Drugs in American Society book notes Chapter 1 Drug Use A sociological Perspective What is a Drug Drugs are defined materially the drugs essential and physical real properties and socially conceptual as a construct in our minds and in the institutions built against them Drugs are also defined objectively or essentialist or intrinsic What they are and do in a real world biochemical and pharmacological sense how it affects the bodies and minds and it is defined subjectively or constructionist what they are thought to do including how the law defines them and how they are depicted in the media this might influence the effect that drugs have on people Three relevant contexts to define drugs medical utility illegality and psychoactive I Medical Utility i Def A substance that is used to heal or treat the body and mind ii To return the user to normalcy or ordinariness 1 This definition recognizes penicillin as a drug but not heroin because heroin is not used for medical purposes in the US iii Objective part essentialist part of this medical definition of a drug It has to do something to the body and act as a healing agent iv Subjective part socially constructive part It has to be recognized as therapeutically useful by physicians 1 The same substance can be defined as a drug and not a drug Heroin used for medicine in the UK but not in the USA MJ used for medicine in 14 states out of 50 v Medical definition is not quite so useful to us in our quest to understand the causes consequences and implications of drug use i Def Legal status whether the possession or sale are considered legal ii The legal definition of drugs is a social construct since they are prohibited by law but they are prohibited by law based on the physical or essentialist properties that consider them harmful because they are harmful 1 Once again certain substances can be drugs or not at the same time because some drugs like marijuana can be legal in some parts of the country but not in others II Illegality iii This definition can address the issue of drug use but it cannot explain why people use drugs and the consequences that it has on them III Psychoactive i Def 1 According to the pharmacologist psychoactivity is an important property of chemical substances that affects the central nervous system brain spinal column and thus influences mood emotions feeing perception sensation behaviors etc 2 The psychopharmacological definition what the drug does to the brain and the mind based entirely on material or the essential properties of substances pretty much anything that alters the workings of the brain mid and that is taken recreationally 1 i e LSD and alcohol would be drugs because it influences mood emotional and cognitive processes while penicillin is not a drug because it s not used for recreational use ii Difference between pharmacology the study of the effect of drugs on biological organisms and psychopharmacology The effect of drugs on the brain or mind In contrast to the medical definition of drugs drugs in the psychoactive perspective are used to take the mind out of a state of normalcy or ordinariness into a state the ancient Greeks called extasis ecstasy iii 1 Recreational use drugs taken primarily for their effects to get IV Defining Drugs A summary that high aka pleasure i For the purposes of this book only psychoactivity based on an essentialist or materially real property and illegality based on a socially constructed property and its consequences define drugs ii Medical definition is not really relevant because it s not involved in recreational purposes Drug Use and Drug Abuse Drug Use The act of ingesting a given substance or certain psychoactive substances in any quantity with any frequency over any period of time it covers the spectrum of consumption Drug Abuse A specific subset or type of use purposely inexact term to refer to the level of use of a given drug at which physical or mental harm is at least moderately likely vilify the consumption of illicit psychoactive substances o This definition adopts a legalistic and criminal criterion for what a drug is therefore it excludes alcohol i e there can be alcohol abuse but alcohol is not considered under substance abuse Types of Drug Use illegal legal instrumental recreational A Dimensions of Drug Use An Introduction I Two dimensions distinguish the many varieties of drug use 1 legal status if they re against the law or not and 2 The goal or purpose of use drugs are used for different purposes by different people and even by the same people on different days Recreational instrumental legal illegal i Instrumental Use Users take the drug not because of the experience but to achieve more effectively a goal of which most members of society use advancing in a career working at a job etc ex Amphetamines to produce mental alertness wakefulness and concentration 1 Although the goal is approved the means by which it is attained are considered unacceptable to most Americans iii Recreational drug use Taking a chemical substance to receive the pleasurable effects the drug generates in users in short to get high i e taking the same drug amphetamines for euphoria 1 Recreational uses are not always harmful but they are pleasurable iv Legal status and goals yields four quite different types of drug use 1 legal instrumental use 2 illegal instrumental use 3 legal recreational use 4 illegal recreational use pg 12 chart Two principle forms of legal instrumental drug use over the counter and pharmaceutical i Over the counter OTC drugs that can be purchased directly by the public off the shelf without a physician s prescription ex Aspirin Tylenol Allerest Sominex 1 2 Are not really used as psychoactive or to get high low toxicity levels and fairly safe a Exception Ephredine and pseudoephedrine are used illegally to manufacture mathamphetamine ii Prescription drugs Manufactured bought sold and used legally for medical purposes Prescribed by physicians to patients for the alleviation or cure of physical or psychiatric ailments and the prescriptions are filled and sold at licensed pharmacies B Legal Instrumental Use I 1 300 000 physicians permitted to write prescriptions 150 000 pharmacists 60 000 locations can fill and sell them 2 Psychoactive pharmaceuticals are almost never used for 3 recreational purposes since they are not used for pleasure Illegal prescription drugs represent a major source of illicit recreational drug use in America 4 Sometimes medical and recreational
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