SOC 203 Week 3 Discussion 1

Week 3 - Discussion

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

The Changing   Face of the War on Drugs in the U.S.

Drug abuse has been defined as a significant social problem. This discussion provides an opportunity to examine this problem as well as the ways in which our reliance on punishment as a solution to drug abuse has changed over the years, given the different populations now impacted by the problem.
 

For this discussion, review the following resources:

• Race, poverty and      punishment: The impact of criminal sanctions on racial, ethnic, and      socioeconomic inequality (Links to an external site.)
• Opiate Addiction:      Sociologists Construct Distinct Profiles For Heroin And Prescription      Painkiller Users (Links to an external site.)
• War on Drugs Failure      Gives Way To Treatment in States, Cities (Links to an external site.)
• Race, poverty and punishment:      The impact of criminal sanctions on racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic      inequality
• When Addiction has a      White Face (Links to an external site.)
• Recommended: Chasing      Heroin (Links to an external site.) (for transcript click      here (Links to an external site.))

After reviewing the required resources for this discussion, please address each of the following:

1. How has the issue of drug      addiction and the ‘war on drugs’ changed over the past 20 years?  In      particular, how have the populations impacted by drugs changed?
2. Is drug addiction treated as a      crime or as a medical issue in our society?  In your informed      opinion, which should it be?  Defend your answer using the resources      provided.
3. In your informed opinion, what      do you think is the best course of action to address the drug addiction      epidemic in the U.S.?  Should it differ by which drug is being      abused?  Should it differ by the population using the drugs?
4. Drug addiction is increasingly      impacting whites, women, and middle/upper class people.  How have      these changes impacted the social construction of drug addiction in our      society?  In other words, how have these changes impacted the ways in      which drug abuse is or is not criminalized and how it is treated by the      criminal justice system?

Your initial post should be at least 500 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7. Several topics are possible in this discussion, with some of you focusing on the first points while others are more interested in topics listed later in the list.