Resumen de Drugs, addiction, deviance and disease as social constructs

K. Klue

• In the present article, an attempt is made to deconstruct some common categories widely used in the literature on substance abuse. First, the occurrence of a drug problem in western societies is analysed within a historical perspective and in the context of the category of addiction. This is followed by an examination of the way that substance use is ideologically sanctioned and classified into deviance and/or disease in either biological or societal terms. The drug issue does not appear to be a static, objective reality but changes in different historical contexts. By the same token, the social labelling of substance abuse in terms of deviance and disease is sometimes ideologically driven. Any approach to these questions should be sensitive as to context and explanations should go beyond exclusively internal or external causes.