Resources: Review - Substance misuse treated as a complex disease

Drug misuse by young people is seen not as deviant or criminal behaviour, but as a disease, with complex social, physical and genetic origins. It follows that, as a disease, the solutions for drug misuse are treatment rather than social change. While some would see the dominance of the medical model as retrograde, it is a refreshing approach at a time when strategies to reduce and prevent drug use are increasingly focused on issues of crime and disorder, rather than the health and wellbeing of young people.

The introduction gives a brief overview of the prevalence of drug use and the criteria for defining abuse. All use of substances, including tobacco, is described as misuse for anyone under 18. Adolescence is described as a time of storm and stress and drug misuse is explained partly as self-treatment of anxiety and depression.