Critical Issues and Experiences in Drug Treatment and Prevention Evaluation

Abstract

The present paper considers major perspectives on behavior that are prevalent in the social sciences and shows how these relate to divergent conceptions of the people who use various substances and the ways in which drug taking is associated with individuals’ personal, social, and cultural experiences. This discussion will enable us to develop an ethnographically informed, social context model of drug use which sees substance use as motivated, adaptive behavior that is pursued in the consummation of valued experiences. Discussion next turns to reviewing relevant drug treatment and drug education/prevention literature, as well as the experiences of the author, that have informed the development of the frame of reference the paper emphasizes. In this process a coherent way of approaching the relationships individuals may establish with drugs and strategies for drug treatment and education/prevention efforts are set out.