SOC 2460 - Drugs and Society

(SBA-AS) (CU-SBY)

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

D. Heckathorn.

The course focuses on drug use and abuse as a social rather than as a medical or psychopathological phenomenon. Specifically, the course deals with the history of drug use and regulatory attempts in the United States and around the world; the relationship between drug use and racism/class conflict; pharmacology and use patterns related to specific drugs; perspectives on the etiology of drug use/abuse; AIDS prevention and harm reduction interventions; drug-using subcultures; drug policy, drug legislation, and drug enforcement; and the promotion and condemnation of drug activities in the mass media.