Deviance as a Social Construct:
● Social construct: concerns the meaning placed on an object, event, or behavior by a
society
○ Access to medicine is good for people who are sick but also bad for people with
drug addictions
○ Perceptions on drugs have changed and keep changing
○ Drugs aren’t inherently bad, they’re just looked at as bad
● Deviance: the fact or state of departing from usual or accepted standards especially in
social or sexual behavior
● It is a relative concept
● Varies over time and place
● Conceptions of deviance often shape drug use behavior
● Views of deviance surrounding drug use are highly variable, influenced by: drug of
choice, time, place, purpose, and user demographic
Factors That Shape Drug Viewpoints and Experiences:
● Many find it difficult to think accurately about drug use
a. Media, politicians, social movement activists, and the general public often make
incorrect inferences
● Factors that shape individual views on and the likelihood of drug use
1. Socialization: lifelong social experiences by which humans develop their potential
and learn culture
a. Agents of socialization: parents, friends, education system, media,
criminal justice system, location, doctors, work, institutions, religion
2. Environmental exposure: exposure to drug users and the drugs themselves
a. How often do you see drugs on the streets you live in?
b. Are drugs accessible?
c. Generally speaking, how common is substance use in your society?
d. Greater exposure and social attitude more likely to do it
3. Age of initial exposure:
a. We often have an increased likelihood of acceptance of and engagement in
things we are exposed to early in life
b. Related both to socialization and environment
c. Early exposure likely to come from who?
i. Family, neighborhood, structural position
4. Attitude change
a. Viewpoints aren’t stagnant
b. Changes in attitudes toward drug use (acceptance or rejection) are
influential
,**Viewpoints matter because they shape behaviors
****Key take away: very few viewpoints regarding drugs are shaped by concrete or empirical
facts: they are a social construct
Viewpoints and Behavior:
Four factors that impact a drug user’s experience
1. Biological factors
○ Initial sensitivity, gender, weight, etc.
2. Cultural factors
○ How society views you as a drug user has an impact
3. Social factors
○ The motivations for taking a drug
■ Curiosity, depression and anxiety, boredom, pain, special occasion (party,
festival)
4. Contextual factors
○ The context matters (ex. a 21st birthday party)
*Attitudes + experiences = continued use
Key Terms, Definitions, and Types of Drug Use:
● Drugs: any substances that modify mind and/or body functioning
● Psychoactive drugs or substances: drug compounds that affect the central nervous system
and alter consciousness and/or perceptions
● Licit/legal drug examples
○ Alcohol, tobacco, prescription medication
● Illicit/illegal drug examples
○ Heroin, meth (street), prescription medication, marijuana
● When does drug use become problematic
○ Drug abuse: the habitual taking or misuse of addictive or illegal drugs
■ Outside of the prescribed recommendations
○ Drug addiction: chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive
drug seeking
■ Despite the harmful consequences
■ Initial use is typically a voluntary decision; over time, brain changes
impede self-control
○ Common assumptions about drug abusers
■ Lack moral principles, lack of willpower, can choose to change their
behavior
Drug Dependence:
, ● Psychological dependence: state that involves emotional-motivational withdrawal
symptoms
○ Mental preoccupation
○ Craving the stimulation, elation, other psychological pleasures of a drug
● Physical dependence: occurs when the body becomes accustomed to the presence of a
drug (drug presence is the user’s “normal”)
○ Physical symptoms associated with use, cessation of use
Types of Drug Use:
● Drug abuse and addiction is an equal opportunity affliction: it transcends income,
education, class, occupation, race, ethnicity, lifestyle, and age groups
● Goode’s 4 types of drug use
1. Legal instrumental: taking drugs as prescribed and for the intended purpose (ex.
Medicine for illness)
2. Legal recreational: taking licit drugs to achieve a certain mental or psychic state
(ex. Legal use of a drug to make us feel good - alcohol, weed where legal)
3. Illegal instrumental: taking illicit drugs, without a prescription, to accomplish a
specific task or goal (ex. taking Adderall to study)
4. Illegal recreational: taking illicit drugs for fun or pleasure (ex. using meth because
the high feels good)
Measuring Drug Use:
● Prevalence rates - the number/percentage of people in the population who use a given
drug during a designated time period
○ Ex. what percentage of the population reported using marijuana in the past 6
months (or the past year or their lifetime)
○ Can find which drugs are used most, what age groups are using drugs, doesn’t tell
us why drugs are used, where they get it, etc.
○ Doesn’t tell us the most problematic use
● National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)
○ Nationwide survey of randomly selected persons 12+
○ Asks respondents to report whether they have used a specific drug at least once in
the previous month
● Prevalence rates - General findings
○ Significant difference in the use of legal vs. illegal drugs (marijuana is the most
popular illicit drug, but there's been change over time)
○ Drugs used by a small percentage of people generate large social and personal
disruption and concern
, Understanding the Extent of Drug Use:
● Continuance rates - for a given drug, a figure calculated on the basis of comparing the
proportion of “at least one time” users who have also taken that drug within a more recent
time period, usually either the past month of the past year
○ Large circle = all people who have used
○ Small circle = all used in the last month
○ Likely to better capture problematic use, evidence of drug misuse/abuse/addiction
● General findings
○ Drugs vary with regard to user “loyalty” (ex. nicotine, alcohol, caffeine)
■ Users stick with some drugs longer than others
■ Experimental vs. episodic (special occasions, every once in a while) vs.
regular/frequent use drugs
■ Alcohol generates the strongest user loyalty
■ Marijuana strongest for illicit drugs for user loyalty
○ Legal drugs have greater continuance rates than illegal drugs - they’re easier to
access, more socially acceptable, less risky
Trends and Correlates of Drug Use:
● Use trends are closely related to public perceptions of use norms
○ Perceptions of deviance shape both use and attempts to control use
● Long term trends are difficult to study because until a drug becomes problematic, we
don’t track it
○ Alcohol use is the easiest trend to follow - can track the sales/distribution for it
○ General pattern over time - alcohol trends align with other types of drug use
○ Systematic surveys on use for other drugs began in the 1970s during the war on
drugs
■ 1970s - high tolerance, high use, minimal policy
■ 1980s - lessening tolerance, declining use, significant policy changes
General Demographics of Drug Users:
● Age: strong predictor of drug use behavior - younger people usually commit more
crime/drug use (most people eventually mature out of drug use and crime)
○ Typically, the earlier you start, the more damaging the behavior - we’ve seen a
decline in the age of initiation
■ Media exposure influences the age of people initially using drugs
■ Peer pressure and less stigma around drugs leads more young people to
use drugs
○ Prevalence
■ 18-24 is the leading age range of drug users
