Drug Addiction as Coping with Social Dislocation

There has been a rising trend of drug addiction in the United States and criminal sanctions and social policies have worked to ameliorate this issue. Previous research has looked at drug addiction as an “adaptation” to psychosocial distress, specifically “social dislocation”. Essentially addiction is a coping mechanism with a purpose that benefits the individual. The research question the study is designed to address is: What is the experience of the adaptive dimension of addiction to illegal drugs as a means of adapting to social dislocation, or lack of social integration, and how does the experience of drug addiction's adaptive dimension as a way of adapting to social dislocation work? Through interviews with individuals that have been addicted to drugs, this can be explored and assist in creating a more comprehensive way of tackling the issue of drug addiction in the United States.