section_path: Social scientific models/Subcultural model
section_name: Subcultural model
paragraph_text: Subcultural model
  
  Historically, addiction has been viewed from the etic perspective, defining users through the pathology of their condition. As reports of drug use rapidly increased, the cultural model found application in anthropological research exploring western drug subculture practices.
  
  The approach evolved from the ethnographic exploration into the lived experiences and subjectivities of 1960s and 1970s drug subcultures. The seminal publication "Taking care of business", by Edward Preble and John J. Casey, documented the daily lives of New York street-based intravenous heroin users in rich detail, providing unique insight into the dynamic social worlds and activities that surrounded their drug use. These findings challenge popular narratives of immorality and deviance, conceptualizing substance abuse as a social phenomenon. The prevailing culture can have a greater influence on drug taking behaviors than the physical and psychological effects of the drug itself. To marginalized individuals, drug subcultures can provide social connection, symbolic meaning, and socially constructed purpose that they may feel is unattainable through conventional means. The subcultural model demonstrates the complexities of addiction, highlighting the need for an integrated approach. It contends that a biosocial approach is required to achieve a holistic understanding of addiction.