Are addicts' self-reports to be trusted?

A review of the literature and a report of an empirical inquiry both suggest that retrospective inquiry, based on addicts' self-reports, are, in very many cases, valid and reliable. The paper suggests that the relevant problem connected with addicts' self-reports is not whether they are to be trusted or not, but rather what types of questions and situations best lend themselves to be researched when using retrospective techniques.