D R I N K I N G & D R U G S D I V I S I O N __Winter 2008 Matters of Substance __________________________________________________________ Message from Chair: Dear Drinking and Drugs Division Members: By the time you receive this letter, I am assuming that many of you have submitted papers to the Drinking and Drugs Division Sponsored Sessions. Our session topics correspond directly with this year’s SSSP program theme “Crossing Borders, Activist Scholarship, Globalization and Social Justice.” This theme corresponds to issues highly relevant to substance use research. Certainly, the consequences of transnational marketing of drugs are familiar to many of us. However, many citizens are less familiar with the impact these international drug markets are having on the destabilization of the democratic process in many countries around the world including the United States. For instance, powerful drug cartels in Mexico have taken advantage of the decentralization of Mexico’s political parties.These cartels have stepped into this political vacuum taking control of sectors of state, municipal and federal governmentsthrough the investment of capital accumulated through the sales of drugs to U.S. consumers. The efforts by Mexico’s President Calderon to confront these drug cartels (receiving excessive U.S. press) masks his efforts to push his neo-liberalization policies including the denationalization of Mexico’s oil industry. Broadly speaking, neoliberalism seeks to transfer control of the economy from the public to private sector under the guise of democratization. In Mexico, these policies have resulted in the privatization of whole sectors of the economy resulting in a polarization of the poor and the rich, including an increase of drug use and related infectious diseases such as HIV. We often fail to keep this global perspective as we focus on specific research topics, populations or communities.This year’s SSSP theme will allow us to explore these issues not only in relationship to substance use but to other domains as well. Avelardo Valdez, Chair Drinking and Drugs Division Graduate Student Paper Competition: * Deadline for submission * March 15, 2008 The Drinking and Drugs Division is holding its 2008 Student Paper Competition. Our first place winner will receive a $100 stipend and will be recognized at the 2008 meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.The division reserves the right to identify additional prizes or to not award a first place winner at its discretion.Papers must present original research (empirical and/or theoretical) related to drinking and/or drugs from a social problems perspective.  To be eligible, participants must be currently enrolled in a graduate degree program and have not yet received a Ph.D., J.D., or M.D. degree at the time of submission.  Participants must have had the primary responsibility for preparation of the paper and it should be no longer than 30 pages in length.  All entries must be endorsed by a sponsor who is a current (2008) member of the division.  Send three copies of the paper and a short letter of submission identifying your graduate program and signed by your sponsor to: Andrew L. Golub, 47 Prospect Pkwy,Burlington, VT 05401, andrew.golub@uvm.edu, 802-862-6717. 2008 PROGRAM PARTICIPATION Deadline for submission of papers/abstracts to session organizers or the Program Committee Co-Chairs  January 31, 2008 Participants must be notified by the session organizer of acceptance or referral of paper/abstract February 18, 2008 Session/paper titles and contact information for each author must be in the Executive Office March 3, 2008 Preliminary programs will be distributed to all current members via email     May 15, 2008  2008 Annual Meeting, Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, Boston, MA July 31-August 2,2008 Deadline for names of session organizers for the 2009 Annual Meeting January 31, 2008 September 19, 2008 2008 Annual Meeting Program Theme: “Crossing Borders, Activist Scholarship, Globalization and Social Justice” 58th Annual Meeting-July 31, 2008-August 1, 2008-The Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers Drinking and Drugs Division Sponsored Sessions Session 1: Global Drug Issues Implication for Social Justice Organizer: Ellen F. Benoit W: 212-845-4425; benoit@ndri.org Session 2: Emerging Trends in Drug and Alcohol Research Organizer: Andrew L. Golub W: 802-862-6717; andrew.golub@uvm.edu Session 3: Drinking and Drugs Roundtables Organizer: Avelardo Valdez W: 713-743-8112; avaldez2@uh.edu Drinking and Drugs Division Co-Sponsored Sessions Session 10: Social Control and the Drug Economy (Crime and Juvenile Delinquency and Drinking and Drugs) Organizer: Jemel Aguilar W: 512-471-4219; jaguilar@mail.utexas.edu Session 11: Hispanic Drug Use, Violence and Crime (Crime and Juvenile Delinquency; Drinking and Drugs; and Racial and Ethnic Minorities) Organizer: Avelardo Valdez W: 713-743-8112; avaldez2@uh.edu Session 25: Community Health and Substance Use (Drinking and Drugs and Health, Health Policy, and Health Services) Co-organizer: Andrew L. Golub W: 802-862-6717; andrew.golub@uvm.edu and Co-organizer: Paul J. Draus W: 313-583-6628; draus@umd.umich.edu Session 26: Substance Abuse and Mental Illness (Drinking and Drugs and Mental Health) Co-organizer: Richard Carpiano W: 604-822-3845; carpiano@interchange.ubc.ca and Co-organizer: Brian Kelly W: 765-496-3616; bckelly@purdue.edu Session 27: Katrina: Social Justice (Drinking and Drugs and Poverty, Class, and Inequality) Organizer: Bruce D. Johnson W: 212-845-4500; bruce.johnson@ndri.org Session 28: Youth, Drugs, and Alcohol Use (Drinking and Drugs and Youth, Aging and the Life Course) Organizer: Brian C. Kelly W: 765-496-3616; bckelly@purdue.edu 2008 Division Award Committee Chairs 2008 Junior Scholar Award Bruce D. Johnson, Chair Ellen F. Benoit Henry H. Brownstein 2008 Student Paper Competition Andrew L. Golub, Chair Paul J. Draus New Publications: Broz, Dita and Lawrence J. Ouellet.  (In press).  Racial and Ethnic Changes in Heroin Injection in the United States: implications for the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Valdez, Alverado; Neaigus, Alan and Kaplan, Charles D. (2008). The Influence of Family and Peer Risks Networks on Drug Use Practices and Other Risks among Mexican American Non-Injecting Heroin Users. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (37)1: 79-107. Coming Soon: Forthcoming in spring 2008 from New York University Press: DYING TO GET HIGH: MARIJUANA AS MEDICINE- co-authored by Wendy Chapkis (Sociology, University of Southern Maine) and Richard J. Webb (Communications, San Jose State University). Marijuana as medicine has been a politically Marijuana as medicine has been a politically charged topic in this country for more than three decades. Despite the overwhelming public support and growing scientific evidence of its therapeutic effects (relief of the nausea caused by chemotherapy for cancer and AIDS, control over seizures or spasticity caused by epilepsy or MS,and relief from chronic and acute pain, to name a few), the drug remains illegal under federal law. In Dying to Get High,noted sociologist Wendy Chapkis and Richard J.Webb investigate one community of seriously-ill patients fighting the federal government for the right to use physician-recommended marijuana. The California-based Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), is a unique patience caregiver cooperative providing marijuana free of charge to mostly terminally-ill members; for a brief period in 2004, it even operated the only legal non-governmental medical marijuana garden in the country, protected by the federal courts against the DEA. Using as their stage this fascinating profile of one remarkable organization, Chapkis and Webb tackle the broader, complex history of medical marijuana in America. Through compelling interviews with patients, public officials, law enforcement officers and physicians, Chapkis and Webb ask what distinguishes a legitimate patient from an illegitimate pothead, good drugs from bad, medicinal effects from just getting high. Dying to Get High moves from abstract argument to the messier terrain of how people actually live, suffer and die, and offers a moving account of what is at stake in ongoing debates over the legalization of medical marijuana. 272 pages / 18 illustrations.     Announcements Call for Papers: The Association for Humanists Sociology [AHS] would like to invite submissions for our 2008 Annual Meeting at the John Hancock Center in Boston, Ma, November 6-9. Our conference theme is, "What is to be done? Public Sociology in Theory and Practice." While public sociology has attracted excitement in recent years, sociology as a resource for social action is not new. From Marx and Mills, to Dubois and Jane Addams, to Al Lee and Francis Fox Piven,the reemergence of public sociology is really the product of a long march by politically interested and socially engaged scholars through educational institutions, professional associations and publications, and other places where sociology is done. Yet, public sociology remains a contested terrain, criticized as "too political" by some and "not political enough" by others. Since our inception in 1976, AHS and its members have been contemplating and practicing public sociology, mostly from the margins of the discipline. Now that public sociology is front and center, we ought to have much to say about it: historically, theoretically, ethically, politically, and practically. This Annual Meeting is an opportunity to examine the past, evaluate the present, and begin to shape the future of a public sociology that matters. Paper submissions should address some aspect of public sociology and its relationship to teaching, activism, policy or community-based research, or other aspects of sociology as they relate to incorporating humanist goals with sociological work. Please send papers,abstracts, posters or session/workshop ideas to: Program Director Daniel Egan, Daniel_Egan@uml.edu or AHS President, Corey Dolgon,cdolgon@worcester.edu SSSP Membership: You can renew your SSSP membership via our secure website at, http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pagid/925/fuseaction/ssspmember.portal. All SSSP members receive a year’s subscription to the journal, Social Problems.  Upon joining SSSP any past issues in the membership year will be provided to new members.Members also receive Social Problems Forum: The SSSP Newsletter.  Social Problems  Forum is published three times year.Members are eligible to join up to three of SSSP's special problems divisions at no additional charge.  With 21 special problem divisions, three is a hard choice.  For a small charge of $2 per division, members can join the other 18 as well.Membership in the special problems divisions allows current members to vote on who will be chair of the division and also receive the division’s unique newsletters.  All current members receive a reduced rate to attend our Annual Meeting. Job Announcements Search for SSSP Executive Officer The Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) announces an opening for the position of Executive Officer.  The SSSP is an interdisciplinary and international community of scholars, activists, practitioners, and students creating greater social justice through social research.  The members of the SSSP work in colleges and universities, non-profit organizations, research organizations, activist groups, and other applied settings.  A detailed description of the Executive Officer’s position (PDF) is posted on the SSSP web site, http://www.sssp1.org.  Preference will be given to those familiar with, or a commitment to, SSSP’s purposes.  Interested applicants may apply by submitting a letter of interest, CV, contact information for three references and a letter of support from the applicant’s Department Chair and Dean to: Gabriel Aquino, Chair of the Permanent Organization and Strategic Planning Committee, Department of Sociology, Westfield State College,577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA 01086 ( gaquino@wsc.ma.edu ).  The letter of interest should include a statement of the applicant’s vision for the future of the Society and understanding of the duties of the Executive Officer that are stated in the SSSP Bylaws and Operations Manual.  The candidate should also indicate what support the host institution is willing to provide if selected for the Executive Office site.  Institutional support information should be corroborated by the letters from an official with budgetary authority.  Applications received by February 15, 2008 will receive full consideration.  Compensation will include salary assistance and travel.   The Permanent Organization and Strategic Planning Committee (POSPC), working in consultation with the Board of Directors and the Treasurer, will screen the applications and will take into consideration the protection/promotion of affirmative action and cultural diversity interests, as well as the qualifications of the applicants and the resources available from the applicants’ institutions, including estimated budgets for operating the Executive Office at their institutions. Following established procedures, up to three application files will be supplied to the Board of Directors by July 1, 2008.  Finalists will be interviewed by the POSPC and the Board separately at the 2008 Annual Meeting.A site visit to the selected site will be conducted not later than November 1, 2008.  Final appointment will take place by March 1, 2009.  The President of the Board, Chair of the POSPC, and newly appointed Executive Officer will make arrangements to have the Executive Office moved to its new location – following the 2009 Annual Meeting. Office of Drug & Social Policy Research Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse Presents: 2008 National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse Summer Research Training June 9-17, 2008 The NHSN and the University of Houston, Graduate School of Social Work, Office for Drug and Social Policy Research (ODSPR)welcome you to this site. Dr. Avelardo Valdez, Professor at the University of Houston and Director of the ODSPR, is the Chair of the Sub-committee overseeing the SRTI. The training institute will have approximately 15 fellows from across the nation. The institute will be organized around a series of lectures and workshops on Hispanics and drug research. Lectures and workshops topics will be held on epidemiology and etiology of drug use among Hispanics, intervention and prevention research gaps and issues, an introduction to neuroscience, HIV/AIDS, and appropriate designs and measures in Hispanic research. These sessions will be led by a diversity of individuals including NIH officials and NIDA fund drug researchers who will provide hands-on training. The purpose of this training institute is to promote interest and professional commitment to Hispanic drug abuse research and to foster mentoring relationships between students and leading Hispanic researcher in this field. Your participation is crucial in preparing the next generation of drug researchers. To Apply 1. Download application form from the following website: http://www.hispanicscience.org Please mail your application to: NHSN Summer Research Training Institute Selection Committee Office for Drug & Social Policy Research University of Houston 237 Social Work Building Houston, Texas 77204-4013 2. A 500-word essay describing yourself, how you would benefit from participating in this institute and in a career on Hispanic drug research. 3. Your application packet must include a résumé, listing your social security number, current address and e-mail, phone number, computer skills, and research software with which you are familiar. 4. Two letters of recommendation 5. Official transcripts from your currently enrolled institution or last completed degree. Deadline Applications must be received by February 29, 2008.  Decisions of award will be finalized by April 4, 2008.  Please call the Office for Drug & Social Policy Research at (713) 743-8345 or e-mail Desiré Martinez at dmartin9@central.uh.edu Available to applicants on the websites of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse or Office for Drug & Social Policy Research, is information on the training site, including previous training institute curricula and faculty rosters. DRINKING AND DRUGS DIVISION WINTER 2008