Drugs and Society

Instructor:
Phillip A. Hough, Sociology, Florida Atlantic University,
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Course Info:
A 2016

CRN: 56077, Sociology SYP 3550-001, 3 Credits, Summer

Class Times:
Boca Campus)

Mondays and Wednesdays 1:15 PM 4:25 PM (GS 119,

Contact Info:

phough2@fau.edu, 561-297-3271

Office Hours:
CU 262)

Tuesdays 12:00 PM-4:00 PM (Culture and Society Bldg.:

Course Description:
This upper division sociology course examines a number of issues related to the
consumption, production, and marketing of drugs from social constructionist and
political-economic perspectives. The first part of the course distinguishes
sociological approaches to drug consumption from pharmacological and
psychological ones. Here we will focus specifically on social constructionist
understandings of drugs, paying particular attention to the ways in which drugs and
drug users are defined, used, and ritualized. In the second part of the course we will
examine the political economy of the legal drug industry, focusing on the power
that pharmaceutical companies have in influencing government healthcare policy
and consumer market trends. In the third part we will use a similar political
economy perspective to understand the illegal drug industry, studying the myths
and realities of crack use as well as the nature and impact of US drug war policies
on producer countries, and consider alternative models.

Course Context:
This is a 3000-level course. It can be counted towards the sociology major or minor.

Course Objectives:
a. Students will become familiar with the ways that sociological approaches to
the study of drug use, abuse and consumption differ from pharmacological
and psychological approaches;
b. Students will become familiar with social constructionist and political
economy approaches to the study of drug production, consumption, and
distribution.
c. Students will become familiar with the political economy of illegal and legal
drugs, drawing from a comparative-national and historical perspective.

Course Requirements and Evaluation:

a. Attendance: Attendance is taken every class. Let me know via email if you
will be or were absent on any given day. Students will be excused for
absences for any university-approved reasons, including for religious
observation as well as required participation in university activities (like
athletics), civic responsibilities (jury duty, called to testify), and military duty.
[10%];
b. Class Participation: Students must come to class prepared to discuss the
readings. Students are evaluated based upon their participation in class
discussions as well as their demonstration of intellectual engagement with
the course material [10%];
c. Three In-Class Exams: These are multiple choice exams taken at the
beginning of class time. Students are expected to bring a pencil and blue
exam sheet [60%];
d. Final Paper (due 6/27): Students will write an essay evaluating an aspect of
U.S. drug policy which is informed by sociological works discussed in class.
Specific guidelines for this final paper will be posted on blackboard [20%]
Course Grading Scale:
A = 93-100; A- = 90-92; B+ = 87-89; B = 83-86; B- = 80-82; C+ = 77-79; C =
73-76; C- = 70-72; D+ = 67-69; D = 63-66; D- = 60-62; F = 0-59

Required Books for Purchase:

1) Marcia Angell, The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us
And What To Do About It (Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York: 2005)
2) Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine eds., Crack in America: Demon Drugs
and Social Justice (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA: 1997)
3) The rest of the readings will be downloadable from our Blackboard site.
PART I. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF DRUGS AND DRUG USERS
(5/16)
Introduction to Course: What is a Drug? What is Drug
Use/Abuse?

(5/18)

Essentialism vs. Social Constructionism

Erich Goode, Chapters 1 and 2 in Drugs in American Society, 7th Edition

(McGraw Hill, 2005) [*downloadable from blackboard]
The Social Construction of Crack Addiction
Craig Reinarman et al., Chapter 4: The Contingent Call of the Pipe: Bingeing
and Addiction among Heavy Cocaine Smokers, in Reinarman and Levine

eds., Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice (University of

California Press, Berkeley: 1997)

(5/23)

Dispelling the Myth of a Pre-Disposition to Deviance

Howard S. Becker, Becoming a Marihuana User, in The American Journal of

Sociology, vol. 59, no. 3 (Nov. 1953), pp. 235-242 [*downloadable from
blackboard]
Drug Use as a Ritual
Joseph Gusfield, Part 2: Drinking and Leisure in Contested Meanings: The
Construction of Alcohol Problems (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison:
1996) [*downloadable from blackboard]

(5/25)

The Medicalization of Human Conditions

Peter Conrad, Chapter 1: Introduction, The Medicalization of Society: On the

Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders (The Johns
Hopkins University Press, Baltimore: 2007) [*downloadable from blackboard]
Peter Conrad, Chapter 3: From Hyperactive Children to Adult ADHD, The
Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into
Treatable Disorders (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore: 2007)
[*downloadable from blackboard]

(5/30) NO CLASS: MEMORIAL DAY

(6/1) First In-Class Exam

** Film: Big Bucks Big Pharma **

PART II. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE LEGAL DRUG INDUSTRY

(6/6) Using Profits to Influence Consumers: Branding and Direct to
Consumer Marketing
Marcia Angell, Chapter 1-2, The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They
Deceive Us And What To Do About It (Random House Trade Paperbacks, New
York: 2005)

Using Profits to Influence Doctors

Marcia Angell, Chapter 3-4, The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They
Deceive Us And What To Do About It (Random House Trade Paperbacks, New
York: 2005)

(6/8) Using Profits to Influence Scientific Research

Marcia Angell, Chapter 5-8, The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They
Deceive Us And What To Do About It (Random House Trade Paperbacks, New
York: 2005)

Using Profits to Influence Politics: From Public Health to Private

Profits
Marcia Angell, Chapter 9-11, The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They
Deceive Us And What To Do About It (Random House Trade Paperbacks, New
York: 2005)

(6/13) Second In-Class Exam

** Film: The House I Live In**

PART III. THE ILLEGAL DRUG INDUSTRY AND THE US WAR ON DRUGS
(6/15) The US War on Drugs in Historical Context
Reinarman and Levine, Chapter 1: Crack in Context: Americas Latest Demon
Scare, in Reinarman and Levine eds., Crack in America: Demon Drugs and
Social Justice (University of California Press, Berkeley: 1997)

The US Punitive Prohibition Model

Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine, Chapter 15: Punitive Prohibition in
America, in Reinarman and Levine eds., Crack in America: Demon Drugs and
Social Justice (University of California Press, Berkeley: 1997)

(6/20) The Question of Violence: Protection, Private Property and Markets

Paul Goldstein et al., Chapter 6: Crack and Homicide in New York City: A Case
Study in the Epidemiology of Violence, in Reinarman and Levine eds., Crack
in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice (University of California Press,
Berkeley: 1997)

Who Sells and Why?: Globalization, Poverty and Dignity in Urban

America
Philippe Bourgois, Chapter 3: In Search of Horatio Alger: Culture and
Ideology in the Crack Economy, in Reinarman and Levine eds., Crack in

America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice (University of California Press,

Berkeley: 1997)

(6/22) The Contemporary Drug War and Mass Incarceration

Michelle Alexander, Introduction and Chapter 2, The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press, London: 2010)
[*downloadable from blackboard]

(6/27) Third In-Class Exam

** Final Papers Due **

**(please submit in an electronic copy through SafeAssign and bring a
hard copy to class)**

STATEMENT OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Students at Florida Atlantic University

are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards. Academic dishonesty,
including cheating and plagiarism, is considered a serious breach of these ethical
standards, because it interferes with the University mission to provide a high quality
education in which no student enjoys an unfair advantage over any other. Academic
dishonesty is also destructive of the University community, which is grounded in a
system of mutual trust and places high value on personal integrity and
individual responsibility. Harsh penalties are associated with academic dishonesty.
For more
information, see http://www.fau.edu/regulations/chapter4/4.001_Code_of_Academic
_Integrity.pdf

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: In compliance with the Americans with

Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), students who require reasonable
accommodations due to a disability to properly execute coursework must register
with Student Accessibility Services (SAS)in Boca Raton, SU 133 (561-297-3880); in
Davie, LA 203 (954-236-1222); or in Jupiter, SR 110 (561-799-8585) and follow all
SAS procedures.