Towards a conceptual understanding: The high, the nod, the rush, craving, and addiction

In the initial stages of our investigation, it was difficult to pin down what Le drug-using criminals in our study meant when they used these terms. Our “estions elicited vague, simplistic, and sometimes misleading statements om the users, who often disagreed among themselves as to the meanings of ese words. When we acknowledged that we lacked a precise understanding f particular terms, the drug users indicated that we were ignorant for not un-“standing what “everyone knows.” They either considered us not worth thering with or as needing enlightenment. In the latter case they quickly ook control and told us what they thought we wanted to hear. They related ust enough to lead us to believe that we were learning something, but they ever provided the detailed information we were seeking. Instead, they used 'erviews with us to air their justifications for drug use.
Through persistent work with criminal drug users over a sixteen-year pe-°d in which we guaranteed privileged communication and exercised no T-ministrative authority, we gradually learned what the thinking and action Itterns are in the high, the nod, the rush, craving, and addiction. As we al-ed our interviewing methods and our format for change, we became more owledgeable