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During the last centuries, medical models gained ascendance over other models for interpreting behaviors related to illness and suffering, which have been eventually almost entirely supplanted. In time, the medical model became one of the norms for the self-assessment of human behavior in general. Our paper emphasizes the idea that, in connection with the social phenomenon of substance misuse and addiction, medicalization and medical practices have an ambivalent role to play in society: on the one hand, they help connecting with our fellow people in the process of taking care, health-wise, of them, and on the other hand, they possess an invasive, controlling and disciplinarian force. The medicalization solution is nevertheless salutary in situations when all kinds of marginalized populations are still considered undeserving of medical treatment.

Key words: substance misuse; addiction; biomedical model; medicalization; ambivalence