Becoming a “Hype”: Heroin Consumption,Subcultural Formation and Resistance in Canada,1945–1961

Abstract

In the late 1940s and 1950s a new subculture of heroin use developed in Vancouver and Toronto. The users were primarily working-class or poor and often came from troubled family backgrounds. Heroin use was a way of satisfying longings and cravings and of establishing a sense of identity and community. Heroin's status as a banned substance with a frightening reputation ensured that consuming it was also an act of defiance and resistance against community norms. This paper explores the use of heroin as a consumer commodity and symbol of resistance, and locates the development of this drug-using subculture in the distinctive socio-economic and cultural circumstances of post-World War II Canada.