DRINKING AND DRUGS
Brian Kelly*
Purdue University
Last Update: 2011
Our division aims to promote a world in which all citizens have the right to be protected from the harms associated with drug use and abuse as well as from drug laws that unjustly punish people of color, the poor, and those otherwise marginalized. The application and enforcement of drug laws would be socially responsible, unbiased and democratically based rather than coercive, repressive, and unjust. Further, in a just society, no stigma would be attached to drug use. The society would focus on the underlying causes of drug abuse and the health concerns associated with it without the burdens currently created by social definitions. Drug laws would be based on an understanding that the use of both licit and illicit drugs, especially chronic use is often a result of a complex combination of personal choice, social, political, or economic conditions, and is a medical not a moral or legal problem. It should be understood that drug abuse is often a manifestation or a symptom of social, psychological, economic, or political problems.
Division Aims:
1. Build an international network of drug researchers including both scholars and activists who are dedicated to examining and then discussing, sharing, and disseminating information on both licit and illicit drug use.
2. Promote responsible professional scholarship about the use and abuse of licit and illicit drugs in order to provide forums for academic and social activism.
3. Increase involvement, discussion, debate, and strive for consensus-building among drug policy associations, foundations, government officials and researchers.
4. Create public forums that involve citizens in critically discussing and debating the current criminal approach to drug use in our society, and in ultimately reformulating drug laws that produce disparities in the criminal justice system. Such forums must give attention to empirical studies on drug use and analyze with a critical lens those that are generally either disregarded or selectively used by politicians and legislators.
5. Protect civil liberties regarding drug use for all citizens in our society.
6. Increase cross-cultural sharing of information concerning approaches to drug use. Carefully examine and discuss with government officials the outcomes of drug policies in socially liberal-, moderate-, and conservative-type countries. Such cross-cultural information sharing would better inform the goal of reformulating our drug policies regarding what is and is not appropriate for citizens of the U.S.
7. Continue to recognize and act on the importance of good teaching and responsible research about drug use. Our students in college and university classrooms across the U.S. represent important populations of people who are entitled to learn the latest information about licit and illicit drug use or abuse in order to understand and render their opinions about our current and future approaches to drugs.
Challenges:
Our biggest challenge in working toward reformulating U.S. drug policy is the current lack of commitment of and collaboration with government officials, policy makers, legislators, and politicians. Lack of agreement -- including conflicting ideologies and perspectives -- adversely affects U.S. drug policy-making. Beginning with public forums on the use or abuse of drugs, more collaboration, discussion and debate with often segmented institutions in our society (such as the criminal justice system and the medical establishment) is sorely needed. Top government officials need to set priorities regarding the importance of establishing more collaboration with drug research foundations that are not politically biased against drug users in an a priori manner. Separate public forums on decriminalization and legalization should be created with the goal of achieving maximum participation by all U.S. citizens.
As scholars dedicated to the pursuit of drug use knowledge, the members of this division can learn from each other as we continually confront the schism between academics and others regarding drug use. To become more effective scholars and activists we must continually confront both supportive and conflicting views about drug use and champion the goal of creating a society where adult drug use reflects personal choice, responsibility, and conscious decision-making free of moral and ideological biases that continually contradict the high number of licit and illicit drug users in our society.
Key books:
Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Wendy Chapkis and Richard J. Webb, Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine, New York, NY: New York University Press, 2008.
Erich Goode, Drugs in American Society, Fourth Edition, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993.
Erich Goode, Between Politics and Reason: The Drug Legalization Debate, New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1997.
James A Inciadri and Karen McElrath, The American Drug Scene: An Anthology, 5th Edition New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Robert Julien, A Primer of Drug Action, New York, NY: Worth Publishers, 2004.
David Lenson, On Drugs, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
Ed Knipe, Culture, Society and Drugs, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 1995.
James Orcutt and David Rudy, Drugs, Alcohol, and Social Problems, Latham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
George F. Rengert, The Geography of Illegal Drugs, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.
Merrill Singer, Something Dangerous: Emergent and Changing Illicit Drug Use and Community Health, Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2006.
Eric C. Strain and Maxine L. Stitzer, The Treatment of Opioid Dependence, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
Karin Swisher (ed.), Legalizing Drugs, San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1996.
Peter J. Venturelli, Drug Use in America: Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives, Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1994.
*Drinking and Drugs Division Chair (2008-10)
