Simuse: Modeling recreational polydrug use through an agentbased model

This paper describes an attempt to capture individual and social characteristics of poly-drug use in a generic agent-based model called SimUse. We consider polydrug use and its social context as a complex phenomenon and use a generative framework to create an iterative dialogue between qualitative fieldwork, theoretical constructs and computer simulations. The structure of SimUse includes five levels of influence. In a first time the context of recreational polydrug use and the rationales of this research is introduced; then, the second part of the paper describes the overall structure of the model before detailing key aspects of SimUse: (1) the neurological engine and its behavioural consequences; (2) the decision process and its different elements; and (3) the intra- And extra-individual reevaluation processes. We conclude with two examples of how the model reacts to illustrative parameter changes and external shocks and their consequences for decision-makers.