Seeing Social Worlds

Abstract

We have argued that mainstream drug research begins by looking for and therefore seeing individuals whose psychological or social deficiencies explain their use of drugs. The alternative perspective which informs our research views individuals in terms of their social locations. We take a more inclusive sociological perspective than that of the drug-abuse literature, which defines location as a collection of demographic characteristics (e.g. Lukoff, 1980: 204). Nevertheless, the drug-abuse literature does contain hints of what such a perspective would include. Survey researchers find, for instance, that adolescents who take drugs are typically involved in other delinquent activities as well (Robins and Wish, 1977; Johnston et al., 1978; O’Donnell et al., 1976). They also find that the earlier the opportunity to use marijuana, the more likely it is that a teenager eventually will use the drug (Miller, 1981), and that frequent users of marijuana are more likely to use other drugs than are occasional users (Johnston, 1980).