Social versus physiological motives in the drug careers of methadone clinic clients

Abstract

This article analyzes the retrospective accounts, obtained through open‐ended interviews, of 60 methadone clinic clients about their motivations for drug use over the course of their drug careers. A substantial majority cited the widespread popularity of illegal drugs during the late 1960s and early 1970s in this country's youth movement and in Vietnam as the major factor in initial drug use. This explanation is consistent with the typical sociological emphasis on social and subcultural factors. We found, however, that after the respondents’ drug use expanded to include heroin, their motivations for drug use changed dramatically. Sooner or later physiological survival needs displaced social motives as the main reason for continued drug use. It is crucial that this shift in drug users’ conscious motivations be reflected in both sociological and social psychological models of drug use. Although clients continued to participate in the drug subculture as a matter of necessity, their conscious motivations were...