An airlock or a getaway? The interweaving of substance use disorders in the processes of desistance

New insights are shedding light on the ways careers in delinquency come to an end. Consumption trajectories are one of these more recently investigated elements. The aim of this article is therefore to shed light on a lesser-known aspect of desistance processes, namely the need to establish different compartments in one’s lifestyle when it has been marked by trajectories of substance abuse, in order to sustain desistance from crime. This qualitative research in Paris highlights the prevalence of entry into delinquency through drug use and drug trafficking in the backgrounds of the 33 participants. Using the inductive approach of grounded theory, the analyses of this material point to an airlock effect in the trajectories of drug users, requiring the deployment of various intermediate stages in order to release the potential for a full process of desistance from crime. Prison is sometimes used as an intermediary to wean oneself off the drug, and cannabis trafficking as a temporary substitute to mitigate loss of income before all offending ceases. These findings will help to better understand and support processes of desistance when they involve issues of substance use disorder and drug trafficking.