Drifting, Controlling and Overcoming: Opiate Users Who Avoid Becoming Chronically Dependent

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Despite extensive experience with opiates, not all users become dependent. This study of 51 users (12 females, 39 males) attempts to identify the kinds of controls they employed over their consumption. One third of the sample had been in a state of “drift” and had not found regulation to be necessary. A second group had developed rules to govern their consumption and to prevent loss of control. Just over one-quarter of the sample (14 respondents) had experienced episodes of dependence; the ways by which these episodes were overcome are described. A natural history model of opiate use has been developed from the use patterns and control styles found in the sample. By accident, I met a college acquaintance, who recommended opium. Opium! dread agent of unimaginable pleasure and pain! I had heard of it as I heard of manna or of ambrosia, but no further. How unmeaning a sound was opium at that time! What solemn chords does it now strike upon my heart! what heart-quaking vibrations of sad and happy remembrances! Reverting for a moment to these, I feel a mystic importance attached to minutest circumstances connected with the place, and the time, and the man (if man it was), that first laid open to me the paradise of opium-eaters. (De Quincey, 1822; 1966:197–198)