Two Worlds Of Drug Consumption In Late Modern Societies

Author : Jacek Moskalewicz
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351877127
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Two Worlds of Drug Consumption in Late Modern Societies written by Jacek Moskalewicz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two Worlds of Drug Consumption in Late Modern Societies reports the findings of an empirical study of drug users in London, Amsterdam, Turin, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw, European cities representative of a wide range of drug problems and public policies. The innovative study reconceives the standard distinctions between 'hard-core' and 'recreational' drug users in terms of their social position. The authors argue that this is closely related to consumption patterns rather than drug choice, and reveals that 2 relatively homogenous drug worlds exist within each of the study sites. This leads to the development of diverging drug markets; a friendly market for the integrated consumer, and a highly commercialized one for the marginalized customer, where low quality goods are sold at a higher price. These findings have significant implications for academics and professionals working in health, psychology and urban studies.

Author : James Hawdon
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 450 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Drug and Alcohol Consumption as Functions of Social Structures written by James Hawdon and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work uses classical sociological theory to demonstrate how the processes of rationalization and modernization have altered why, how, and how frequently people consume drugs. It is with great pleasure that I introduce this important book on drug use. While books on the subject abound, it is always refreshing to find a scholarly text on drug use that offers a new vantage point on this complicated and ever present social phenomenon. This is such a book. James Hawdon has skillfully synthesized classic sociological thought to craft a general theory of drugs that provides us with significant insights into human drug use. He has also painstakingly gathered the existing data on drug use throughout the world to put his new theory to the test. The result is a broad macro-sociological theory of drug use, firmly grounded in a wealth of empirical evidence, which has much to offer both academics and policy makers alike. drug and what is not, the book provides a working definition of drugs that includes both the psychoactive aspects of substances and the political reality that goes into defining what substances society recognizes as drugs. Drugs have become extremely politicized. Whether it is moral entrepreneurs concerned with saving souls, political entrepreneurs concerned with constituencies and elections, or some other interested parties, drugs have come to be defined as magical substances that are somehow different from other things. Hawdon demonstrates that this special status that drugs have acquired is largely unfounded. While drugs can be very powerful substances, treating drugs as totally different from all other commodities has led many to approach issues related to drug use in a manner that is often misguided or even counterproductive. It is important to remember that drugs, both legal and illegal, are basically just commodities. The same economic forces of supply and demand that influence the consumption patterns of other commodities impact the consumption of drugs. rationalization, also shape these consumption patterns. And demonizing these substances tends to obscure the social reality of drugs and drug use. The nature of drug use is largely predicated on the context in which the drug use takes place. Hawdon points out that whether or not a drug has been socially defined as sacred by a social group plays an essential role in how a drug is used and the extent to which it is abused by members of that group. There is nothing inherently sacred about any given drug. A drug becomes sacred only when the collectivity defines it as such and maintains beliefs and rites that support the drug's sacred status. Moreover, social forces such as modernization and scientific rationality have increasingly impacted religious practices and, in turn, changed the nature of sacred drug use. This influence is especially evident in the patterns of drug use in more modernized western societies. Hawdon notes that the differences in social control over sacred versus profane drug using behaviors are important. certain drug using behaviors as well. In contrast, restrictions on drugs defined as profane are basically negative in nature, either restricting or prohibiting drug use, but not requiring drug use. The difference has significant ramifications. Sacred drug use requires the use of the sacred drugs by certain people at specific times and in a specific manner. At the same time, generally, the proscriptions of sacred drug use tend to make abuse of these drugs much less likely and the rituals related to sacred use also serve an integrative function for the people within this belief system. Conversely, the use of profane drugs is not so influenced, thus drugs defined as profane are prone to greater variations in who, when, and how they are used. Profane drugs are also more likely to be abused and to be socially disintegrative with regard to the larger society, fostering the development of distinct subgroups. And while groups within a society may disagree on what is sacred drug use and what is not, these insights can have important policy implications. the nature of sacred and profane drug use. Pre-modern societies saw a world filled with the supernatural in which sacred drug use could literally transform people, facilitate spiritual journeys to other worlds, and manipulate the gods. In modern societies, however, the growing influence of modernization, science and rational thought has led to a demystification of the world, which has reduced the emphasis on religion and dealing directly with the supernatural. As the predominant worldview has grown more secular, drug use has become more profane and less subject to the sacred proscriptions of earlier times. Sacred drug use has become more abstract, symbolic, and otherworldly in focus with less direct control on drug use. Meanwhile, an increased emphasis on rational thought and science has produced a stronger emphasis on individual instrumental action, resulting in an increase in recreational drug use. Secular society is a society based largely on laws but, unlike the absolute nature of religious beliefs, laws are more relative and change much more rapidly. control of drug use is more derivative than direct. Thus, modern western societies that glorify individualism and the freedom to make personal choices by their very nature reduce the influence of communal restraints and increase the likelihood of greater variation in who uses drugs, what drugs they use, and how they use them. Subcultures may develop in reaction to the disenchantment of the world and use their own sacred drugs to reintroduce the mystical, but the rationalization process eventually changes even these groups. Hawdon's work, supported by numerous examples and global data, show that rates of drug use are higher in nations or in regions that are more developed. The rise of synthetic drugs and the continuous growth and spread of pharmaceutical knowledge makes many new drugs readily available. Modern factories produce drugs faster. Drugs become cheaper and easier to obtain. Thus, the process of modernization increases the variety of drugs available and the variety of drugs used for all segments of society. Modernization also affects the structure of social control mechanisms related to drug use. pattern of drug use in modernizing societies throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. As industrialization rapidly modernizes various aspects of a given society, drug use expands rapidly, and then slowly stabilizes. This is followed by a dramatic decrease in drug use. This curvilinear pattern is related to changes in social control mechanisms. Traditional sources of informal social control are weakened by the processes of modernization and eventually replaced by formal social control in the form of anti-drug laws. The changing nature of work and the growing interdependence of social institutions, both nationally and internationally, contribute to a new emphasis on sobriety. This has been coupled with a shifting emphasis on the importance of achieved over ascribed status in modern societies. The result is an increasing correlation of drug use patterns with achieved social status in contrast to less modernized societies where ascribed status plays a much greater role in determining drug use patterns. drug use as societies become more modern and more egalitarian. Hawdon provides ample evidence to demonstrate how cyclical patterns of drug use found within societies are closely related to the status of those who are using the drugs and the perceived dangers of the drugs being used. Typically, new drugs come along or old drugs are rediscovered by societal elites. Over time, the use of these drugs spreads to other segments of society and eventually to people in the lower segments of society. Then the use of these drugs falls out of favor in elite circles, perhaps due to the arrival of another new drug or the increased social costs of being associated with a drug that is now identified with low social status. It is at this point in the cycle that anti-drug laws tend to appear which target these drugs that are now primarily used by people with lower social status. Not coincidentally, these lower status users have fewer resources to influence the law making process or to conceal their drug use.

Author : Alex Stevens
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136918205
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Drugs, Crime and Public Health written by Alex Stevens and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-10-04 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drugs, Crime and Public Health provides an accessible but critical discussion of recent policy on illicit drugs. Using a comparative approach - centred on the UK, but with insights and complementary data gathered from the USA and other countries - it argues that problematic drug use can only be understood in the social context in which it takes place.

Author : Julie Tieberghien
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1315472368
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Change or Continuity in Drug Policy written by Julie Tieberghien and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While evidence-based policy is an emerging rhetoric of the desire by and for governments to develop policies based on the best available evidence, drug policy is an area where particular challenges abound. This book is a detailed and comprehensive examination of the contours of drug policy development through the consideration of the particular roles of science, media, and interest groups. Using Belgium as the primary case-study, supplemented by insights gathered from other countries, the author contributes to a richer understanding of the science-policy nexus in the messy, real-world complexities of drug policy. Change or Continuity in Drug Policy: The Roles of Science, Media, and Interest Groups is the first book to bring together policy and media theories, knowledge utilisation models, and public scholarship literature. As such, the book provides unique insights relevant to aspects of change or continuity in drug policies in Europe and beyond. This book will be of great value to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to academics, practitioners and policymakers with interest in the science-policy nexus with a particular focus on the drug policy domain.

Author : Matilda Hellman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191057711
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Concepts of Addictive Substances and Behaviours across Time and Place written by Matilda Hellman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-18 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concepts of Addictive Substances and Behaviours across Time and Place presents fascinating new historical and social scientific research examining the temporal and spatial variations in the ways that addiction problems are understood and addressed in European societies. The book illustrates the changing and versatile nature of language use, of stakeholders concepts and ideas, and of the popular, professional and political discourse around addiction. The arguments that unfold concern the various cultural components invested in the ways in which the problems are viewed and addressed. A framework is presented for discussing these circumstances in view of current knowledge-based governance at a local, regional and global level. Concepts of Addictive Substances and Behaviours across Time and Place is based on research from ALICE RAP (Addiction and Lifestyles in Contemporary Europe, Reframing Addictions Project), a multidisciplinary European study of addictive substances, and behaviours in contemporary society. This is an essential resource for public health professionals, stakeholders influencing policy for addictive substances and behaviours, students, and academics looking to better understand the historical and geographical variations of addictive behaviours across in Europe and the role of stakeholder involvement in the construction of addiction prevention policy.

Author : Jennifer Ward
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000151824
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Flashback written by Jennifer Ward and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a detailed and close examination of the rave club drugs market as it took place in nightclubs, dance parties, pubs and bars and among friendship networks in London, in the mid to late 1990s. It focuses on the organizational features of drugs purchasing and selling and differentiates anonymous drugs trading in public nightclub settings, from selling among extended networks of friends and others. The stories of different people and friendship groups illustrate the varied drug selling roles and highlight the enterprise and entrepreneurship supporting their involvement. Told from the perspective of author's own membership in this night-time leisure culture, and embracing the disciplines of urban sociology and cultural criminology, this book contributes to our knowledge of recreational drugs markets and night-time leisure cultures. It will be of interest to students and academics with interests in these fields, as well as the many other people whose lives became a part of this vibrant leisure scene.

Author : Geoffrey Hunt
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 0429603428
Total Pages : 898 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication written by Geoffrey Hunt and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 898 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together scholars from different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, this multidisciplinary Handbook offers a comprehensive critical overview of intoxicants and intoxication. The Handbook is divided into 34 chapters across eight thematic sections covering a wide range of issues, including the meanings of intoxicants; the social life of intoxicants; intoxication settings; intoxication practices; alternative approaches to the study of intoxication; scapegoated intoxicants; discourses shaping intoxication; and changing notions of excess. It explores a range of different intoxicants, including alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, and legal and illicit drugs, including amphetamine, cannabis, ecstasy, khat, methadone, and opiates. Chapter length case studies explore these intoxicants in a variety of countries, including the USA, the UK, Australia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Singapore, and Sweden, across a broad timespan covering the nineteenth century to the present day. This wide-ranging Handbook will be of great interest to researchers, students, and instructors within the humanities and social sciences with an interest in a wide range of different intoxicants and different intoxication practices. Chapters 15 and 31 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Author : Dominic Corva
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000392600
Total Pages : 446 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Post-Prohibition Cannabis Research written by Dominic Corva and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-06 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of cannabis in global drug prohibition is in crisis, opening up new directions for socially engaged cannabis research. The Routledge Handbook of Post-Prohibition Cannabis Research invites readers to explore new landscapes of cannabis research under conditions of legalization with, not after, prohibition: "post-prohibition." The chapters are organized into five multidisciplinary sections: Governance, Public Health, Markets and Society, Ecology and the Environment, and Culture and Social Change. Case studies from the United States, Uruguay, Morocco, and the United Kingdom show readers alternative ways of thinking about human–cannabis relationships that move beyond questions of legality and illegality. Representing a cross-section of cannabis scholarship, the contributors provide readers with critical perspectives on legalization that are not based upon orthodoxies of prohibition. While legalization signals a global shift in the legitimacy of cannabis research, this collection identifies openings for academics, policy makers, and the public interested in ending the drug war, as well as a way to address broader social problems evident in the age of neoliberal governance within which prohibition has been entangled.

Author : Ross Coomber
Publisher : SAGE
ISBN 13 : 1446291367
Total Pages : 439 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Key Concepts in Drugs and Society written by Ross Coomber and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2013-04-29 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ′This is a great resource that reflects the huge expertise of the authors. It will be welcomed by students, researchers and indeed anyone wanting critical but comprehensive coverage of key issues and trends concerning drugs and society - locally and globally, historically and today.′ - Nigel South, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex ′Provides informative, balanced and contextualized insights into the relationships between people and drugs. Whatever your background and however knowledgeable you feel you are about contemporary drug issues, I guarantee that you will learn something unexpected and new from this valuable text.′ - Joanne Neale, Professor of Public Health, Oxford Brookes University Why do people take drugs? How do we understand moral panics? What is the relationship between drugs and violence? How do people′s social positions influence their involvement in drug use? Insightful and illuminating, this book discusses drugs in social contexts. The authors bring together their different theoretical and practical backgrounds, offering a comprehensive and interdisciplinary introduction that opens up a wide scientific understanding moving beyond cultural myths and presuppositions. This is an invaluable reference source for students on criminology, sociology and social sciences programmes, as well as drug service practitioners such as drug workers, social workers and specialist nurses.

Author :
Publisher : United Nations Publications
ISBN 13 : 9789211482560
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book World Drug Report 2010 written by and published by United Nations Publications. This book was released on 2010-06 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Opens with a discussion of the markets for heroin, cocaine, and amphetamine-type stimulants. Follows with statistics and statistical trends for all major drug categories. Includes the latest information on drug production, seizures and consumption, as well as a discussion on the relationship between drug trafficking and instability.