ABSTRACT
Drug language is as much a sign of “belongingness” and “togetherness” as it is a device for communicating the content of an experience. A special problem in drug research is the possibility that research teams themselves may be subject to strain as individual investigators accept drugs and shift their interests, in consequence, from those of research to those associated with drug use per se. One problem in police interviews was generated by the in-group feeling which characterizes some police personnel. Being a participant observer in drug studies poses problems of a special sort. The problem is a major one for social scientists, psychiatrists, and psychopharmacologists who would study people engaged in unconventional or illegal acts. One problem in the study was both philosophical and social. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) users sometimes claim their inner experiences cannot be communicated, so that no study of the LSD experience can be made except by taking the drug for oneself.
