Frequency of Heroin Use and Drug Users' Life-Style

Abstract

Initial typologies of drug users focused on the heroin addict of the 1960s and early 1970s, variously labeling him as a “cool cat” [11] or a “stand-up cat” [1]. These characterizations reflected a common belief that the heroin addict was not a victim of an inadequate personality, as conveyed in some of the clinical literature [14], but rather a person able to cope well with his environment [2, 12]. These typologies generally reflected the role the addict played in the elaborate structure of the heroin copping community [5, 10]. More recent typologies are based on a broader view of the addict's career [6–9]; the studies of “maturing out” of addicts would fall into this category [15, 16].