The focus of this course will be on the social reality of drug use and abuse within contemporary society. It will include a historical analysis of the social construction of drug use, drug users, abuse, and addiction, and will examine the social, legal and political responses to illicit and licit drug use, with emphasis on the Jamaican society. Special attention will be given to the complex history surrounding drug use, and the link between drugs and crime in Jamaica. It will benefit students to examine domestic and international debates on the current 'war against drugs'. Central concepts such as social learning, labeling, power, and inequality, as well as sociocultural definitions of drugs, behavior, and the people who are impacted by drug abuse will be the tools of our analysis.

At the end of this course students should be able to: 

• Be able to explain and critique the social construction of 'the drug problem'
• Be able to explain patterns of drug use and abuse across a variety of historical, cultural, national and international settings;
• Understand the production and trafficking of the different types of drugs, and unravel the drugs-crime connection.
• Analyze the impact of drug trafficking and abuse of drugs on Jamaican society and criminal justice system.
• Analyze the theoretical perspectives on drug use and abuse.
• Understand the mysteries and miseries of intoxication and addiction.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of various methods of drug control policy.
• Describe how the various components of the criminal justice system handle drug offenders from arrest to court disposition.
• Analyze the successes and failures of the war on drugs.