"We ourselves are part of the problem, not ofits solution". This
pronouncement, made by psychologist R. S. B. Wiener during the panel on
social policy, provided a leading Dutch weekly with an excellent
headline for an article on the 30th International Congress on Alcoholism
and Drug Dependence. With it Wiener touched one of the central, if not
the central issue of the alcohol and drug problem. Why do we fix our
attention so emphatically on 'the other people', on the consumers,
abusers and addicts? Has not the time come that, also at scientific and
learned congresses, we should start occupying ourselves with the
shortcomings of society and with its legislation and policy as factors
promoting this abuse and addiction? The question is so obvious that no
one will dare give a neg- ative answer. For this reason it is even more
striking that it is given so little serious thought. We still try to
change the consumer instead of the social structure. In his opening
address, the Minister of Public Health and Environmental Hygiene of the
Netherlands, Dr 1. B. J. Stuyt, gave some attention to this social
structure. He pointed out that a social structure which is characterized
by poverty and deprivation promotes the abuse of alcohol. Dekker/van der
Wal (eds. ). Man and His Mind-Changers. 1-9. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright (c) 1973 by D. Reidel Publishing Company. Dordrecht-Holland 2
E. DEKKER AND H. J.