One way to distinguish a realist perspective among theories of internal social problems is to contrast the "level of analysis" on which their explanations focus. Many theories that try to explain social problems work at the level of the psychological or biological conditions that push some people to behave badly, discovering the gene, chromosome or mental characteristic that separates the deviant from the normal. These clarifications tend to operate at the individual level of analysis, addressing some characteristics of the different and deviant individual. Other explanations tend to focus on the microsocial level, dealing with patterns of interaction between individuals and specific groups, for example peer groups. (May 2001:5). Any phenomenon defined as a social problem requires a collective response rather than an individual solution. For example: “When, in a city of 100,000 inhabitants, a single man is unemployed, this is his personal problem, and for relief we look properly to the character of the man, his abilities and his immediate opportunities. But when in a nation of 50 million employees, 15 million men are unemployed, this is a problem, and we cannot hope to find a solution within the opportunities open to each individual." (Mills 1959:8) This example suggests that social problems only truly become a problem when they affect a large portion of society. What might seem like a problem to some and if a large group of society is not affected by it, there is little chance of it being called a social problem. The “war on drugs” is one of the most argumentative examples of social problem construction. All over the world people consume all kinds of chemicals that affect their bodies: d...... middle of paper ......edBlau, J. (2004) The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.Hoffman, B. (1997). The confluence of international and domestic trends in terrorism. London: Routledge.Paskus, A. (1998) Tikejimo ir netikejimo salytis siandien. Kaunas: Lietuvos katechetikos komisijos leidykla.Erksine, A. (1998) The approaches and methods of social policy. Oxford: Blackwell.May, M. (2001) Understanding Social Problems: Social Policy Issues. Oxford: Blackwell.Mills, C.W. (1959) The social imagination. London: Oxford University Press.The Economist (7 March 2009) Free-range. A selection of articles from the Economist. How to stop drug wars. Sample edition: UK.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2009) Fast facts: tobacco and death. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm Access 12.01.10