ABSTRACT
This chapter presents how social and behavioral scientists use addicts and drug users under three broad domains: studies of the use of exotic drugs, studies of drug use in social deviance, and studies of people at risk of health problems because of drug use. Each domain will receive attention in the chapter, with some commentary on the political economy and its influence on the direction of research since the inception of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The chapter discusses critical to the alternative construction of drug users within particular social sciences has been the intersection of place of use and drugs being consumed. More than the other social sciences, anthropology has dominated the literature on drugs not commonly used in Western society. Every kind of social/behavioral scientist who studies drug-use etiology, epidemiology, treatment, or prevention has a use for drug users.
