MEDICAL RESPONSIBILITY AND DRUG ADDICTION

Abstract

The dismaying extent of addiction among young people, the complexity of its causation, and the grossly unsatisfactory results from current methods of management are all sharply posed in the accompanying review by Freedman and Wilson. This thoughtful condensation of the available literature may disappoint those looking for neat and simple formulations as to cause or cure. Easy slogans and hoary nostrums abound; they lack only facts to support them.

The correlations between low socioeconomic status, membership in ethnic groups shut out from full participation in American society, and the prevalence of addictive practices point to social class factors as important determinants of the behavior patterns that eventuate in addiction; yet addiction is not universal among the disadvantaged and is being discovered to an increasing extent among privileged youth.