Current attitudes towards drug misuse in the media, government and even treatment centers often exaggerate the pharmacological power of drugs. Their coercive influence is widely believed to be so great that to experiment with a drug is tantamount to addiction. This book argues that such beliefs are largely inaccurate and harmful. Research shows that explanations for drug use vary according to circumstances. Drug users may explain that they have lost their willpower and capacity for personal decision-making, because this is the explanation expected of them, but most actually use drugs because they want to and because they see no good reason for giving them up. Addicted behavior is therefore a form of learned helplessness that encourages passivity and irresponsibility.
Suggests that beliefs about drug users are inaccurate, and that research makes naive use of what people say about their addictions. This book argues that people use drugs because they want to, not because they fall prey to some addictive illness which removes their capacity for voluntary behaviour.
Publisher
Harwood-Academic Publishers
Publication Date
Jan 1992
ISBN
9783718651979
Pages
192 p.
Item Type
Book
Format
Hardcover
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