Cultural patterns of drug and alcohol use: an analysis of host and agent in the cultural environment.

Applying the public health approach, the author of this article analyses the problems of drug abuse and alcoholism in the context of the interactions between the host (person), drugs and the environment in order to understand better the nature, extent, spread, patterns and associated aspects of these problems. Whenever the problems arising from drug or alcohol use reach a critical level in society there is a tendency to view them as an entirely new and unique phenomenon, although such problems relating to socially accepted substances have already occurred in numerous societies over the past few centuries. Patterns of drug use evolve from the meanings, values, attitudes, beliefs and norms that a society assigns to any particular drug. Cultures differ widely in the psychological and social functions that are assigned to drug use. A drug whose use has been woven into the fabric of a stable society runs less risk of being problematic for that society. Increased drug-related problems in societies around the globe often appear as a result of diffusion, or the spread of a given drug or its mode of administration, from one culture to another. Migration, affluence, urbanization and rapid cultural change also contribute to changes in drug use. Cross-cultural studies of drug problems show that certain social strategies concerning drug use hinder the development of such problems and help to reduce and prevent the abuse of drugs and alcohol, while certain other strategies are liable to add to drug problems.