This work describes the way in which conversations between drug users vary and change according to context and circumstances in ways that suggest that there is no single "truth" about the state we call "addicted". The central thesis of the book is that the explanations that drug users give for their drug use make sense not so much as a source of facts, but as primarily functional statements shaped by a climate of moral and legal censure. Consequently, the signficance of drug conversations lies not in their literal semantics but in the purposes such conversation serve. The argument raises a number of fundamental issues about the performative rather than the informative nature of language, about the nature of the "scientific facts" concerning drug use, and about the very nature of science itself. Starting with a general overview of the problems arising from a mechanistic and deterministic view, the book identifies a need for a new approach to the understanding of verbal behaviour. Secondly, it gives an account of a new form of analysis, based on over 500 conversations carried out with drug users in Scotland and the north of England. In a final data section, evidence is presented link

In this second edition, the author expands and updates his study of the true reasons for drug use. Current attitudes towards drug misuse in the media, government, and even treatment centres, often exaggerate the pharmacological power of drugs. Their coercive influence is widely believed to be so great that to experiment with a drug is tantamount to addiction. The author argues that such beliefs are largely inaccurate and harmful. Research shows that explanations for drug use vary according to circumstances. Drugs users may explain that they have lost their willpower and capacity for personal decision-making, because this is the explanation expected of them, but most actually use drugs because they want to and because they see no good reason for giving them up. Addicted behaviour is therefore a form of learned helplessness, not an effect caused by narcotic intake.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The complete and unexpurgated scripts of one of the most celebrated comedy series ever. Published in its entirety for the first time and illustrated, The Complete Fawlty Towers will appeal to the millions of fans who have suffered through endless PBS fundraisers waiting for the next episode--and anyone who has survived a package holiday tour. Fawlty Towers is the hotel of every traveler's nightmare. Basil Fawlty--ill-tempered, henpecked, and conniving--tries in vain to be master of his house under the disapproving and ever-watchful eye of his wife, Sybil. The hotel offers service by Manuel, the incompetent Spanish waiter whose feeble grasp of English makes for hilarious misunderstandings, and Polly, the unflappable chambermaid who is Fawlty Towers' only sane employee. Meals are scorched in the kitchen while adulterers consort upstairs and chaos reigns all around. For countless fans, Fawlty Towers is the best-loved bad hotel in the world, and with publication of The Complete Fawlty Towers they will all have a chance to relive its outrageous awfulness.