Transatlantic dialectics: a study on similarities and dissimilarities in approaches to substance abuse problems in the United States and Europe

The European Working Group on Drug Oriented Research (EWODOR) has a long tradition of organizing expert meetings to provide a forum within which researchers in the field of drug and alcohol treatment, prevention and policy can share research experiences, compare methods and results and subject their work to peer examination. Last year’s symposium was a “Transatlantic Forum” gathering practitioners, researchers and policy-makers from several European countries and the US. The objective of this symposium was to study a broad spectrum of differences and similarities in substance abuse approaches between Europe and the United States. Based on the development, evolution and current challenges of the drug-free therapeutic community, this paper aims at introducing some of the complex underlying social and ideological causes from a historical perspective