Learning Objectives

  • Discuss drug use as a social problem.
  • Describe the problems of drug dependence.
  • Relate patterns of drug use to the life course, gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
  • Apply the functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and conflict perspectives to social policy on drug use.
  • Apply specialized theories  to the social problems of  drug use.
  • Identify steps toward social change on drugs.