D R I N K I N G & D R U G S D I V I S I O N Winter 2010 Matters of Substance 2010 SSSP Annual Meeting ___ Program Theme: “Social Justice Work” 60th Annual Meeting August 13 to 15, 2010 The Sheraton Atlanta Hotel Atlanta, GA Message from the Chair: Dear Drinking and Drugs Members, I hope that the new year is treating you all well and that many of you have found the time since last year’s Annual Meeting pleasant and productive. It’s already time to turn our attention to this year’s Annual Meeting. Our division has many exciting sessions planned for the upcoming meeting. Although more details will be forthcoming with the preliminary program issues by SSSP, please take a chance to look at the list of planned division sessions listed on page 7 of this newsletter. They stand to be informative and thought provoking sessions. In addition to our sessions, the divisional reception – hosted jointly with the ASA’s Alcohol, Drug, and Tobacco section – will be no doubt be another “can’t miss” event. This year’s reception is being graciously hosted by our colleague Claire Sterk. She deserves many thanks in advance for such hospitality while we’re all down in Atlanta. We have also introduced a new website for the division. The website has been up and running since June 2009 and can be accessed at www.drinkinganddrugs.org. This website extends beyond the information provided about our division on the main SSSP website and provides us with new opportunities for the growth and development of our section as we expand the site and its content. At this time, it provides us with the means to announce divisional information as well as inform others about our mission and scholarship. Beyond being a visitor to our site, please provide us with any information that is of interest to division members. Such items may include details about new books, new research projects, and fellowship/grant opportunities of interest to those studying alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. Please send this information to me via e-mail and we’ll do our best to get it on the site. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to mention a few things about our divisional awards. We will be holding our annual student paper competition again so I would like to encourage all students to submit a paper as well as ask those of you who are mentors to please encourage your students to submit papers. I’d like to thank Alice Cepeda for again agreeing to chair the student paper competition committee. Details of this competition are listed on page 5 as well as the website. We will also be holding our Junior Scholar Award competition this year to recognize a young scholar who has made significant contributions. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to take a moment to once again congratulate Avelardo “Lalo” Valdez on winning the 2009 Senior Scholar Award. This award recognizes his distinguished contributions to scholarship, mentoring, and service in our field. Looking forward to seeing you all at the 2010 Annual Meeting! All my best, Brian New Publications__________________________ Available Now from University of California Press: Philippe Bourgois (University of Pennsylvania) and Jeff Schonberg (University of California, San Francisco). RIGHTEOUS DOPEFIEND "Plunge beneath the surface of America's no-man's lands. Find in the dead-end alleyways, storage lots, and overgrown embankments the terrifying but strangely ordered world of homeless heroin injectors. This book will test your cultural relativism to destruction, but along the way you will learn a great deal about destitution, about homelessness, about addiction, and about violence at all levels. These dopefiends are 'made in America'." Paul Willis Author of Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs, and co-founding editor of Ethnography Order now at: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9188.php Available Now from Criminal Justice Press: Dina Perrone (Bridgewater State University) THE HIGH LIFE: Club Kids, Harm and Drug Policy “A new study of New York City drug users who self-identify as “club kids” challenges stereotypes of the typical drug user and common assumptions about controlling drug-related harms. Ethnographic research illuminates the club kids’ distinctive subculture, describes their patterns of drug use, and explores the factors that protect them from harms such as arrests and illness. Richly detailed and remarkably candid interview data vividly portray how the subjects manage to maintain productive, middle-class lifestyles despite engaging in heavy drug use.” Currently Available from Criminal Justice Press: http://www.criminaljusticepress.com/142.html Announcements: Graduate Student Paper Competition Deadline: March 31, 2010 The Drinking and Drugs Division is holding its 2010 Student Paper Competition. The First Place Winner will receive a $100 stipend and be recognized at the 2010 meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Papers under consideration must present original research (empirical and/or theoretical) related to drinking and/or drugs. To be eligible, entrants 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 sole responsibility for preparation of the paper. Self-nominations are permitted. The paper should be no longer than 30 pages. The division reserves the right to identify additional prizes or to not award a first place winner at its discretion. Applicants should send an electronic copy of the paper and a cover letter identifying the matriculated graduate program by 3/31/10 to: Alice Cepeda, Ph.D., Dept of Sociology, University of Houston, aacepeda@central.uh.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. Current Research: Evaluation of Overdose Prevention Programs for Injection Drug Users National Institute on Drug Abuse – R21 DA026789 Drug overdose is the single greatest cause of mortality among injection drug users (IDUs) in the U.S.  Fatal heroin overdoses cause more than half of all deaths among IDUs, which far exceeds the proportion of deaths due to AIDS or other causes. A heroin overdose can be safely reversed with the administration of naloxone (brand name Narcan) – a legal, nonscheduled opioid antagonist.  Naloxone is currently prescribed and distributed by overdose prevention programs (OPP) in 15 states. Despite the common-sense notion that these programs “work,” scientifically designed evaluations of OPPs are almost non-existent and outcomes are still poorly defined. SSSP Drinking & Drugs member, Dr. Stephen Lankenau, Associate Professor at the Drexel University School of Public Health, is currently conducting a study to address these concerns. The study is designed to investigate changes in overdose response and other drug-related health behaviors among IDUs participating in two OPPs in Los Angeles, California.  The study design employs qualitative and quantitative methods in order to study samples of IDUs recruited from two community-based programs in Los Angeles that conduct overdose prevention training. The study will address the following aims: describe overdose response behavior among IDUs; examine whether participating in overdose prevention training or overdose response (i.e. performing a “rescue”) is associated with other drug-related health behaviors; and investigate programmatic, social, and psychological barriers to enrolling IDUs into OPPs. Dr. Lankenau will update our members on this important project at future meetings. A Qualitative Study of Non-Medical Prescription Drug Use National Institute on Drug Abuse - R01 DA023086 Nonmedical prescription drug use is an increasing public health problem. Rates of Rx drug abuse among many segments of the U.S. population have grown exponentially. Recent data indicate that an estimated 15.2 million Americans aged 12 and older used Rx drugs non-medically. Among young adults, lifetime rates of Rx drug abuse exceed levels for most other drugs including cocaine, heroin, and hallucinogens. The National Survey on Drug Use & Health indicates that among 18-25 year olds Rx stimulant abuse has almost doubled, sedative use has more than doubled, and pain killer use has more than tripled over the past 10 years. To bring much needed attention to this important issue, SSSP Drinking & Drugs member Dr. Sheigla Murphy is currently conducting a qualitative study of prescription drug misuse among young adults. Using ethnographic methods, Dr. Murphy’s team at the Institute for Scientific Analysis is interviewing 120 participants (60 men and 60 women) between the ages of 18 and 25 who have used one or more drugs from three prescription classes (opiates, stimulants and CNS depressants) for non-medical purposes. This qualitative research project will provide much needed information about the nature of non-medical prescription drug use among young adults as well as identify factors underlying the association between non-medical prescription drug use and adverse social and health consequences. Dr. Murphy will update the section on the recent findings from her important work at the upcoming SSSP annual meeting. SSSP Drinking & Drugs Division Sessions Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA August 13-August 15, 2010 We have several exciting sessions planned for the 2010 Meeting: - Intersections of Crime and Substance Abuse - Social Justice and Contemporary Drug Policy - Smokin’: Tobacco, Marijuana, and Other Drugs - Non-Medical Prescription Drug Use - Current Trends in Substance Abuse - Drinking & Drugs Roundtables We hope you’re able to join us for all of these interesting sessions. More details will be released with the SSSP Preliminary Program. Hope to see you in Atlanta! 2009 SSSP Drinking and Drugs Reception Drinking and Drugs Division Page 1