The Social Dilemma of the Development of a Policy on Intoxicant Use

Abstract

It is generally believed that in the area of drug use only two types of behavior are possible—abstinence, or unchecked excess leading to addiction. Despite massive evidence to the contrary, many people remain unshaken in this belief. The conviction persists that because of their pharmacological properties, the psychedelics, heroin, and, to a lesser extent, marihuana cannot be taken on a long-term, regular basis without causing serious problems. Until after 1970, even scientific researchers were strongly influenced by this moralistic view that any kind of illicit drug use was bad and inevitably harmful—“addictive”—and that abstention was the only alternative.1 The unfortunate condition of heroin addicts and other compulsive users was regularly cited as “proof” of this “pharmaco-mythology.”2 Related to that view was the equally strong conviction that individuals who sought out such drugs were almost always suffering from profound personality disorders.