I have to admit I haven't read through all *7* pages of this thread, but I hope someone will be so kind as to answer my question anyway.
I know there are many YA novels out there dealing with "edgy" topics like drugs. My question is, will the YA market tolerate a book in which drugs aren't demonized? I've sort of stumbled accidentally into writing YA, and the characters in my new novel use drugs, just like the characters in my adult writing. It's a subplot, not the main plot, but while the drug use isn't glamorized, it isn't demonized, either -- basically, it's neutral. (BTW, I'm talking pot, acid, and ecstasy here.)
Is there a conventional approach to this subject in YA? Do YA characters who use drugs necessarily have to OD, or get arrested, stop using, or go to rehab?
In other words, do YA novels have to embrace an explicitly anti-drug message, or is it viable to have my characters simply grow up, go to college, and move on, the way most of us do?
(ps, if there are any neutral or positive representations of drugs in YA novels, I'd love to hear the titles and authors. I only know Go Ask Alice, and that's pretty obviously anti.)