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To outline the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in debates about sport, alcohol, and addiction. It appears that a growing number of sportspeople suffer from addiction to alcohol and other drugs while at the same time alcohol use is widely sanctioned and celebrated in sport. The high-profile falls from grace are a public display of a more insidious, problematic relationship to drugs and alcohol in sport, yet cultural change is often difficult given long standing associations between sport and alcohol.

In the first part of the chapter, the key themes in the drugs, alcohol, and sport debate (notably health and ethics) are discussed. In the second part, some of the relationships between sport and alcohol, such as sponsorship and the cultural sanctioning of particular forms of drinking and masculine identities are examined. In the third, the issues of drug and alcohol addiction and recovery, and the implications for sport and sporting identities are discussed.

The chapter reveals the tensions that underpin the social contexts of drug and alcohol use and misuse in sport. The chapter suggests that a recalibration of popular understandings of masculinity in sport may provide a safe space through which to share battles with alcohol and addiction.

Discussion of the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the relationships between sport and alcohol have important implications for a discussion and analysis of addiction and alcohol in sport, and for sport and social policy, health promotion, and social care more broadly.

Improvement in Access to Treatment for People with Alcohol and Drug Related Problems (IATPAD) was a European study that detected barriers and facilitators to accessing treatment for patients with alcohol and drug‐related problems. This article seeks to compare the findings from a qualitative study with patients and staff in Catalunya (Spain).

The paper describes a multi‐centre, qualitative study. A purposive sample of 47 staff, from a randomly selected sample of the three main entrance points to treatment for patients with alcohol and drug problems in Catalunya, were recruited from: Out‐patient General Psychiatry Centres (CSMA); Out‐patient Addiction Centres (CAS); and Primary Care Centres (CAP). In addition, open‐ended responses were collated from 142 additional staff on barriers and facilitators to accessing treatment for patients with alcohol and drug problems and how these barriers could be improved. A total of 25 patients from two CAS were interviewed in‐depth. The framework approach was used to interpret qualitative interviews.

The main barriers and facilitators to accessing treatment identified by staff and patients were patients' motivation, centres' opening hours, staff attitudes, the provision of information about services, and the co‐ordination and integration of different services – mainly the mental health and addiction sectors.

This paper describes and compares the main barriers and facilitators to accessing treatment from both staff and patients' point of view. Recommendations are made in order to improve service accessibility for patients with addiction problems and those with a dual diagnosis.

This qualitative research explores the relationship between religiosity, suicide thoughts and drug abuse among 55 homeless people, interviewed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analyzing the thematic structure of the participants' narrations, important main themes appeared in order to avoid suicide, among which family, the certainty of finding a solution and the will to live. However, the suicide ideation inheres in about 30% of participants, almost all believers, addicted and/or alcoholics. Results suggest that religiosity and meaning of death neither prevent from substances abuse and alcoholism, nor is a protective factor against suicide ideation. Meanings of life are the most important reasons for living, and when they are definitively considered unworkable, alcohol and drug help to endure life in the street. A specific model is discussed.

Purpose – Since the mid-20th century, drug addiction in America has increasingly been redefined as a disease and diagnosed as a widespread yet treatable disorder. The idiosyncrasies of addiction as a disease, however, have tended to block the journey of the addict from stigmatized moral failure to therapeutic reprieve. Centering in on the process of the “court-led diagnosis” of addiction, this qualitative case study uses ethnography and interviewing at a county drug court and one of its “partner” therapeutic communities to examine the process in detail, from the first negotiations between treatment and court personnel over the eligibility of the client, to the gradual inculcation of an addict identity by means of intensive cognitive education and behavioral modification.

Methodology/approach – Qualitative: ethnography and interviews.

Findings – We demonstrate that a shift from moral judgment to therapeutic sympathy is particularly unlikely for the fast-growing mass of criminal offenders whose diagnosis is spearheaded by the state in the form of the therapeutic jurisprudence of the drug court. For this group, the emphasis on the need for comprehensive resocialization and the close cooperation between the intimacies of therapeutic “rehab” and the strong arm of criminal justice “backup” not only maintains, but intensifies, moral tutelage, and stigmatization.

Social implications – The convergence of drug treatment and criminal justice tends to produce yet another stigmatizing biologization of poverty and race, lending scientific validity to new forms of criminalizing and medicalizing social hardship.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the prevalence of potential problem gambling among Finnish prisoners; the associations between problem gambling and demographics, substance use and crime-related factors; and problem gamblers’ support preferences.

Prisoners (n=96) from two Finnish prisons were recruited between December 2017 and January 2018. The estimated response rate was 31 percent. Gambling problems were measured using the Brief Biosocial Gambling Screen. The participants were asked to report their gambling both for one year prior to their incarceration and for the past year. The independent variables were demographics (age, gender and marital status), substance use (alcohol, smoking and narcotics) and crime-related factors (crime type, prison type and previous sentence). Statistical significance (p) was determined using Fischer’s exact test.

Past-year pre-conviction problem gambling prevalence was 16.3 percent and past-year prevalence 15 percent. Age, gender, smoking, alcohol or illicit drug use were not associated with past-year problem gambling before sentencing. One-third of the prisoners (33.3 percent) who were sentenced for a property crime, financial crime or robbery were problem gamblers. One-quarter (24 percent) of all participants showed an interest in receiving support by identifying one or more support preferences. The most preferred type of support was group support in its all forms.

It is recommended that correctional institutions undertake systematic screening for potential problem gambling, and implement tailored intervention programs for inmates with gambling problems.

This study provides a deeper understanding of problem gambling in prisons. Problem gambling is associated with crime and also seems to be linked with serving a previous sentence. Early detection and tailored interventions for problem gambling may help to reduce reoffending rates.

This paper introduces narrative theory and therapy, showing its relevance to addiction and recovery. A variety of techniques and clinical sensitivities are illustrated, the purpose of which is to enable clients to change.

While many of the most widely used treatment interventions engage with the psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of addiction, some of the biological aspects can at times be neglected. It is increasingly being recognised that there is a close, exacerbating relationship between problematic substance use and poor nutrition.

Drug and alcohol abuse are estimated to cost British industry close to £1,500 million in lost productivity annually. But despite the enormous costs in both human and material terms, alcoholism and addiction are subjects which are little understood and reluctantly discussed. In the UK, however, this is slowly changing and there is a growing awareness of the problems of addiction, and an increasing number of educational and training materials available. This issue briefly reviews five videos that tackle the issues of substance abuse:

Purpose – Treatment for alcohol and drug addiction in correctional settings has become commonplace throughout much of the United States. The delivery of treatment services in prisons is a promising approach and has certain advantages relative to outpatient and voluntary treatment, including (i) certainty of program enrollment and participation by individuals who would not likely seek treatment on their own (i.e., coerced participation/guaranteed delivery of treatment); (ii) program modalities specific to residential settings as treatment options – in effect, more intensive treatment; and (iii) the parole process ensures participation in post-release aftercare services. During this era wherein reentry is a pronounced theme throughout American corrections, substance abuse treatment is fundamental in terms of rehabilitating offenders, increasing public safety, and lowering recidivism rates and, ultimately, the overall prison population.

Methodology – Using data from a process evaluation of an in-prison alcohol treatment program in Texas, this study examines the environmental barriers to effective recovery present in correctional settings and considers the strengths and weaknesses of coercive treatment, generally.

Findings – Findings indicate that offenders can indeed become motivated to change through coerced treatment. However, study findings also suggested that a certain number of offenders will not become engaged in treatment and fail to develop any internal motivation, which can be problematic for a number of reasons.

Practical implications – The highly coercive and restrictive nature of correctional facilities may negate the overall rehabilitative intent of treatment programs.

The purpose of this paper is to map research communities related to heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) and the scientific network they are part of to determine their structure and content.

Co-authorship as the basis for conducting social network analysis with regard to degree, weighted degree, betweenness centrality, and edge betweenness centrality.

A number of central researchers were identified on the basis of the number of their collaborative relations. Central actors were also identified on the basis of their position in the research network. In total, 11 research communities were constructed with different scientific content. HAT research communities are closely connected to medical, psychiatric, and epidemiological research and very loosely connected to social research.

The first mapping of the collaborative network HAT researchers using social network methodology.