Holy smoke: tobacco use among native american tribes in North America.

The use of tobacco by Native Americans in North America seems to have ancient origins and significant spiritual meaning. This article reviews archeological and anthropological data about the use of tobacco and its sacred significance.

Spirituality, drugs, and alcohol: a philosophical analysis.

Spirituality has long been associated with recovery from the socially constructed "addictive disease." Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and its analogs have enjoyed widespread acceptance as a spiritual approach for achieving recovery. AA or its derivatives are the predominant approaches in treatment programs even though a wide array of evidence-based approaches are now promoted by governmental sources in the United States. This philosophical analysis contrasts the state of science about addictive disorders with the reliance on a spiritual approach that is heavily grounded in Christian theology. We present four problems that need consideration before accepting the applicability of 12-step spiritual practices as the backbone of addiction treatment or recovery.

Shiva, Lord of Bhang.

In India, Cannabis Indica has been used for literally thousands of years in the worship of the god Shiva. Cannabis is used in an orally administered form called bhang which can be either the wet resinous leaves formed into pills of a drink made of milk, cannabis, and various spices consumed by worshipers of Shiva on festival days or by smoking the flowering buds of cannabis-a practice generally reserved for holy men who dedicate their lives to ascetic practice and the worship of Shiva. This practice is codified in the Vedas as well as in legends about the origin of cannabis and its relationship to Shiva.

Implementation issues in an innovative rural substance misuser treatment program.

This article is essentially the story of the development, implementation, and testing of a treatment protocol designed specifically for rural individuals who are substance misusers. Although the treatment protocol that emerged from this process seemed to be valuable for clients, the researchers were not able to establish with statistical significance that it was better than conventional treatment. In some ways, this was a failure. This article explores some of the possible reasons why new treatment approaches, tested in real clinical situations, may have difficulty establishing their effectiveness. The factors involved are many and complex.

The god within.

This is a new feature of Substance Use and Misuse that the editors hope will bring a new focus on substance use and misuse throughout history and in diverse cultures. Up until modern times, cultures throughout history have associated different substances with specific deities, incorporated them into specific myths, and used substances in specific rituals. Examining these associations is likely to give insight into how these substances were viewed in various cultures and the place that they had in those cultures. Consequently, we offer this new feature exploring these associations as a way of increasing understanding of the functions of substance use in different cultures over historical time.

A qualitative exploration of engagement among rural women entering substance user treatment.

A semistructured interview was administered to a purposive sample of 12 rural women early in substance misuser treatment in a gender specific, intensive outpatient treatment program from March 2001 through March 2003. The interview used open-ended questions about the women's state of mind before entering treatment, the experiences that helped them feel more comfortable with treatment, the experiences that caused them some discomfort in treatment, and any changes they would recommend to the program content or process in an attempt to gain understanding about factors that might facilitate a subjective comfort and engagement with the treatment experience. In approaching treatment, the women almost uniformly expressed a mixture of anxiety about the requirements of treatment and cynicism about its effectiveness. Although aware of the content and structure of the treatment program, the women focused on interpersonal experiences as the critical factors in their level of comfort once in treatment. The most frequently mentioned factors adding to comfort with the treatment experience were the welcoming, accepting, and non-judgmental attitudes of the staff; having their perceptions of their problems taken seriously by the treatment staff; being with other women who shared much of their experiences; and a respectful and generally positive attitude on the part of both the staff and the patients. The only factor that consistently caused some of the women discomfort in treatment was a difficulty in trusting that some of the other women in treatment would keep the matters discussed in group sessions confidential. The women were not completely satisfied with the program content and structure, but this seemed of very little importance to them in relation to their experience of comfort with their treatment experience.