Social psychologist Shazia Omar has chosen to discuss Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh on FiveBooks as one of the top five on her subject - Drug Addiction, saying that:

"...People who aren’t in the circle of heroin or other drugs don’t necessarily know much about them, which is perhaps why the film and the book had such a cult following. The characters are working-class anti-heroes, sociopaths. There are no holds barred and parts of the book are grotesque. It’s not an easy book to get through. But it’s also one of the few books about drugs that has a semi-happy ending.
It’s interesting in the way it explores why people get into drugs, which is mostly because they feel alienated. The book provides graphic details of how it causes dysfunction, crime and anti-social behaviour...."

The full interview is available here: http://fivebooks.com/interviews/shazi...