This information effective for Winter 2001.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Instructor: Craig Reinarman
303 College 8, UC Santa Cruz
Phone: 459-2617
Office hours: Mon & Wed 11-12:30
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. --Voltaire
If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.… A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither. --Thomas Jefferson
As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of the change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. --U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
Introduction: The ingestion of chemicals for purposes of
altering consciousness has been practiced in virtually all human
cultures and in all epochs of history. Sometimes this has resulted in
problems, sometimes not, depending on how a society defines and deals
with drug use and on how well it takes care of its citizens.
Contrary to current conventional wisdom, the mere use of drugs does not necessarily constitute drug "abuse," nor is the mere existence of human suffering or social harm from such drug use always defined as a "drug problem." The total social costs from the harm done by a single legal drug like alcohol or tobacco dwarf the total costs related to all illicit drugs combined. Yet, we tend to think of alcohol and tobacco use as "normal" (if unhealthy) and the use of other drugs as "deviant." Historically, such definitions have never been based on "objective" evidence of risk, but rather have been reflections of a society's conflicts and expressions of a culture's fears. Such conflicts and fears shape both the patterns and consequences of drug use and the society's drug policy responses.
This course is not a "just say no" course, but neither is it a "how to" course. The first objective is to explore the social, cultural, political and economic processes that shape our understanding of and policies toward drugs. A second objective is to provide an historical and theoretical grasp of the social causes and consequences of the use and abuse of these consciousness-altering substances. Third, the course attempts to stimulate critical thinking about policies that can reduce the harms associated with drug use.
Course Requirements: Despite the "laid back" or "chilled out" zeitgeist of UCSC, and despite what might appear to be Bacchanalian course content, this course is designed to be intellectually demanding and rigorous. Attendance at lectures and discussion sections is mandatory and each student will be required to write (and rewrite if need be) bi-weekly essays. In these essays students must meet two objectives: 1. provide brief, basic summaries of both lectures and readings, and 2. critically reflect upon what you are learning from both. While this type of assignment requires a lot of effort, it allows each student to engage those issues that s/he finds most interesting and it builds basic writing skills. This is why the course counts as a "W" or writing-intensive course.
Students will write a five-page essay on each of the five sections of the course. The first will be due to your Teaching Assistant in section in the third week of the quarter, with the others due at two week intervals thereafter. Turn in copies; keep originals. Each essay will cover the readings and lectures in one section of the course as outlined in this syllabus. Each essay will be a minimum of 5 typed, double-spaced pages in length. Although you will not be able to cover in detail every reading and lecture in a section in an essay, to pass this course you must give clear written evidence in your essays as a whole that you have attended all lectures, done all the required reading, and engaged the issues. Although this amounts to a good deal of systematic work, the essay format is designed to allow plenty of creative elbow room for you to pursue your own questions and interests.
Each essay will be examined by the TAs to determine that students are attending lectures and doing the readings. Any student whose essays do not provide clear evidence of attendance at lectures and completion of readings will not pass the course. The first two essays will be read closely and carefully evaluated by the TAs. They will return them with comments so that students will have a sense of how they are doing and how to improve. If those comments include referral to a Writing Tutor, then it is the student's responsibility to meet with a Writing Tutor to improve his or her writing.
The fifth and final essay will both summarize the lectures and readings in Section 5 of this syllabus and attempt to synthesize the student's own comprehensive set of drug policy reforms, based on readings and lectures, to address "America's drug problem." At the close of the course, each student will turn in this concluding essay and all the earlier essays as a complete set. That set of essays will be the basis for narrative evaluations. This body of written work will be judged on its breadth of coverage of lectures and readings and the depth of engagement with the issues. The complete sets of essays must be turned in by Wednesday, March 15 -- no extensions, no exceptions.
Required texts (available only at Literary Guillotine, 204 Locust St., Santa Cruz)
1. Theory: Constructing Drug Problems [weeks 1 & 2]
2. Drug Use Through a Comparative-Historical Lens [weeks 3 & 4]
3. "Deviant" Drugs: Pleasures and Problems [weeks 5 and
6]
4. "Legitimate" Drugs: Booze, Butts, Pills, Profits [weeks
7&8]
5. Reducing Harm: Treatment, Law, and Policy [weeks
9&10]