Schedule: FALL 2008
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Warning: This course may contain objectionable material due to the nature of the subject: drugs and alcohol. |
Welcome to Soc 110, Drugs and Society. In this course we will focus on both legal and illegal drugs. Many people think the term "drugs" means just the illegal ones that easily come to mind: heroin, crack, meth, marijuana, lsd. We will be spending lots of time on illegal drugs. But we will also examine legal drugs: tobacco, alcohol, psychotherapeutic medicines.
If you are thinking of taking this course in order to quit using a legal or illegal drug, this may not the right course. I want to make it clear that this is an academic class with a sociological approach and it is not to be confused with re-hab, counseling, therapy or the like. This is not to say that the course will encourage the use of drugs and alcohol but for the most part a neutral, "scientific" approach will be taken. We'll be looking at the scientific research on the topic and I want to steer clear of anything that smacks of indoctrination. To be sure I am completely in favor of anyone who wants to quit using and in fact, I advocate this to everyone. Drugs and alcohol do far more harm than good in my opinion. But at the same time, I want any student in my class to be completely free with their opinions and feelings. Colleges and universities should be places of free discourse, where creative and independent thinking should be not only allowed, but encouraged.
So whatever the student's viewpoint is on drugs and alcohol is irrelevant to our purposes. My goal is to present you with what is known and to think about what is unknown.
One of the best ways to get a feel for the course that I teach is to take a look at the required textbook for the course, Drugs and Society by Erich Goode. It was first published in 1972 and is in its 6th edition. Erich Goode is by no means an old fuddy-duddy who is completely out of it when it comes to the topic. I met him briefly at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Pittsburg in the early nineties and I was quite impressed.
So welcome students! I hope you learn a lot and make wise, or at least informed decisions about what you put into your bodies.
This site was developed and is maintained by Gary Lemons
Contact Person: Gary Lemons
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