Alcohol and Other Drugs Flashcards
What are some reasons we should be concerned about alcohol and other drugs?
- Can interfere with well-being.
- Individual and societal costs.
How can alcohol and other drugs lead to individual and social costs?
Emotional and financial problems.
What people define as legal drugs or an illegal drug depends on…
Economy, society, and politics.
Attitudes towards specific drugs vary over…
Time and from one society to another.
Give an example of how attitudes about a drug may differ across societies.
Uruguay is starting to legalize marijuana, while Canada is punishing the growing of it more harshly.
Drug Abuse
When socially accepted standards of use are violated. Adverse physiological, psychological, or social consequences.
Drug abuse may lead to drug ___.
Addictions.
Drug Addiction
Condition where drug use is compulsive. Users are unable to stop - withdrawal effects (physical or psychological dependency).
How do sociologists look at addictions?
Examine the social forces that increase the risk of addiction.
According to the structural functionalist, drug addictions is a result of…
More complex societies that undergo rapid social change, and the result is weakening social norms.
Drug use is due to ___ under the structural functionalist perspective.
Anomie.
The anomie that causes drug use under the structural functionalist perspective is because of…
Social strain between culturally defined goals and socially approved means of attaining them.
What is Merton’s theory?
(Social) strain theory.
Give an example of a problem of inconsistent social norms.
Smoking and how it is portrayed as both glamorous and dangerous.
When addictions are treated as a dysfunction under the structural functionalist perspective,, they fall under the…
Sick role.
Give an example of harm reduction procedures.
Safe Injection Sites in Vancouver.
How does the conflict perspective view drug use?
- Influenced by power differentials.
Regulation and use reflects different social positions. - Result of inequality from capitalism.
- Alienation.
Alienation under the conflict perspective.
Drugs used as a means of escape.
The conflict perspective says that the powerful exert influence over…
What is legal/illegal.
The symbolic interactionist perspective views drugs as a ___ behaviour.
Learned.
The symbolic interactionist perspective concerns itself with definitions and labels that represent ___ social meanings.
Given.
Labels illustrates the structural forces that…
Shape the lives of the destitute in a wealthy nation.
What are the societal consequences of drug use and abuse?
- Adverse effects on individuals.
- Negative consequences for society as a whole.
- Examine sociologically.
What are the family costs incurred by drug use?
- Money spent on drugs instead of necessities.
- Effects on children.
- Family disintegration.
- Domestic violence influenced by heavy drinking.
What is a question often asked about crime and drug use?
Do drugs cause crime, or does criminal involvement lead to drug involvement?
Is there a causal relationship between crime and drug use?
No, just correlational.
Crime and drug use is associated with low…
SES.
What are the economic costs of drug abuse?
- Public finance of ‘war on drugs.’
- Lost productivity.
- Premature death.
- Direct health care costs.
What are the health costs of drug abuse?
- Shortened life expectancy.
- Higher morbidity.
- Mental health.
- Higher suicide rates in adolescents.
- Child development hindrance.
- Secondhand smoke.
Canada’s drug strategy is a balance of:
- Prevention.
- Education.
- Law enforcement.
How did Canada’s Drug Strategy change from 2003 to 2011?
Harm reduction was removed in 2011.
Deregulation
Reduce government control over certain drugs.
Decriminalization
Removal of criminal penalties for behaviour.
Legalization
Make prohibited behaviour legal.
As it is, the underground drug culture and punitive drug laws work…
Against safety, god hygiene, and disease prevention.
Give an example of collective action against drug use.
MADD, or changing societal values.
What do groups like MADD do?
- Public education
- Push for lower social tolerance, stronger laws, and enforcement.
How are drugs and drug use defined?
Drugs and drug use are socially defined and conceptualized within a social context.
What factors are linked to an increase in drug use?
Rapid social change, anomie, alienation, and inequality linked and increase drug use.
Social policies concerning drug abuse are predominantly ___, not ___.
Punitive, preventative.
