Abstract

Research on the relationship between methadone and alcohol has produced varying and sometimes contradictory results, such that being prescribed methadone has been associated with different patterns of drinking and degrees of problem drinking. Little is known about the mediating influence of sociocultural factors in relation to these variations. This article is an assessment of the nature and extent of alcohol use among a sample of people being prescribed methadone in a Glasgow housing estate, identifying factors which influenced alcohol use, and assessing the role of sociocultural factors. Data were collected through ethnographic methods and short self-completion questionnaire from 32 methadone clients. Typically, current problem drinking was not a feature of this sample. Most participants experimented with alcohol in their teenage years; however, their use of alcohol decreased to minimal or ended completely as they became increasingly involved with other drugs, especially opiates. Use of opiates became incompatible with use of alcohol for the following reasons: becoming an opiate user interrupts the typical process of becoming a “novice drinker” in adolescence; through a process of labeling and self-identification the “drug addict” both opts out of and is excluded from the mainstream drinking culture; if, despite these previous conditions, the opiate user does drink, adverse physical effects reported by the participants are sufficient to act at least as a partial deterrent to further use of alcohol. For most of the participants in the study, these three factors continue to influence current use of alcohol and in combination would appear to offer some explanation for the low levels of reported drinking.