ABSTRACT
This chapter first focuses on the main social and political features of the 1970's. Second, it looks at the factors that spurred sociological work on illicit drugs, and examine their contributions and limitations. The arrival and spread of cannabis, heroin and LSD in a number of social strata in France is generally dated to the late 1960's and early 1970's. Drug use was not a new phenomenon, indeed there were many antecedents, and it would be imprudent to attempt to date the spread of drugs too precisely. The relationship between drugs and society was indeed discussed in journals or books. Several societal phenomena led to a transformation at the end of the 1980's. Then, came the epidemic of heroin use that struck every European country in the 1980's and the spread of AIDS, revealing the close connection between social and health-care issues.
