Not only is this not new, but this approach has already been incorporated into many of the more progressive (and, incidentally, more successful) drug treatment programs.

It turns out that, when you treat substance abuse as a symptom of an underlying problem and not a symptom of the substance itself (the same way we do for alcohol), you end up with a much more effective treatment strategy.

It's funny that it's taking us this long to come to that realization, when even the DSM IV outlines specific criteria for substance abuse and substance dependence, and most habitual users of drugs fit neither of these.

Funny anecdote: Szasz's "Rat Park" study originally appeared in a relatively unknown journal because it was rejected from all the mainstream ones for being "too much of a deviation" from the mainstream schools of thought.