Winter 2003

This information effective for Winter 2003. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Sociology

[SOCY-127]

127. Drugs and Society

Instructor: Craig Reinarman
303 College Eight
Phone: 459-2617
Office hours: Mon & Wed 11–12:30

"Forbede us thyng, and that desiren we."—Chaucer

"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

"Exactly in the ratio as [the mill hands] worked long and monotonously, the craving grew within them for some physical relief."—Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)

"Most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and always has been one of the principal appetites of the soul."—Aldous Huxley

"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."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

Draft Syllabus

Course Description:

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 or harm, 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 a 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—and with drug policy.

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 the core points in both lectures and readings, and 2. critically engage with and reflect upon what you are learning from both readings and lectures. 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 an 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. Always turn in copies; keep originals. Each essay will cover the readings and lectures in one section of the course as outlined in this syllabus. The first four essays will be a maximum of 4 typed, double-spaced pages in length; the fifth and final essay should be no more than 6 pages long. 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 summarizing, essays of this length still allow enough space for you to write about 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 needed to best address "America's drug problem." At the close of the course, each student will turn in this final essay and all the earlier essays as a complete set. That set of essays will be the basis for grades and 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 4 p.m. Friday, March 16— no extensions, no exceptions.

Required Texts (available only at the Literary Guillotine, 204 Locust St., Santa Cruz)

• Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants (Vintage/Random House, 1992)
• Erich Goode, Drugs in American Society, 5th Edition (McGraw Hill, 2000)
• Craig Reinarman and Harry Levine et al., Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice (University of California Press, 1997) [chapters identified below with "R & L"]
• Lynn Zimmer and John P. Morgan, Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence (The Lindesmith Center, 1997)
• James Inciardi and Karen McElrath, eds., The American Drug Scene: An Anthology, 3rd Edition (Roxbury Publishing, 2000). [chapters identified below with "I & M"]

Suggested Supplemental Texts

• Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (Cambridge, 1996)
• Lester Grinspoon and James Bakalar, Marihuana, The Forbidden Medicine (Yale, 1993)
• E. Bertram, et al., Drug War Politics (University of California Press, 1996)
• M. Norris, C. Conrad, and V. Resner, Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's
  Drug War (El Cerrito, CA: Creative Expressions; 510-215-8326)

1. Theory: Constructing Drug Problems [weeks 1 & 2]

Weil, Why People Take Drugs [I&M]
Goode, Ch. 1, Drugs and Drug Use
Goode, Ch. 2, Looking at Drugs: A Sociological Perspective
Goode, Ch. 3, Theories of Drug Use
Goode, Ch. 4, The Extent of Drug Use in America
Reinarman & Levine, Ch. 1, Crack in Context: America's Latest Demon Drug
Zimmer & Morgan, Ch. 1, Marijuana and Science
Zimmer & Morgan, Ch. 3, Marijuana and Addiction
Zimmer & Morgan, Ch. 4, Marijuana, Hard Drugs, and the Gateway Theory
Peele and Brodsky, Gateway to Nowhere: How Alcohol Came to be Scapegoated … [I&M]
Lindesmith, A Sociological Theory of Drug Addiction [I&M]
Nurco, Kinlock, & Hanlon, The Drugs-Crime Connection [I&M]
Bourgois, In Search of Horatio Alger: Culture & Ideology in the Crack Economy [R&L]
Goldstein et al., Crack and Homicide in New York City [R&L]

2. Drug Use Through a Historical-Comparative Lens [weeks 3 & 4]

Schivelbusch, Ch. 1, Spices, or the Dawn of the Modern Age
Schivelbusch, Ch. 2, Coffee and the Protestant Ethic
Schivelbusch, Ch. 3, Chocolate, Catholicism, and the Ancien Regime
Schivelbusch, Ch. 5, The Industrial Revolution, Beer, and Liquor
Schivelbusch, Ch. 8, Artificial Paradises of the 19th Century ... Opium
Anslinger and Cooper, Marijuana: Assassin of Youth [I&M]
Zimmer and Morgan, Ch. 6, Dutch Marijuana Policy
Reinarman & Levine, The Crack Attack: Politics and Media in the Crack Scare [R&L]
Duster, Pattern, Purpose, and Race in the Drug War [R&L]
Cheung & Erickson, Crack Use in Canada [R&L]
Mugford, Crack Use in Australia [R&L]
Cohen, Crack in The Netherlands [R&L]

3. "Deviant" Drugs: Pleasures and Problems [weeks 5 and 6]

Zimmer & Morgan, Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, Chapters 7-20
Goode, Ch. 9, Stimulants (sections on amphetamine and cocaine)
Musto, America's First Cocaine Epidemic [I&M]
Reinarman et al., The Contingent Call of the Pipe: Bingeing & Addiction [R&L]
Murphy and Rosenbaum, Two Women Who Used Cocaine Too Much [R&L]
Morgan & Zimmer, The Social Pharmacology of Smokeable Cocaine [R&L]
Goode, Ch. 11, Heroin and the Narcotics
Lindesmith, Dope Fiend Mythology [I&M]
Waldorf, Becoming a Heroin Addict [I&M]
Preble and Casey, Taking Care of Business: The Heroin Addict's Life on the Street I&M]
Goode, Ch. 8, Hallucinogens
Hunt, Rise of Hallucinogen Use [I&M]
Beck & Rosenbaum, Emergence of Adam and Ecstasy [I&M]
Sloan, It's All the RAVE: "Flower Power" Meets "Technoculture" [I&M]

4. "Legitimate" Drugs: Booze, Butts, Pills, Profits [weeks 7 & 8]

Schivelbusch, Ch. 6, Rituals
Schivelbusch, Ch. 7, Drinking Places
Siegal & Inciardi, A Brief History of Alcohol [I&M]
Goode, Ch. 6, Alcohol
Wechsler et al., College Binge Drinking in the 1990s [I&M]
Schivelbusch, Ch. 4, Tobacco: The Dry Inebriant
Goode, Ch. 9, Stimulants (section on tobacco)
Worth, Making It Uncool: Laughter … in the War on Teen Smoking [I&M]
Goode, Ch. 10, Psychotherapeutic Drugs
Grinspoon & Bakalar, Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine [I&M]
Zimmer and Morgan, Ch. 2, Marijuana as Medicine

5. Reducing Harm: Treatment, Law, and Policy [weeks 9 & 10]

Glasser & Siegel, When Constitutional Rights Seem Too Extravagant to Endure [R&L]
Siegel, The Pregnancy Police Fight the War on Drugs [R&L]
Zimmer & Morgan, Conclusion: Science, Politics, and Policy
Goode, Ch. 12, Drug Treatment, Drug Testing, and Drug Education
National Institute on Drug Abuse, Advances in Therapeutic Communities [I&M]
Dole and Nyswander, Methadone Maintenance: A Theoretical Perspective [I&M]
Goode, Ch. 13, Drugs and the Law
Wilson, Against the Legalization of Drugs [I&M]
Nadelmann, Drug Prohibition in the U.S.: Costs, Consequences, Alternatives [R&L]
Nadelmann, Commonsense Drug Policy [I&M]
Reinarman & Levine, Ch. 15, Punitive Prohibition in America
Reinarman & Levine, Ch. 16, The Cultural Contradictions of Punitive Prohibition
Reinarman & Levine, Ch. 17, Reducing the Harms of Drug Use and Drug Policy