ABSTRACT
Young people’s use of drugs terrifies most of adult society. Inglis (1975) has noted that our response to drug problems1 as a society is founded largely upon a fear of the unknown, with little room for objective scientific analysis. Others (Peele 1985, Yates 1984) have suggested that the near hysterical response in Western society to drug problems amongst young people appears to owe much to an atavistic belief in possession by devils. Drugs (particularly those from outside our culture-those embedded within our culture such as alcohol, are largely tolerated or ignored) conjure up ‘…the spectre of addiction, psychosis, alienation and rebellion’ (Glassner and Loughlin 1990). Drugs will, we are told, rob us of our children and rob them of their dignity, their reason, even their minds.
