Transcript Slide 1

DRUGS:
questioning everything
we’re told about them
WHAT IS A “DRUG”?
Legalist definition of drugs: excludes legal
substances from being categorized as “drugs”
 Psychoactive definition: drug effects (physical).
what the drugs do inside your body and how
you feel these effects
 Sociological definition: drug experience (social).
Experience & effects will vary when different
meanings are brought into the drug takingsituation
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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON DRUGS
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Pharmacological actions of drugs do not always match the
arbitrary meanings assigned to them.
Social context matters to drug use, not just the biophysical
responses.
 Examples: Meth/Adderall, Heroin/Morphine,
Cocaine/Caffeine
 Drugs used for religious rituals
Power of the state and medicine to define “legal” and “illegal”
drugs, and see how drug policies are agents of social control.
Critical of drug policy double standards.
For addiction to be lessened, think of ways to change society so
that it is not as likely to occur.
 Example: Ritalin’s use as an “academic steroid” raises
concerns about treating social problems with prescriptions.
LEGALITY OF A DRUG ≠ HARM OF A DRUG
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2010 Lancet study
Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how
it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria
for harm like environmental damage caused by the
drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic
costs--such as health care, social services, and costs
to the community.
Which drug do you think topped the list?
PRESIDENTS & THE DRUG WAR
“Our ultimate destination: a
drug-free America. And now
in the eleventh hour of this
Presidency, we give a new
sword and shield to those
whose daily business it is to
eliminate from America's
streets and towns the
scourge of
illicit drugs.”
– Ronald
Reagan, 1988
“Terrorists use drug profits to
fund their cells to commit
acts of murder. If you quit
drugs, you join the fight
against terror in America.” –
George Bush, 2002
PRESIDENTS & THE DRUG WAR
“The crime bill makes ‘3 strikes
and you're out’ the law of the land,
puts 100,000 police on the street,
builds more prisons to lock up
serious offenders, takes handguns
away from juveniles, bans assault
weapons, deals more sensibly with
the terrible scourge of drugs that
are responsible for so many of the
crimes we have,
and invests in
community boot
camps for young
offenders…”
– Bill Clinton 1993
“Prison overcrowding will be
addressed through the activation of
a newly constructed prison at
Aliceville, Alabama, which will add
more than 1,750 beds.”
[Changes in drug policy: very timid &
slow]
STATE POWER & DRUGS
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How the state classifies drugs matters.
For example, last year in Britain, the government increased its
penalties for the possession of marijuana. One of its senior
advisers, David Nutt - the lead author on the Lancet study - was
fired after he criticized the British decision.
"What governments decide is illegal is not always based on
science.” – David Nutt
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Revenue and taxation, like those garnered from the
alcohol and tobacco industries, may influence decisions
about which substances to regulate or outlaw.
What govts decide is illegal is also based on what a
politician can run on to get elected.
May be based on racial stereotypes…changing legality of
drugs based on race
Note the increase since Reagan
expanded the drug war in the
80’s
Note the racial disparities in drug
sentencing. While illegal drug use is
evenly distributed by race (blacks
14% of pop = 13% of drug users), the
chart shows enforcement is not
evenly distributed. Blacks are
incarcerated at a rate of 6X their
proportion in the pop. (Source: U.S.
Public Health Service 2000)
SOLUTIONS
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Drug abuse should be a public health issue, not a criminal
one
Focus less energy on reducing drug use per se, focus more
energy on reducing death, disease associated with drug
misuse.
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programs to test for MDMA, drug cleaning kits
Needle sharing programs
Easy to access drug treatment clinics
“Soft power” solution: good jobs. the illegal drug industry
profits when workers are hurting for a living wage &
communities suffer from high income inequality.
REFERENCES
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Between politics and reason: the drug legalization debate
Crack in America: Demon Drugs & Social Justice
Michelle Alexander - The New Jim Crow
Erich Goode – A Sociological Perspective on Drugs and Drug
Use
Drug Harms in the UK: A Multicritical Decision Analysis