ABSTRACT
One of the main problems facing anyone who seeks to understand alcohol and illicit drug misuse is the plethora of different ideas which comprise this field of study. There are many different approaches, from disease models which claim that substance problems arise from biological or psychological dysfunction (see Jellinek 1960), to ideas about the role of social learning, where the user is deemed to have incorporated use into a general lifestyle through patterns of association, to the depiction of such problems as being akin to an uncontrollable desire, like a form of obsessive eating (see Orford 1985). Each of these different perspectives, and the many, many more which have not been cited, offer valuable insights into the condition and experience of problematic substance use, but none, unfortunately, accounts for the wide range of data there are on the exact particulars of use. That is, although there have been many attempts over the years to produce a theory of substance problems, or addiction, no one theory can account for the range and diversity which exists with respect to the nature of such problems. Any summary look at the field will reveal that many different components of substance use have been identified. Although some researchers may favour, for example, psychological, biological or cultural explanations, the empirical reality is that each of these areas has made important contributions to the field. Research findings have illustrated that biological, genetic and psychological factors play a part in the emergence of problematic substance use. In addition, behavioural components such as antisocial and delinquent activities, demographic factors such as gender or ethnic origin, and environmental determinants arising from within the family or peer group have all been found, at one time or another, to contribute to
the incidence of substance misuse. But despite this abundance of empirical research we are little further on in the pursuit of a general theory of substance use than we were when Jellinek published his influential text in the 1960s. In general terms, although we now know a great deal about the biological, psychological and social elements which comprise substance misuse, there has yet to be developed a theoretical perspective which can account for this diversity of empirical data. In essence, the current problem in drug and alcohol studies is not a lack of empirical data, but rather an absence of theoretical development.
