ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some of the areas of thinking and research on the development of opioid addiction that lend support to the principles of the decision-making approach. It reviews of both traditional and explanations of drug abuse in an attempt to identify evidence of rationality, decision making, and choice. The chapter presents the findings of a research project based at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England, on patterns of drug taking among opioid users in three English towns. Most theories of addiction based on individual characteristics derive from the works of psychiatrists and members of the medical profession who have been involved in the treatment of addiction. The chapter describes dispositional theories are ill equipped to explain the kinds of variations in drug use. It concludes with a discussion on the implications of a rational choice perspective for the control and treatment of addiction.
