The author examines five leading theories of drug dependence—a) the acquired drive theory; b) the avoidance paradigm theory; c) the metabolic disease theory; d) the conditioning theory; and e) the automedication theory—and finds them all lacking. He explores drug dependence within the context of “passive euphoria,” and suggests that persons who become drug dependent are those who are not able, for reasons of attitudes or other factors, to create euphoria in usual ways. He argues further that most drug programs err seriously by failing to help the drug-dependent person to find euphoric alternatives to drugs. Because of the ascetic orientation of most drug programs, they thus tend to undermine the very goal for which they strive.