Drugs, Substances, and Addiction
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| SOCI2058 | Sociology and Social Policy | 2 | 20 | Spring UK |
- Code
- SOCI2058
- School
- Sociology and Social Policy
- Level
- 2
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring UK
Summary
This module seeks centrally to explore the core issues, debates and controversies surrounding the use of intoxicants, commonly referred to by the pejorative term ‘drugs’, and other chemical substances that find their way into the lives of people in contemporary society. The module has a developmental focus: it strives to maintain a consistent engagement with the long-term processes involved in the formation of a prevailing understanding, uses and experiences of certain psychoactive substances, food additives, and narcotic replacement therapies and the ways in which these are socially constructed as deviant acts or crimes. The module also explores the nature of addiction, and examines the social and medical approaches to treatment of addiction per se.
Target Students
Available to all level 2 or 3 students in the School of Sociology and Social Policy and for Liberal Arts. Also available to Undergraduate Exchange students.
Classes
This module is taught through a combination of lectures and seminars.
Assessment
- 40% Coursework: 1,500 words
- 60% Exam (2-hour): Online exam
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
Drugs, and novel psychological substances more generally, are frequently cited as being wholly or partly responsible for a number of crimes and deviant activity. Students will explore a number of key issues, including how drugs are defined, the formation of centralised medical consciousness and developments in the practices and policies relating to drug use, formal regulatory regimes such as prohibition, the treatment of addiction, and narcotic replacement approaches. The module also allows students to engage in discussion surrounding the chemical content of foods and beverages, and also the management in drugs and sport. This module will permit students to explore drugs and substances in a contemporary context, using topical examples throughout, and considering the implications for policing and drug consumption more generally.Learning Outcomes
- Critically evaluate the debates surrounding the classification of ‘drugs’ in contemporary lay, academic, and policy discussions.
- Assess the historical emergence of certain intoxicants, including how the use of psychoactive substances changes in relation to broader social developments.
- Discuss the social consequences of different regimes of regulation surrounding the use of illicit substances.
- Critically examine the concept of ‘addiction’, particularly prevailing medicalised conceptions of this term.
- Review the contributions of a range of disciplines – notably criminology, sociology, psychology, neuroscience, and pharmacology – to contemporary understandings of drugs, substances and addiction.
- Explore the inter-relationships between ‘social’, ‘psychological’, and ‘physiological’ processes in the production of certain drug effects.