Drugspeak: The Analysis of Drug Discourse

The book describes the way in which drug conversations vary and change according to context and circumstance in ways that suggest that there is no single 'truth' about the state we call 'addicted'. The central thesis of the book is that the explanations that drug users give for their drug use make sense not so much as sources of facts, but as primarily functional statements shaped by a climate of moral and legal censure.
The book concludes the notion of addiction is defined more by culture and by social situations than by any presumed objective reality.

John Booth Davies is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Applied Social Psychology at the University of Strathclyde, UK.