Drug Policy and Human Nature: Psychological Perspectives on the Prevention, Management, and Treatment of Illicit Drug Abuse

by Warren K. Bickel (Editor), R.J. DeGrandpre (Editor)

The formation of drug policy is a complex phenomena influenced by a multi­ tude of sources. Among others, these influences include historical factors, contemporary public opinion regarding the nature and magnitude of drug use and abuse, the portrayal of illicit drugs and drug use in the media, and lobbying efforts by special interest groups (e. g. , The Drug Policy Foundation), including government agencies (e. g. , the Justice Department and law enforcement). An additional source of influence are the activities of specialists directly engaged in studying drug use and treating drug dependence. This includes individuals involved in drug treatment, anthropological and cultural studies, policy analy­ ses, basic psychological and pharmacological research, research on the epide­ miology of drug use and dependence, and research on prevention. This influ­ ence by specialists might be usefully distinguished from those influences first mentioned for two reasons: First, studies of drug use and dependence attempt to uncover empirical generalizations about drugs, and second, because these findings are empirical, there is a hope that they guide, at least to some extent, the actions of other forces that more directly determine drug policy. Psychology as an empirical discipline has long been interested in the use of psychoactive drugs. At the level of basic science in psychopharmacology, a most important contribution has been the demonstration that drugs of abuse function as reinforcers and thus enter into the same psychological processes as do other appetitive stimuli.

339 pages, Hardcover

First published July 31, 1996

About the author

Warren Kurt Bickel was an American behavioral pharmacologist and the Virginia Tech Carilion Behavioral Health Research Professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Virginia Tech's Carilion School of Medicine. He was also a professor of psychology at Virginia Tech and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine in their Carilion School of Medicine, the director of Virginia Tech's Addiction Recovery Research Center, and the co-director of their Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors. He formerly served as editor-in-chief of Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology and as president of Division 28 (Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse) of the American Psychological Association.