‘The rise of the user’? Voluntary organizations, the state and illegal drugs in England since the 1960s

This article examines the place of the drug user in drug policy and practice in England since the 1960s. It argues that though the drug user has ‘risen’ in the sense that users now play a key role in contemporary policy and practice, this was not a neat, linear process. Moreover, the current position of the drug user is constrained by a range of wider forces.