ABSTRACT
In recent years the problem of illegal drugs/drug abuse has become a key issue, especially drug abuse among youths and young adults. This chapter examines the fundamental issues regarding illegal drug use in Germany. It discusses basic socialization in the family, school and peer group, the reintegration of punished offenders into society as well as such factors as poverty, anomic situation in the society, and the meaning of illegal drug use. The family as the primary means of socialization certainly exercises considerable influence over individual development and therefore also shapes social deviance, drug abuse and criminal behaviour. Groups of a similar age, peer groups, are of special importance to the socialization of youth, and certainly this is true as regards youthful deviant behaviour. The penal law must not be like a 'broadband antibiotic threatening every social and legally disapproved behaviour'. The penal law should instead stand in the middle between criminalization and decriminalization.
