ABSTRACT
This chapter is deliberately titled. It has three or more directions that it can pursue. The more customary one is to address culture-bound drug usage. Another is to describe the infl uence of culture upon the usage of drugs in a population. And another is to view drug usage as defi ning a population with a unique culture. This last is the least common area of inquiry, although all have been given attention by ground-breakers in culture and psychiatry, among them Joseph Westermeyer [1] and Wen-Shing Tseng [2]. That is the one that I pursue here. It does not exclude consideration of the impact of drug usage on cultures or the role of drugs in them, but intends to provide a view of those with substance use disorders as members of a collective with cultural features.
