanted him to hear. He tification of those individual psychological
didn't want to know that, he said; it wasn't nec traits which differentiate marihuana users
essary for her to say that. The intern evidently from nonusers and which are assumed to
felt that Mrs. Lane's remark had exceeded the account for the use of the drug. That ap
proach, common in the study of behavior
categorized as deviant, is based on the prem
ise that the presence of a given kind of
behavior in an individual can best be ex
plained as the result of some trait which
predisposes or motivates him to engage in
the behavior.1
This study is likewise concerned with
accounting for the presence or absence of
marihuana use in an individual's behavior.
It starts, however, from a different premise:
"Becoming a Marihuana User" by H. S. Becker, 1953.
Reprinted from The American journal of Sociology, 59,
pp. 235-242, by permission of the University of
Chicago Press. Copyright 1953 by the University
of Chicago Press.
Read at the meetings of the Midwest Socio
logical Society in Omaha, Nebraska, April 25,1953.
The research on which this paper is based was done
while I was a member of the staff of the Chicago
Narcotics Survey, a itudy done by the Chicago Area
Project, Inc., under a grant from the National
Institute of Mental Health. My thanks to Solomon
Kobrin, Harold Finestone, Henry McKay, and
Anaelm Strauss, who read and discussed with me
tarller versions of this paper.
202 The Dynamics of Interaction: Identity, Situation, Self
mmmmmmmm&mm
that the presence of a given kind of behav
ior is the result of a sequence of social expe
riences during which the person acquires a
conception of the meaning of the behavior,
and perceptions and judgments of objects
and situations, all of which make the activ
ity possible and desirable. Thus, the moti
vation or disposition to engage in the activity
is built up in the course of learning to engage
in it and does not antedate this learning
process. For such a view it is not necessary
to identify those "traits" which "cause" the
behavior. Instead, the problem becomes one
of describing the set of changes in the per
son's conception of the activity and of the
experience it provides for him.
This paper seeks to describe the sequence
of changes in attitude and experience which
lead to the use of marihuana for pleasure.
Marihuana does not produce addiction, as do
alcohol and the opiate drugs; there is no with
drawal sickness and no ineradicable craving
for the drug.3 The most frequent pattern of
use might be termed "recreational." The drug
is used occasionally for the pleasure the user
finds in it, a relatively casual kind of behavior
in comparison with that connected with the
use of addicting drugs. The term "use for
pleasure" is meant to emphasize the noncom-
pulsive and casual character of the behavior.
It is also meant to eliminate from considera
tion here those few cases in which marihuana
is used for its prestige value only, as a symbol
that one is a certain kind of person, with no
pleasure at all being derived from its use.
Defining the Situation 203

The analysis presented here is conceived
of as demonstrating the greater explanatory
usefulness of the kind of theory outlined
above as opposed to the predispositional
theories now current. This may be 9een in
two ways: (1) predispositional theories can
not account for that group of users (whose
existence is admitted)4 who do not exhibit
the trait or traits considered to cause the
behavior and (2) such theories cannot ac
count for the great variability over time of
a given individual's behavior with refer
ence to the drug. The same person will at
one stage be unable to use the drug for
pleasure, at a later stage be able and willing
to do so, and still later, again be'unable to
use it in this way. These changes, difficult
to explain from a predispositional or moti
vational theory, are readily understandable
in terms of changes in the individual's con
ception of the drug as is the existence of
"normal" users.
The study attempted to arrive at a gen
eral statement of the sequence of changes in
individual attitude and experience which
have always occurred when the individual
has become willing and able to use mari
huana for pleasure and which have not oc
curred or not been permanently maintained
when this is not the case. This generaliza
tion is stated in universal terms in order
that negative cases may be discovered and
used to revise the explanatory hypothesis.5
Fifty interviews with marihuana users
from a variety of social backgrounds and
present positions in society constitute the
data from which the generalization was con
structed and against which it was tested.
The interviews focused on the history of the
person's experience with the drug, seeking
major changes in his attitude toward it and
in his actual use of it, and the reasons for
these changes. The final generalization is a
statement of that sequence of changes in
attitude which occurred in every case known
to me in which the person came to use mari
huana for pleasure. Until a negative case is
found, it may be considered as an explana
204 The Dynamics of Interaction: Identity, Situation, Self
tion of all cases of marihuana use for pleas
ure. In addition, changes from use to nonuse
are shown to be related to similar changes
in conception, and in each case it is possible
to explain variations in the individual's be
havior in these terms.
This paper covers only a portion of the
natural history of an individual's use of
marihuana,7 starting with the person hav
ing arrived at the point of willingness to try
marihuana. He knows that others use it to
"get high," but he does not know what this
means in concrete terms. He is curious about
the experience, ignorant of what it may turn
out to be, and afraid that it may be more
than he has bargained for. The steps out
lined below, if he undergoes them all and
maintains the attitudes developed in them,
leave him willing and able to use the drug
for pleasure when the opportunity presents
itself.
I He said, "No, don't do it like that." He said,
The novice does not ordinarily get high the
first time he smokes marihuana, and sev
eral attempts are usually necessary to in
duce this state. One explanation of this may
be that the drug is not smoked "properly,"
that is, in a way that insures sufficient dosage
to produce real symptoms of intoxication.
Most users agree that it cannot be smoked
like tobacco if one is to get high:
Take in a lot of air, you know, and ... I don't
know how to describe it, you don't smoke it
like a cigarette, you draw in a lot of air and get
it deep down in your system and then keep it
there. Keep it there as long as you can.
Without the use of some such technique8
the drug will produce no effects, and the
user will be unable to get high:
The trouble with people like that [who are not
able to get high] Is that they're just not smok
ing it right, that's all there is to it. Either
they're not holding it down long enough, or
they're getting too much air and not enough
smoke, or the other way around or something
like that. A lot of people just don't smoke it
right, so naturally nothing's gonna happen.
If nothing happens, it is manifestly im
possible for the user to develop a concep
tion of the drug as an object which can be
used for pleasure, and use will therefore
not continue. The first step in the sequence
of events that must occur if the person is to
become a user is that he must learn to use
the proper smoking technique in order that
his use of the drug will produce some ef
fects in terms of which his conception of it
can change.
Such a change is, as might be expected,
a result of the individual's participation in
groups in which marihuana is used. In them
the individual learns the proper way to
smoke the drug. This may occur through
direct teaching:
I was smoking like I did an ordinary cigarette.
"Suck it, you know, draw in and hold it in your
lungs till you ... for a period of time."
I said, "Is there any limit of time to hold it?"
He said, "No, just till you feel that you
want to let it out, let it out." So I did that three
or four times.
Many new users are ashamed to admit
ignorance and, pretending to know already,
must learn through the more indirect means
of observation and imitation:
I came on like I had turned on [smoked mari
huana] many times before, you know. I didn't
want to seem like a punk to this cat. See, like 1
didn't know the first thing about ithow to
smoke it, or what was going to happen, or
what. I just watched him like a hawkI didn't
take my eyes off him for a second, because I
wanted to do everything just as he did it. I
watched how he held it, how he smoked it, and
everything. Then when he gave it to me I just
came on cool, as though I knew exactly what
the score was. I held it like he did and took a
poke just the way he did.
intiflrmfifiaiiii
No person continued marihuana use for
pleasure without learning a technique that
supplied sufficient dosage for the effects of
the drug to appear. Only when this was
learned was it possible for a conception of
the drug as an object which could be used
for pleasure to emerge. Without such a con
ception marihuana use was considered mean
ingless and did not continue.
II
Even after he learns the proper smoking
technique, the new user may not get high
and thus not form a conception of the drug
as something which can be used for pleas
ure. A remark made by a user suggested the
reason for this difficulty in getting high and
pointed to the next necessary step on the
road to being a user:
I was told during an interview, "As a matter of
fact, I've seen a guy who was high out of his
mind and didn't know it."
I expressed disbelief: "How can that be,
man?"
The interviewee said, "Well, it's pretty
strange, I'll grant you that, but I've seen it.
This guy got on with me, claiming that he'd
never got high, one of those guys, and he got
completely stoned. And he kept insisting that
he wasn't high. So I had to prove to him that
he was."
What does this mean? It suggests that
being high consists of two elements: the
presence of symptoms caused by marihuana
use and the recognition of these symptoms
and their connection by the user with his
use of the drug. It is not enough, that is, that
the effects be present; they alone do not
automatically provide the experience of be
ing high. The user must be able to point
them out to himself and consciously con
nect them with his having smoked mari
huana before he can have this experience.
Otherwise, regardless of the actual effects
produced, he considers that the drug has
Defining the Situation 205
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