1. Alcohol and Other Drugs
Chapter 4
Alcohol and Other Drugs

2. Drugs
A drug is any chemical substance other than food or water that affects the mind or body.
a substance that people take to produce a change in their thinking, consciousness, emotions, bodily functions or behavior.
Drug Abuse—using drugs in such a way that they harm one’s health, impair one’s physical or mental functioning, or interfere with one’s social life.
No drug is good or bad in and of itself.

3. Drugs and Culture Drugs can be defined as good or as harmful.
Definitions of drugs vary from society to society
Alcohol part of western culture
Peyote use as a religious ritual among Native Americans
Coca and South America
Definitions vary over time
It is not the objective conditions of drugs—such as whether or not they are harmful—that makes their use a social problem.
Rather, it is the surrounding subjective concerns that establish them as problems.
Subjective concerns are not fixed, but change over time.

5. The Scope of the Problem
A drug is a substance that people take to produce a change in their thinking, consciousness, emotions, or bodily functions or behavior.
People take many substances to cause such changes.
Essential difference among these substances is not which ones they use, but whether a substance is socially acceptable or disapproved of.
Far from being an antidrug society, we are actually a pro-drug society.

6. Drugs and Social Diversity
Definitions of drugs have varied over time in the United States
Attitudes toward cocaine
Cocaine early on was seen as a medical panacea
Racism and cocaine usage
Founding Fathers and hemp
Immigrants and drug use

7. Drug Abuse as a Personal or Social Problem
When drug use interferes with someone’s health or how that person gets along in life, we consider this a personal problem.
If large numbers of people become upset about a drug, and want something done, then that drug becomes part of a social problem.
Nicotine and Alcohol as social problems.
Smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the U.S.
Alcohol is more dangerous than its broad social acceptability would imply.
Changing views of Alcohol

8. Changing Views of Alcohol
Alcohol is one of the most widely used drugs
Alcohol was important in colonial America
Alcohol became associated with undesirable immigrants
The Temperance Movement
The 18th Amendment and Prohibition
Prohibition
Organized crime
In 1933 Prohibition ended with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment

9. The Extent of Drug Use
Most everyone uses some type of drug legal or illegal
In 2007 government survey
80% of the population over the age of twelve used some illicit drug
Declined after 1980 and rose slightly after 2000

10. Why do People Use Drugs? 5 reasons behind use: 1. Therapeutic use
2. Recreational use
3. Escapism
4. Spiritual or psychological use
5. Social Conformity

11. Use and Abuse The distinction between using a drug from abusing a drug
Use that goes against accepted medical practices
Effect of the drug
Mental harm
Physical harm
Social harm

12. Addiction and Dependency
Addiction – a physical or psychological craving for a drug
Withdrawal symptoms
Complex
Dependency – a state in which a person’s body has adjusted to regular use of a drug
Need for the drug to feel normal

13. Types of Drugs
Stimulants – drugs that elevate alertness, changing a person’s mood by increasing energy
Caffeine
Nicotine
Ritalin
Cocaine and Crack
Amphetamines

14. Nicotine
Nicotine is the second most popular recreational drug in the United States.
The tobacco industry strives to recruit new smokers each year.
Spends $13 billion a year promoting cigarettes and chewing tobacco
Teens think smoking is more common and acceptable than it actually is.
A new study confirms that fewer American kids are smoking.

15. National Map Cigarette Smoking across the United States

17. College Students
Binge drinking—refers to the heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time
Binge drinkers in high school are three times more likely to binge in college.
Alcohol poisoning is the most life-threatening consequence of binge drinking.

18. Cocaine Cocaine has not always been viewed the way it is now.
Late 1800s, physicians praised cocaine for medicinal purposes
By 1910, transformed from medicine into a dangerous drug
Harrison Act paved the way for cocaine to be sold on the black market.
Has a distinctive medical use
The most common use of cocaine, however, is to obtain a high.

19. Dysfunctions of cocaine
“High” is intense and users give up many of the things they value
Creates health dysfunctions
“Crack Babies”: fetuses born addicted to cocaine because of mother’s drug addiction
Crack Cocaine
Violence surrounds crack
Social history includes racial injustice
Now, sentences imposed for the use of crack can be no heavier than those imposed for the use of powder cocaine.

20. The Amphetamines Amphetamines Became popular in the 1920s
Heavy amphetamine use sometimes accompanied by behavioral fixations
“Meth” addiction growing epidemic across the country
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy runs television advertisements to discourage meth use, and a provision of the Patriot Act forces states to now restrict purchases of pseudoephedrine.

21. Types of Drugs
Depressants – drugs that slow the operation of the central nervous system
Analgesics
Over the counter pain relievers
Sedatives and hypnotics, and alcohol
Antipsychotics
Lithium and Haldol

22. Alcohol Alcoholics—people who have severe alcohol-related problems
10 million Americans are considered alcoholics.
Each year 700,000 Americans are treated in substance abuse centers.
Billions of dollars per year in reduced productivity and alcohol-related accidents

23. Types of Drugs
Hallucinogens - stimulants that cause some hallucinations
LSD
Most famous of the hallucinogens
Reached height of media attention in mid-1960s with hippie culture
Peyote
Widely practiced among Native Americans
Can be used legally—but only by members of the Native American Church for religious purposes
Psilocybin (PCP)
Phencyclidine Hydrochloride also called Angel Dust
Affects the central nervous system, making it difficult to speak
Ecstasy
Popular party drug
Side effects for some are mental confusion and anxiety

24. Types of Drugs Cannabis
Marijuana
Hashish
Third most popular recreational drug in the United States
Health consequences of marijuana use
Studies have not confirmed findings
Smoking marijuana impairs motor coordination and reduces awareness of external stimuli
Associated with Amotivational Syndrome
Lethargy, loss of concentration, and drifting from long-range goals

26. Use of Selected Drugs by the U.S. Population, 1979–2007

27. Drugs and Other Social Problems
Problems of Family Life
Drug use and child neglect
Effect inhibitions
Effect judgment
Impacts family relationships and roles
Codependency among family members
Financial problems
Educational (school) problems
Legal problems

28. Drugs and Other Social Problems
Homelessness
60% of homeless men and women have a drinking problem
Drugs and homelessness
Drugs cause homelessness
Homelessness leads to drug use

29. Drugs and Other Social Problems
Health Problems
Many people die from the use of illegal and legal drugs
Effects physical and psychological well being
Prenatal exposure
Premature delivery
Low birth weight
Birth defects
Sharing needles and HIV
U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Needle exchange program and the reduction in the spread of HIV
Educational information on the sterilization of needles

30. Drugs and Other Social Problems
Crime
Drug use and crime
3/4 of federal prison inmates have a history of substance abuse
Drug enforcement policies cause crime
Drug related violence in Mexico

31. Drugs and Other Social Problems
Global Poverty
Illegal drugs in the U.S. are a part of the global economy
Poverty in poor nations and the production of drugs
Opiates in Afghanistan & Asia
Hashish from Middle East and West Africa
Marijuana from Mexico, Cuba, and Central America
Cocaine from South America
Source of income and capital for poor nations
Demand for drugs from rich nations

32. Social Policy: Responding to the Drug Problem
Strategies to Control Drugs
Interdiction – stopping drugs from entering our country
DEA
U.S Customs Service
Border Patrol
U.S. military
Education
Dare (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)
Treatment
In and out patient treatment
Counseling and group support such as AA

33. Federal Minimum Sentencing Guidelines

34. The War on Drugs The Nixon Era: Drugs as “ Public Enemy Number One”
Created the DEA – Overseas our government antidrug operations
Nixon administration and treatment programs
Main thrust was enforcement over treatment

35. The War on Drugs The Reagan Era
Defining the drug problem as moral challenge
“Just say No”
Increased the federal budget to fight the drug problem
Mandatory jail time
Seizure of property

36. The War on Drugs The Bush Years (1989-1992): The War Goes On
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Tough laws

37. The War on Drugs The Clinton Era: More of the Same
Treatment over incarceration
Later years tougher enforcement

38. War on Drugs George W Bush
Terrorism took public attention away from drugs
Looked at prosecution as primary strategy

39. War on Drugs Obama Aims to eliminate racial disparity in sentencing
Aims to reduce both supply and demand

40. Social Policy: Responding to the Drug Problem
Counterpoint: Decriminalization
Removing the current criminal penalties that punish drug users
Zurich, Switzerland: Legalization that Failed
Netherlands: Legalization that Works

41. Structural-Functional Analysis: Regulating Drug Use
The functions of a drug for the operation of society
Social and cultural functions
Economic functions
Drugs as dysfunctional for the operation of society
The more disruptive a drug’s effects, the stronger measures society takes

42. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: The Meaning of Drug Use
The social meanings and definitions that people attach to a drug, its use and users
Sacred
Religious rituals
Harmful
How individuals make sense out of drugs

43. Social-Conflict Analysis: Power and Drug Use
Focus is on how power and wealth shapes social life and society
Power and drug laws
Power and the regulation and enforcement of laws
Power and punishment

44. Conservatives: Just Say No
Moral values in the analysis of the drug problem
Lack of family and religion at the heart of the problem
Drug use as a function of self-centered pleasure seeking
Drugs cause crime and the erosion of morality
Get tough on drug dealers and users

45. Liberals: Reform Society
Personal choice and freedom
Treatment and education approach
Tolerant view of “soft drugs”
Legalization of marijuana
Support law enforcement for “hard drugs”

46. Radical Views: Right-Wing Libertarians and the Far Left
Libertarians – people who favor the greatest individual freedom possible
Oppose government efforts to regulate drugs
Favor individual choice and freedom
Drug use should be left up to the individual
Radical left drug laws reflect the interest of the dominant group