Drug Cognitive Structures and Strategies: With Special Reference to Drug Education Programs

Abstract

In this paper I argue that we need much more research than is now presently available about the cognitive structures guiding drug takers, that is to say, about the maps which help them decide what are drugs to be used for their effects, about which drugs to use together or separately, and what are the factors influencing those effects. In the absence of this type of knowledge, I believe, we run the risk of bypassing basic first premises and projecting our own preconceptions upon the drug takers in drug education programs and in drug research samples. After a series of concrete demonstrations of what I take to be problematical research resulting from neglecting cognitive structure, I list some further assumptions of drug education programs and conclude with some suggested hypothetical cognitive strategies.

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