The inability to deal with substance misuse is a universal human problem. No country has discovered a fail-safe way of tackling it. In Ireland there is an annual public outcry about an ever-deepening drinking culture but once the outcry is over the problem subsides below consciousness. Strategies are created and launched but quickly forgotten. Everybody is aware of the problem in their own family or neighbourhood and everybody has their own opinions on causes and remedies. Jack Houlahan suggests that exploring the pattern underlying all substance use provides our best starting point.In A Ghost in Daylight: Making Sense of Substance misuse, the general reader will find many popular stereotypes re-examined in a way that will illuminate their own experience; the specialist addiction worker of researcher will find reason to challenge first principles; a new approach to counseling and advice work is suggested; the policy maker will find a firm foundation for what will be the first attempt at an integrated policy for dealing with the range of issues we group under the title substance misuse.