In what ways do society and social background impact on the victim of drug addiction? In what ways do historical events leave their mark on the tormented psychological reality of drug addicts?
Where is the solution to the mystery of drug addiction to be found? Today all drugs, i.e. those mind-altering substances that can lead to addiction, tend to act as a substitute for a variety of fundamental deficiencies in the contemporary human spirit. They take the place of an enigmatical absence, of the absence of the Other, of poor communication.
This book attempts to provide a number of answers to these questions. It analyses the various methods used for treating drug dependency, as well as the moral, ideological and social aspects of addiction. It also takes a hard look at the larger issues of drug-related violence, risk, and crime, and of how society tries to control these through the legal status of drugs and through contemporary attitudes to drugs that tend to perpetuate a host of myths around the phenomenon.