ABSTRACT
This chapter considers ways in which wider social contexts shape our understanding of what acceptable and unacceptable substance use is, what we perceive problematic use to be and how we should respond to this. Due consideration is given to the range of forces, both contemporary and historical, that influence how individuals and social groupings use and view substances. This chapter explores how this wide, ever shifting, frame of reference impacts on practice by addressing the following questions: What are the elements which shape how a culture uses substances? How are problems defined? How does the state exercise control, and what does it hope to achieve through doing this? In recent history, how have the Scots used substances, and how have successive governments responded to these trends? And, what debates and controversies currently surround the legal and policy frameworks relating to substance use?
