Non-pharmacological factors in drug abuse.
This paper examines the relevance of laboratory models of drug abuse to drug taking in human societies, and discusses their significance relative to other explanatory frameworks. It argues that self-administration models are poor predictors of the prevalence of drug taking, and offer an inadequate basis for both explanation and intervention. Non-pharmacological factors that may be of greater importance derive from social perspectives (notably economic and market factors, socio-economic conditions, and cultural and subcultural processes) and psychological approaches (individual, social learning, cognitive and developmental). It is concluded that drug abuse should be understood within the same framework of explanation as other human behaviour and sentiment, having major cultural, social and cognitive dimensions as well as the strictly behavioural and pharmacological.
Hartnoll
R.
R
Visiting Scientist, Institut Municipal d'Investigacio Medica, Passeig Maritim, 25-29 08003, Barcelona, Spain.