This chapter explores the association between drug use, early job insecurity and periods of high youth unemployment using quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative analysis shows how young people’s behaviour and attitudes towards drugs have changed as youth unemployment rates have increased over the past decade. The qualitative analysis, drawing on data referring to a lengthier period, explores how drug use and early job insecurity have affected young people’s life courses and labour market transitions. Our contribution provides insights that can inform policy towards young people at risk of social exclusion as a result of their involvement with drugs. Conceptually, we focus on the significance of critical moments understood at both the societal and individual levels, looking at how the environment and the role of ‘significant others’ in the lives of these vulnerable young people affect their trajectories in positive and negative ways
