Preface

I am not of the opinion that the sociologist should be remote and unconcerned with social policy and with the current debates of his time. On the contrary, such an ivory-towered approach is based on an ignorance of the implicit, and usually conservative, commitment which forms its basis. Nor am I convinced of the necessary difficulty and esoteric nature of the social sciences to the layman. Opaque jargon and longwinded argument usually conceal theoretical weakness rather than contain revelations unbeknown to the neophyte. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the study of the illicit drugtaker. It is hardly surprising that the general public is left to the tender mercies of the mass media whilst the drug-taker himself views the conceptual thicket which has been erected with either dismay or amused cynicism.
I would like to thank my friends and colleagues of the National Deviancy Symposium for their help and constant encouragement. Their work in the many parallel areas within the field of social problems has resulted in a promising cross-fertilization of ideas and lent humanity to an area notorious for its narrow-minded empiricism. My thanks must also go to Madeleine Neenan for her patient editing and typing of the manuscript and a great deal of helpful and constructive criticism.

JOCK YOUNG