ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND FOCUS Before getting down to the task proposed by the heading to this chapter it is necessary to detennine a focus. What must stand out on any inspection of research activity in the substance problems field is the sweep and diversity of the scientific disciplines which are today staking out their claims - every grouping from anthropology to molecular genetics, from behavioural psychopharmacology to economics, from sociology to neurochemistry, and many others besides. Sometimes the representatives of one discipline will work productively in their particular and isolated comers as if no other tradition existed. At other times one begins to sense that this area may become an exemplar for multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary endeavours which break down the rigid traditional scientific territorial boundaries.
