The purpose of this research is to examine the issue of controlled-substance use and abuse with reference to the social theory of Max Weber. The plan of the research will be to set forth in general terms Weber's approach to social analysis, and then to see whether and to what extent it is useful in explaining the various phenomena associated with controlled-substance use and abuse, relating not only to users of such substances but also to society more generally.
No examination of Weberian theory would be complete without reference to rationalization (also rationality or rationalism), which refers to a process whereby a society evolves away from a world explained by superstition and emotion toward social organization. It is important to recognize that rationalism is not to be equated with reasonableness and justice as a moral category, but rather is to be "measured negatively in terms of the degree to which magical elements of thought are displaced, or positively by the extent to which ideas gain in systematic coherence and naturalistic consistency" (Gerth and Mills, 1946, p. 51). This situation of systematic order has to do with the shape of social organization and not necessarily with more informal social comity. Inevitably, therefore, issues of authority and enforcement of order also arise. In that regard, Shaw characterizes Weber as a theorist of social control (Shaw, 2002, p. 125), and the breadth of Weber's writings on religion, society, and law reinforces that characterization.
Throughout all of Weber's work, however, the issue of rationalization receives treatment. Where a rational attitude is at work, so is movement toward an organized and orderly, society whose inhabitants have constructed agreed-upon conventions of enforcement of order. This is explained by Gerth and Mills:
The principle of rationalization is the most general element in Weber's philosophy of history. For the rise and fall of institutional structures,...