Drug use for self-directed mood modification is regularly presented as deviant behavior in sociology literature, and legal controls reinforce this labeling. Surveys uniformly indicate that by the late 1970's, drug taking had penetrated all levels of American society, raising the issue of how so widespread a pheneomenon can be viewed as deviant. A major problem with the deviance model of drug abuse is that it does not account for changes in drug use patterns over time and changes in attitudes toward drugs accompanying current trends in drug use. The model also does not address varying motives for drug use and differing patterns by type of user. Treatment and prevention programs would be more effective if all users were not lumped into a deviant class. Treatment and prevention approaches should vary according to the characteristics and use patterns of the users. A multimodal taxonomy of drug taking behavior would provide a more useful approach to the problem. Such a model would also have implications for surveys of drug use. Surveys would focus more on the varying characteristics, circumstances, and patterns of drug use among the population. 57 references.