Drugs and the American Dream An Anthology

Drugs and the American Dream presents an up-to-date anthology of chiefly contemporary readings that explore the myriad sociological correlates of licit and illicit drug use in the United States.

• Unique approach to the topic that offers an organizing theme of sociological concepts-age, social class, ethnicity, gender, as well as societal response to drug use including drug education, treatment, and policy.
• The book is interdisciplinary in terms of approach, making it useful in a variety of contexts.
• Includes a wide array of ethnographic articles that place reader directly into the perspectives of drug users through their own voices
• Brief framing introductions to each article provide "interconnective tissue," guiding the student to the heart of what's important in the piece that follows.
• Offers a balanced approach to various substances-tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs, and illegal drugs.
• Provides students with a realistic perspective on the extent of substance use in American society as well as a critical appreciation of the real versus imagined harms associated with use of various substances.

List of Figures and Tables xi

Preface and Acknowledgments xiii

Source Acknowledgments xxii

About the Editors xxviii

About the Contributors xxx

Matrix of Drugs Addressed xliii

Part I: Perspectives on Drug Use 1

History and Theory

1. Harvey A. Siegal and James A. Inciardi: A Brief History of Alcohol 4

2. David F. Musto: The American Disease: Narcotics in Nineteenth-Century America 9

3. James A. Inciardi and Theodore J. Cicero: Black Beauties, Gorilla Pills, Footballs, and Hillbilly Heroin: Prescription Drug Abuse over the Past 40 Years 18

4. Norman E. Zinberg and Wayne M. Harding: Control and Intoxicant Use: A Theoretical and Practical Overview 24

Drug Scares and Moral Panics

5. Joseph R. Gusfield: Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement 33

6. Craig Reinarman: The Social Construction of Drug Scares 40

7. Justin L. Tuggle and Malcolm D. Holmes: Blowing Smoke: Status Politics and the Smoking Ban 48

8. Dale D. Chitwood, Sheigla Murphy, and Marsha Rosenbaum: Reflections on the Meaning of Drug Epidemics 55

Part II: Social Correlates of Drug Use 61

Race/Ethnicity

9. Todd G. Pierce: Gen-X Junkie: Young White Heroin Users in Washington, DC 64

10. Avelardo Valdez, Kathryn Nowotny, and Alice Cepeda: The Intersection of Drug Use and Crime over the Life Course of Mexican-American Former Gang Members 72

11. Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg: Righteous Dopefi end 80

12. Karen A. Joe Laidler: The Lives and Times of Asian-Pacific American Women Methamphetamine Users 87

13. Paul Spicer: Toward a (Dys)functional Anthropology of Drinking: Ambivalence and the American Indian Experience with Alcohol 94

Social Class

14. Eloise Dunlap, Andrew Golub, and Bruce D. Johnson: The Severely Distressed African American Family in the Crack Era: Empowerment Is Not Enough 102

15. Matthew Petrocelli, Trish Oberweis, and Joseph Petrocelli: Getting Huge, Getting Ripped: An Exploration of Recreational Steroid Use 112

16. Dean A. Dabney and Richard C. Hollinger: Drugged Druggists: The Convergence of Two Criminal Career Trajectories 120

17. A. Rafi k Mohamed and Erik D. Fritsvold: Why Rich Kids Sell Street Drugs: Wankstaz, Wannabes, and Capitalists in Training 131

Gender

18. Katherine Sirles Vecitis: Drugs and Eating Disorders: Women’s Instrumental Drug Use for Weight Control 141

19. Robert L. Peralta: College Alcohol Use and the Embodiment of Hegemonic Masculinity among European American Men 152

20. Monica Hardesty and Timothy Black: Mothering Through Addiction: A Survival Strategy among Puerto Rican Addicts 161

Youth and Aging

21. Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler: Tinydopers: A Case Study of Deviant Socialization 174

22. Meika Loe and Leigh Cuttino: Grappling with the Medicated Self: The Case of ADHD College Students 184

23. Tammy L. Anderson and Judith A. Levy: Marginality among Older Injectors in Today’s Illicit Drug Culture: Assessing the Impact of Ageing 193

24. Miriam Williams Boeri, Claire E. Sterk, and Kirk W. Elifson: Baby Boomer Drug Users: Career Phases, Identity, Self-Concept, and Social Control 203

Part III: Drug Lifestyles 213

Managing Drug Use

25. Brian C. Kelly: Club Drug Use and Risk Management among “Bridge and Tunnel” Youth 215

26. René D. Drumm, Duane C. McBride, Lisa Metsch, Melodie Neufeld, and Alex Sawatsky: “I’m a Health Nut!” Street Drug Users’ Accounts of Self-Care Strategies 224

27. José A. Bauermeister: Latino Gay Men’s Drug Functionality 231

28. Wendy Chapkis: Cannabis, Consciousness, and Healing 240

29. Patricia A. Adler: The Dealing Lifestyle 249

The Economics of Drugs

30. Lisa Maher and Kathleen Daly: Women in the Street-Level Drug Economy: Continuity or Change? 257

31. Steven D. Levitt and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh: An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang’s Finances 266

Crime and Violence

32. Paul J. Goldstein: The Drugs/Violence Nexus: A Tripartite Conceptual Framework 277

33. Bruce A. Jacobs, Volkan Topalli, and Richard Wright: Managing Retaliation: Drug Robbery and Informal Sanction Threats 285

34. Stephanie Brophy: Mexico: Cartels, Corruption, and Cocaine: A Profi le of the Gulf Cartel 295

35. Peter Reuter: Systemic Violence in Drug Markets 305

Part IV: Societal Response to Drug Use 313

Education

36. Earl Wysong and David W. Wright: A Decade of DARE: Efficacy, Politics and Drug Education 316

37. Marsha Rosenbaum: Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education 327

Treatment

38. George De Leon: The Therapeutic Community: Perspective and Approach 336

39. Lee Garth Vigilant: Illness Narratives of Recovering on Methadone Maintenance 344

40. Robert Granfi eld and William Cloud: The Elephant that No One Sees: Natural Recovery among Middle-Class Addicts 351

41. James L. Nolan, Jr: Drug Treatment Courts and the Disease Paradigm 359

Policy

42. Stanton Peele: Reducing Harms from Youth Drinking 370

43. Duane C. McBride, Yvonne Terry-McElrath, Henrick Harwood, James A. Inciardi, and Carl Leukefeld: Refl ections on Drug Policy 378

44. Ethan Nadelmann: Think Again: Drugs 386

45. Harry G. Levine: The Secret of Global Drug Prohibition: Its Uses and Crises 391

Index 400

Patricia A. Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her areas of interest are deviant behavior, social psychology, and qualitative methods. Her classic book, Wheeling and Dealing (1993), was one of the first explorations of upper-level drug dealers and smugglers.

Peter Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver. His areas of interest are sociology of drugs, sociology of sport, and symbolic interactionism. Along with Patricia, he has written many books, including Backboards & Blackboards (1991), Peer Power (1998), Paradise Laborers (2004), and The Tender Cut (2011).

Together, the Adlers were honored with the 2010 George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

Patrick K. O'Brien is a doctoral candidatein Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 2010, O'Brien won the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper from the Drinking and Drugs Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.