Reference Systems and Re-educational Interventions in the Approach to Drug Addiction

Abstract

The article critically analyzes the Italian regulatory and operational approach to drug addiction, with particular reference to Law 685 of 1975, which regulates the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of drug addicts. It highlights the complexity of the intervention system provided for by the law, which is structured on several institutional levels (ministries, regions, municipalities, judicial and health bodies) and the difficulty of coordination between them. A central role is attributed to medical and social assistance centers, which should operate according to non-authoritarian but professional criteria, despite the inherent contradiction in their also having to support coercive and judicial interventions. The author highlights the ambiguities and critical issues of the proposed model, emphasizing the lack of an effective distinction between the technical and political dimensions of the intervention, which can lead to a repressive rather than therapeutic function. The risk of reducing the intervention to mere symptom management, rather than addressing the root causes of social and personal distress, is discussed. The concept of ‘rehabilitation’ is questioned, as it is often understood as forced normalization within a social context that the drug addict has already rejected. The article therefore calls for critical reflection on the role of the operator, on the need for methodological clarity, and on the possibility of building an authentic therapeutic contract based on conscious and non-imposed collaboration. Rehabilitation, although it implies a reduction, can be an opportunity to rebuild a sense of social belonging, but only if the system itself is able to offer credible values and authentic references