Är läkemedelsberoende en fråga för socialtjänsten?

The purpose of this thesis was to increase our understanding of how the social service in Sweden deals with reported incidents of addiction to medicines. Another purpose was to point out the different opinions concerning addiction to medicines amongst actors as well as possible ways to handle the problem. We have conducted a quantitative and qualitative e-mail survey targeting all communities in Sweden, with the ambition of gaining further knowledge about the role and responsibility of the social service concerning reports of addiction to medicines. Two quantitative questions were one asked about how many clients requested/were reported for needing help with their drug abuse alone, and the second question about how many clients needing help for drug abuse as a part of a wider addiction. The survey revealed that the social services judge their role/responsibility differently; some take the main responsibility while others think that drug abuse is created by the general health care and should be handled by this organization as well. In relation to the estimated amount of drug addicts in Sweden only a small part are in contact with the social service