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Responding to the controversy surrounding drug use and drug criminalization, Thomas Szasz suggests that the "therapeutic state" has overstepped its bounds in labeling certain drugs as "dangerous" substances and incarcerating drug "addicts" in order to cure them. Szasz shows that such policies scapegoat certain drugs as well as the persons who sell, buy, or use them; and 'misleadingly pathologize the "drug problem" by defining disapproved drug use as "disease" and efforts to change the behavior as "treatment." Readers will find in Szasz's arguments a cogent and committed response to a worldwide debate.
"This book takes an integrative approach to the understanding of drug use and its relationship to social-cultural factors. It is lucidly and powerfully argued and constitutes a significant achievement. The authors sensibly argue that in order to fully understand and explain drug use and abuse it is necessary to take into account different levels of analysis, reflecting distinct domains of human functioning; the biological, psychosocial, and cultural-historical....Overall, this book represents an exceptional achievement and should be of interest to drug clinicians and researcher as well as social scientists and students." --Professor Tony Ward, University of Melbourne Substance use and abuse are two of the most frequent psychological problems clinicians encounter. Mainstream approaches focus on the biological and psychological factors supporting drug abuse. But to fully comprehend the issue, clinicians need to consider the social, historical, and cultural factors responsible for drug-related problems. Substance Use and Abuse: Cultural and Historical Perspectives provides an inclusive explanation of the human desire to take drugs. Using a multidisciplinary framework, authors Russil Durrant and Jo Thakker explore the cultural and historical variables that contribute to drug use. Integrating biological, psychosocial, and cultural-historical perspectives, this innovative and accessible volume addresses the fundamental question of why drug use is such a ubiquitous feature of human society. provides an inclusive explanation of the human desire to take drugs. Using a multidisciplinary framework, authors Russil Durrant and Jo Thakker explore the cultural and historical variables that contribute to drug use. Integrating biological, psychosocial, and cultural-historical perspectives, this innovative and accessible volume addresses the fundamental question of why drug use is such a ubiquitous feature of human society. Addressing issues important to prevention, treatment, and public policy, the authors include A comprehensive, historical survey of drug use An exploration of the evolutionary basis of drug-taking behavior Historically and culturally based explanations of drug use and abuse Inclusive approaches that complement mainstream biopsychosocial perspectives Designed for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students in psychology, counseling, sociology, social work, and health departments, Substance Use and Abuse: Cultural and Historical Perspectives will also be of significant interest to drug clinicians, researchers, and social scientists.
Luigi Zoja argues that the pervasive abuse of drugs in our society can in large part be ascribed to a resurgence of the collective need for initiation and initiatory structures: a longing for something sacred underlies our culture's manic drive toward excessive consumption. In a society without ritual, the drug addict seeks not so much the thrill of a high as the satisfaction of an inner need for a participation mystique in the dominant religion of our times: consumerism.
This volume tackles many important aspects of drugs as they function in societies & cultures around the world & throughout history.
Considerable research, policy and media attention has focused recently on drug use in Britain, wider Europe, the US and other advanced "western" societies such as Australia and Canada. However, the place of drugs in other cultural contexts has received far less attention. Little is known about the use of drugs in non-western societies and this lack of comparative knowledge hinders a broader understanding of drug use, the way problems are attached to it and the nature of inappropriately applied social and regulatory policies. This book examines drug use (including alcohol) in different cultural contexts, showing how the claim of tradition can persist even while the impetus toward change is pervasive. In some cases, change is strongly resisted; in others its effects are profound and potentially highly destructive. In a world of globalization, western investment and leisure tourism can combine with the profiteering of international drug trafficking to transform traditional patterns of intoxicant use; in a world of post-colonialism, the legacies of past impositions are still causing tragedies; and in a world of western-led drug control policies, unproblematic cultural incorporation of drug use into everyday life and sacred ritual is threatened by remote and ill-informed politicians and bureaucracies. This book will be of interest to academics, students and receptive policy audiences interested in understanding drugs and the issues raised by their use in unfamiliar contexts.
In a wide-ranging analysis covering popular culture, policy, and underlying social structures, this book shows how drug addicts are socially constructed as useless burdens on society and who benefits from that portrayal.
A leading expert on drug use illuminates the factors that permit some people to use such highly addictive and dangerous substances as alcohol, marijuana, psychedelics, and opiates in a controlled fashion. This cogently written work should be of interest to members of the medical community, particularly those who have contact with substance abusers, psychiatrists, sociologists, policymakers, administrators, and interested laypersons...Well worth reading. -- JAMA
Methamphetamine (ice, speed, crystal, shard) has been called epidemic in the United States. Yet few communities were ready for increased use of methamphetamine by suburban women. Women on Ice is the first book to study exclusively the lives of women who use the drug and its effects on their families. In-depth interviews with women in the suburban counties of one of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. chronicle the details of their initiation into methamphetamine, the turning points into problematic drug use, and for a few, their escape from lives veering out of control. Their life course and drug careers are analyzed in relation to the intersecting influences of social roles, relationships, social/political structures, and political trends. Examining the effects of punitive drug policy, inadequate social services, and looming public health risks, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C, the book gives voice to women silenced by shame. Boeri introduces new and developing concepts in the field of addiction studies and proposes policy changes to more broadly implement initiatives that address the problems these women face. She asserts that if we are concerned that the war on drugs is a war on drug users, this book will alert us that it is also a war on suburban families.