drugs, man…. drugs recently, has this been you? withdrawn, depressed, tired, and careless about...

Drugs, man…Drugs, man…

Drugs

Recently, has this been you?

•Withdrawn, depressed, tired, and careless about personal grooming

•Hostile and uncooperative

•Relationships with family members have deteriorated

•Hanging around with a new group of friends

•Irregular school attendance, slipping grades

•Lost interest in hobbies, sports, other favorite activities

•Eating and sleeping patterns changed

•Hard time concentrating

•Money been disappearing

•Red-rimmed eyes and runny nose without having a cold

Drugs

These are signs your child might be using drugs—from US Dept of Education’s “Growing up Drug-free: A Parent’s Guide to Prevention”

•Withdrawn, depressed, tired, and careless about personal grooming

•Hostile and uncooperative

•Relationships with family members have deteriorated

•Hanging around with a new group of friends

•Irregular school attendance, slipping grades

•Lost interest in hobbies, sports, other favorite activities

•Eating and sleeping patterns changed

•Hard time concentrating

•Money been disappearing

•Red-rimmed eyes and runny nose without having a cold

DrugsMost Knowledge is Based on Rhetoric:Billions spent annually to convince people that drugs are bad.

DrugsDrugs

Foundations of American Anti-Drug Culture

•Anti-hedonism

•Racism

Alcohol-Southern/Eastern European Catholics

Opiates-Chinese

Marijuana-Mexicans

Crack-African Americans

Club Drugs-Sexually active youth

•Prohibition is sold with anti-crime rhetoric. Linking drugs to crime “sells” “cracking down.”

Drugs

Most Knowledge is Based on Rhetoric

•Billions spent annually to convince people that drugs are bad.

•To feel like they are being responsible, most text writers insert negative adjectives next to references to drug use. (e.g., unfortunately, drug abuse, infested with drugs, addicted, on drugs, etc.)

•Media actively pursue anti-drug campaigns to satisfy “public service” requirements.

•Paid placement of anti-drug messages in entertainment.

Drugs


•Federal government controls access to illegal drugs for research purposes.

•Federal government permits only research intended to “prove” that drugs cause harm.

•But FDA will not approve drugs (such as medical marijuana) unless research proves effectiveness.

Drugs


•Federal government controls access to illegal drugs for research purposes.

•Federal government permits only research intended to “prove” that drugs cause harm.

•But FDA will not approve drugs (such as medical marijuana) unless research proves effectiveness.

•Most of what we know about “druggies” come from hard-core users, criminals, and addicted persons (sampling on the dependent variable)

•Everyday Americans, politicians blame drugs for most ills.

Drugs


•Drug epidemics are typically “manufactured” by media, police, or concerned parents

Drugs

Drug Use, Drug Abuse, and Drug Sells are Separate Dimensions of the Drug Issue.

For example, some people eat chocolate for pleasure, some binge on chocolate, and others sell chocolate.

So we will treat use, abuse and sells as separate phenomena.

Why do persons use drugs?

Drugs



So we will treat use, abuse and sells as separate phenomena.

Why do persons abuse drugs?

Drugs



So we will treat use, abuse and sales as separate phenomena.

Why do persons sell drugs?

DrugsDrugs

Drug-Crime Links

1. Recreational users are not linked to crime.

2. Criminals are more likely to use drugs.

3. Addicts, a much smaller number of users, turn to low-grade crime to get more drugs. Their crimes typically follow behaviors they already had. For example: selling drugs, prostituting self, or petty theft.

4. Violence is on the business side of drugs, like during alcohol prohibition and prohibitions on gambling. Persons involved in drug business cannot turn to police to settle disputes and remedy their own criminal victimization or turn to civil court to make and enforce contracts.

Drugs

But since so many criminals have drugs in their systems, doesn’t that indicate that drugs cause crime?

No:

1. Many Americans use drugs, many people have drugs in their systems

2. We do not attempt to associate other common behaviors with crime. Criminals would have experienced these things too:

Ate Fast Food Drank Cola Smoked cigarettes

Watched “WWE” Had Sex Rode public transit

3. Persons in crime are often un- or underemployed. Drugs are used, like other entertainment such as TV or alcohol, to help pass the time.

4. Drug use is more common in evenings and weekends when other types of misbehavior are common

5. Among criminals, criminal involvement typically precedes drug involvement

6. Criminals have greater access to drugs because the drug trade is relegated to criminal networks

7. Having and dealing drugs is a crime for which persons are arrested, placing drug users in the ranks of counted criminals. Analogous to prostitutes having had sex.

Drugs

Damage from “War on Drugs”

•Ruins lives of those caught versus those who are not

•Intervention is racist and classist, affecting disadvantaged more

•Generation and perpetuation of stereotypes

•Increases violence surrounding drugs

•Breaks up some families

•Increases social problems for those living in poor and minority neighborhoods

•Weakens protections of civil liberties, especially for kids

•Costs billions of dollars to incarcerate the guilty (in addition to the billions spent on prevention efforts)

Drugs

Special Case: Marijuana

•Not a gateway drug

Drugs



•Rates of use of all drugs follow availability

Drugs




•Not Dangerous

Drugs




•Not Dangerous

•Effects on thinking and social skills

Drugs




•Not Dangerous


•Effects on work and industriousness

Drugs




•Not Dangerous



•Does not cause psychosis and amotivational personality (reversed causality)

Drugs




•Not Dangerous



•Does not cause psychosis and amotivational personality (reversed causality)

•Drug testing is most likely to catch these users

Drug Testing Programs are Ineffective and Inaccurate:Because urine testing is based on an analysis of metabolites associated with the drug in question, and because alcohol and cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine all pass through the body within 24-48 hours, leaving no metabolites, marijuana is the only substance that is easily detected with urinalysis. Drugs that have a more significant impact on employment or work performance, such as alcohol and other illegal drugs, are not effectively tested for with urinalysis.

Source: "Drug Testing: A Bad Investment," ACLU pamphlet on drug testing in the workforce (hereafter, "Drug Testing," pg. 13, et. al., link provided below

Drugs


•Use and Crime

Serious Violent Crime Offending among 12 – 17 year-olds.

Drugs

Marijuana: Trends in Annual Use

DrugsDrugsMarijuana

•Cost?

Highs (good weed/exotic):dime-$15dub bag-$25eighth-$40quarter-$80half ounce-$150ounce-$250Pound-$3000

•Mode of transfer?

Smoke, eat

•Effects on Persons?

Friendly, social,

laugh, anxiety for hours

•Typical Users?

Everyone

Drugs

Crack: Trends in Annual Use

Annual Review of Public HealthVol. 17: 259-273 (Volume publication date January 1996)

Crack Cocaine Abuse: An Epidemic with Many Public Health ConsequencesJ W Cornish, and C P O'Brien

DrugsDrugs

Crack

•Cost?

$10/ hit


Smoke


Quick, intense high, fades fast

•Typical Users?

Urban poor

http://www.troubledteen.us/ecstasy.php

Drugs

MDMA (Ecstasy)MDMA (Ecstasy)

MDMA (Ecstasy): Trends in Annual UseMDMA (Ecstasy): Trends in Annual Use

Drugs

DrugsDrugs

Ecstasy

•Cost?

$40/ tablet


oral


In love, sensational, hours

•Typical Users?

Partiers

Drugs

Methamphetamine

May 13, 2005

Another Epidemic!!!

Drugs

Methamphetamine: Trends in Annual Use

DrugsDrugs

Methamphetamines

•Cost?

$75


Smoke, inject


High energy, talkative, enhanced sexuality, weight loss, hours

•Typical Users?

Partiers, rural, whites

DrugsDrugs

Drugs

Cocaine Powder: Trends in Annual Use

DrugsDrugs

Cocaine

•Cost?

$300 per night


snort


High energy, heightened senses

•Typical Users?

Wealthier, cosmopolitan, white

Drugs

Amphetamines (speed): Trends in Annual Use

DrugsDrugs

Amphetamines, Speed

•Cost? $20 (?)

•Mode of transfer? Snort

•Effects on Persons? Alert, hyped

•Typical Users? Partiers and Truck Drivers

ABC News:Need for SpeedDid Amphetamines Play a Role in Afghanistan Friendly Fire Incident? Dec. 20 — Preliminary court-martial proceedings begin next month against two U.S. fighter pilots involved in a tragic incident over Afghanistan that cost four lives and exposed a little-known fact about the way America fights its long-distance air wars.

LSD: Trends in Annual Use

Drugs

DrugsDrugs

LSD

•Cost? $10/hit

•Mode of transfer? Place on tongue

•Effects on Persons? Psychedelic trip

•Typical Users? Music Scene, dropouts

Secret FBI Files On Grateful Dead, Jefferson AirplaneNov. 22 — The ABC7 News I-Team obtained once secret FBI files concerning San Francisco's Summer of Love. The reports show how J. Edgar Hoover and his G-men were very concerned about the effect the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane were having on America's youth. Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick told the I-Team she had no idea the FBI was trailing her and looking into her background, including her private school days at Castilleja High in Palo Alto. The files focused on both bands apparent involvement with LSD, and the potential "Internal Security" threats from the "New Left." One FBI report says that, "LSD originates from San Francisco?through a renowned rock group known as Grateful Dead."

http://www.fbi.gov/

http://www.dead.net/

http://grove.ufl.edu/~number6/Jefferson.Airplane/airplane.html

http://www.starship.pp.se/bio/grace_slick.html

http://www.castilleja.org/

http://www.castilleja.org/

DrugsDrugsHallucinogens other than LSD: Trends in Annual Use

DrugsDrugs

Hallucinogens

•Cost? Free

•Mode of transfer? Tea, Eat

•Effects on Persons? Psychedelic

•Typical Users? Cross-cutting

SgurdSgurd

Heroin: Trends in Annual Use

Drugs

DrugsDrugs

Heroin

•Cost? $20

•Mode of transfer? Sniff, smoke, or inject

•Effects on Persons? Life is mellow and extremely pleasant

•Typical Users? Urban Poor, Hopeless, Entertainers

Drugs

Inhalants: Trends in Annual Use

DrugsDrugs

Inhalants

•Cost? Cheap

•Mode of transfer? Inhale

•Effects on Persons? Loopy

•Typical Users? Youngsters

DrugsDrugs

drugs, man…. drugs recently, has this been you? withdrawn, depressed, tired, and careless about...

Documents