Summary
Contents
How do we understand drug use? How are drugs related to our social worlds? How should drug use be understood, approached and dealt with? Insightful and illuminating, this book successfully discusses drugs in social contexts. In an elegant manner, the authors bring together their different theoretical and practical backgrounds, offering a comprehensive and interdisciplinary introduction that opens up a wide scientific understanding moving beyond cultural myths and presuppositions. Powerful and engaging, this book discusses main questions within the field of psychoactive drugs research, such as: Why do people take drugs? How do we understand moral panics? What is the relationship between drugs and violence? How do people's social positions influence their individual involvement in drug use? This is an invaluable reference source for students on criminology, sociology and social sciences programmes, as well as students and drug service practitioners in social work, social policy and nursing.
Gender, Ethnicity and Social Class
Gender, Ethnicity and Social Class
People's social position influences their involvement in drug use and supply, as well as the broader regulation and policing of drugs. While traditionally women have been less likely than men to both use and supply drugs, this gender gap is narrowing. Regarding ethnicity, different ethnic groups often take their indigenous drug consumption patterns with them when they migrate and those drugs or patterns of use become associated with minority ethnic immigrants and the social problems associated with discrimination, disadvantage and inequality. For minority ethnic nationals within developed countries, they may face disproportionate policing of their involvement in drug use and supply, with resulting social disaffection and political tension. Different patterns of drug use and supply ...
