Vision for the future? A commentary on 'Sociology and Substance Use' by McKeganey et al. (2005)

In 2005 the UK Government's Foresight programme published a paper by Neil McKeganey and colleagues on "Sociology and Substance Use". The Foresight programme is led by the Government's Office of Science and Innovation with the aim of "producing challenging visions of the future to ensure effective strategies now". This commentary asks whether the analyses of substance use meet the objectives of the Foresight programme. On a range of issues it contends that the paper either fails to weigh the different strands of evidence or fails to analyse pertinent research. The section on policy focuses entirely on repressive measures as a response to the paper's apocalyptic vision of over 1 million problematic drug users in the UK. Given the paper's title it is surprising that there is no attempt to consider policies which may be more relevant to the psychological and social functions of substance use in modern society.