ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the issue of dependency, conceptualised as users become involved in the health care system. It focuses on theoretical concerns and shows that traditional views on drug using need to be reformulated. The chapter shows how dependency on psychotropic drugs becomes formalised through various systems of meanings and norms on both the micro and macro levels of analyses. It discusses the health status of long-term users; their views on dependency; their efforts to stop taking their drugs; their dependency on other substances; and general conclusions on dependency from the users' points of view. Many psychotropic drug users evaluate their health status in terms of other health measures besides the chronicity of their drug use. The chapter outlines how drug dependency is organised in the context of the formal health care system by introducing four concepts: social transgressor, drug career, transitory lifecycle status and drug harm.
