Abstract
The objective of this article is to analyze the phenomenon of youth and drug culture in light of the social theory of social tension. Methodologically, documentary analysis and empirical contrasting of social conditions of youth in Mexico are used to weave a discussion from sociological approaches to social tension. The results point to a close relationship between the socio-cultural influences of the media on youth, in which it is known that they promote social constructs and imaginaries about status, recognition and social success, positioning organized crime as a means of immediate social mobility, whose risks are assumed in the face of a society whose opportunities for access to fundamental social rights have been hindered.