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Anthropology, Sociology and Psycology 101: Drug Use and Abuse
"Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology 101: Drug Use and Abuse". Taught by Ric Curtis, John Jay College, CUNY, New York, NY. Spring 2000.
Course Description
This class will give students an introduction to the topic of drugs, especially those that are illegal. It is not intended to be a comprehensive overview of the field, an approach that would normally be accompanied by a general textbook on the topic. The primary goal of the class is to engage students in a process of critical thinking about the topic of drugs and to improve their analytical skills through written assignments and oral expression in a classroom setting.
Reading List
The Cocaine Kids -- Terry Williams
In addition, articles used in this class have been placed on reserve in the library. Students are expected to read the articles for the appropriate dates listed below.
Course Outline
Week 1
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Introduction: Anthropological Perspectives on Drugs and Drug Abuse.
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Week 2
Ethnographic Versus Medical Models of Research
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Cannabis and Work in Jamaica: A Refutation of the Amotivational Syndrome -- Lambros Comitas Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 282: 24-32 (1976).
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Week 3
The Drug Economy in NYC: Models of Drug Distribution and Consumption
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The Developmental Cycle of a Drug Epidemic: The Cocaine Smoking Epidemic of 1981-1991 -- A. Hamid Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 24(4): 337-348 (1992).
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Week 4
The Heroin Economy in NYC: The Evolution of Distribution and Consumption
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The Heroin Epidemic in New York City: Current Status and Prognoses -- Hamid A., R. Curtis, et al. The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 29(4): 375-391 (1997).
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Week 5
Injecting Drug Users in NYC: The Structure of Consumer Groups in Street-Level Drug Markets
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Drug Use Contexts and HIV-Consequences: The Effect of Drug Policy on Patterns of Everyday Drug Use in Rotterdam and the Bronx -- Grund, J-PC, et al. British Journal of Addiction, 87: 381-392 (1992).
A Room for Heroin and HIV -- Bearak, B. Los Angeles Times, September 27-30, p. A1. (1992).
Video: Shooting galleries in Brooklyn
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Week 6
Risk Taking and Harm Reduction Among Drug Users. |
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Real Opposition, Real Alternatives: Reducing the Harms of Drug Use and Drug Policy -- Reinarman, C. and H. Levine. In C. Reinarman and H. Levine (Eds.), Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Policy. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press 1997).
Keeping Off, Stepping On, Stepping Off: The Stepping Stone Theory Reevaluated in the Context of the Dutch Cannabis Experience -- Sifaneck, SJ and CD Kaplan Contemporary Drug Problems, 22: 483-512 (1995).
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Week 7
The Cocaine Economy in NYC: Freebase Parlors, Crack Houses, Market Diversification, Supermarkets
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In Search of Horatio Alger: Culture and Ideology in the Crack Economy -- Bourgois, P. Contemporary Drug Problems, Winter: 619-649 (1989).
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Review of The Cocaine Kids.
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Week 9
Street-Level Drug Enforcement |
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Policing and Public Health in a Street-Level Drug Market -- Maher, L. and D. Dixon. Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology annual meeting, Chicago, Il. (1996).
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Week 10
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Film: "Snitch."
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Week 11
Drugs and the "Quality of Life" campaign |
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Drug Prohibition in the United States: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives -- Nadelmann, E. Science, 245, September: 939-947 (1989).
The Improbable Transformation of Inner-City Neighborhoods: Crime, Violence, Drugs and Youth in the 1990s -- Curtis R. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 88: 4, 1223-1276 (1998).
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Week 12
Drugs and Violence
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The Drug/Violence Nexus: A Tripartite Conceptual Framework -- Goldstein, PJ. Journal of Drug Issues, 15:4, 493-506 (1985).
Maher L, R Curtis. 1993. In Search of the Female Urban Gangsta: Change, Culture and Crack Cocaine. In B Raffel-Price and N Sokolof (Eds.). Women in the Criminal Justice System.
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Week 13
Drugs and Gangs: The Emergence of Street Organizations in New York City
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From Gangs to Street Organizations: The Changing Characteristics of Street Subcultures in New York City -- Brotherton, D. Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology, |
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