Alcohol and Other Drugs

Question 1

What are some reasons we should be concerned about alcohol and other drugs?

Answer 1

• Can interfere with well-being.

- Individual and societal costs.

Question 2

How can alcohol and other drugs lead to individual and social costs?

Answer 2

Emotional and financial problems.

Question 3

What people define as legal drugs or an illegal drug depends on…

Answer 3

Economy, society, and politics.

Question 4

Attitudes towards specific drugs vary over…

Answer 4

Time and from one society to another.

Question 5

Give an example of how attitudes about a drug may differ across societies.

Answer 5

Uruguay is starting to legalize marijuana, while Canada is punishing the growing of it more harshly.

Question 6

Drug Abuse

Answer 6

When socially accepted standards of use are violated. Adverse physiological, psychological, or social consequences.

Question 7

Drug abuse may lead to drug ___.

Answer 7

Addictions.

Question 8

Drug Addiction

Answer 8

Condition where drug use is compulsive. Users are unable to stop - withdrawal effects (physical or psychological dependency).

Question 9

How do sociologists look at addictions?

Answer 9

Examine the social forces that increase the risk of addiction.

Question 10

According to the structural functionalist, drug addictions is a result of…

Answer 10

More complex societies that undergo rapid social change, and the result is weakening social norms.

Question 11

Drug use is due to ___ under the structural functionalist perspective.

Answer 11

Anomie.

Question 12

The anomie that causes drug use under the structural functionalist perspective is because of…

Answer 12

Social strain between culturally defined goals and socially approved means of attaining them.

Question 13

What is Merton’s theory?

Answer 13

(Social) strain theory.

Question 14

Give an example of a problem of inconsistent social norms.

Answer 14

Smoking and how it is portrayed as both glamorous and dangerous.

Question 15

When addictions are treated as a dysfunction under the structural functionalist perspective,, they fall under the…

Answer 15

Sick role.

Question 16

Give an example of harm reduction procedures.

Answer 16

Safe Injection Sites in Vancouver.

Question 17

How does the conflict perspective view drug use?

Answer 17

• Influenced by power differentials.
  Regulation and use reflects different social positions.
• Result of inequality from capitalism.
• Alienation.

Question 18

Alienation under the conflict perspective.

Answer 18

Drugs used as a means of escape.

Question 19

The conflict perspective says that the powerful exert influence over…

Answer 19

What is legal/illegal.

Question 20

The symbolic interactionist perspective views drugs as a ___ behaviour.

Answer 20

Learned.

Question 21

The symbolic interactionist perspective concerns itself with definitions and labels that represent ___ social meanings.

Answer 21

Given.

Question 22

Labels illustrates the structural forces that…

Answer 22

Shape the lives of the destitute in a wealthy nation.

Question 23

What are the societal consequences of drug use and abuse?

Answer 23

• Adverse effects on individuals.
• Negative consequences for society as a whole.
  
  • Examine sociologically.

Question 24

What are the family costs incurred by drug use?

Answer 24

• Money spent on drugs instead of necessities.
• Effects on children.
• Family disintegration.
• Domestic violence influenced by heavy drinking.

Question 25

What is a question often asked about crime and drug use?

Answer 25

Do drugs cause crime, or does criminal involvement lead to drug involvement?

Question 26

Is there a causal relationship between crime and drug use?

Answer 26

No, just correlational.

Question 27

Crime and drug use is associated with low…

Answer 27

SES.

Question 28

What are the economic costs of drug abuse?

Answer 28

• Public finance of ‘war on drugs.’
• Lost productivity.
• Premature death.
• Direct health care costs.

Question 29

What are the health costs of drug abuse?

Answer 29

• Shortened life expectancy.
• Higher morbidity.
• Mental health.
• Higher suicide rates in adolescents.
• Child development hindrance.
• Secondhand smoke.

Question 30

Canada’s drug strategy is a balance of:

Answer 30

• Prevention.
• Education.
• Law enforcement.

Question 31

How did Canada’s Drug Strategy change from 2003 to 2011?

Answer 31

Harm reduction was removed in 2011.

Question 32

Deregulation

Answer 32

Reduce government control over certain drugs.

Question 33

Decriminalization

Answer 33

Removal of criminal penalties for behaviour.

Question 34

Legalization

Answer 34

Make prohibited behaviour legal.

Question 35

As it is, the underground drug culture and punitive drug laws work…

Answer 35

Against safety, god hygiene, and disease prevention.

Question 36

Give an example of collective action against drug use.

Answer 36

MADD, or changing societal values.

Question 37

What do groups like MADD do?

Answer 37

• Public education

- Push for lower social tolerance, stronger laws, and enforcement.

Question 38

How are drugs and drug use defined?

Answer 38

Drugs and drug use are socially defined and conceptualized within a social context.

Question 39

What factors are linked to an increase in drug use?

Answer 39

Rapid social change, anomie, alienation, and inequality linked and increase drug use.

Question 40

Social policies concerning drug abuse are predominantly ___, not ___.

Answer 40

Punitive, preventative.