1st Edition

Drugs and Politics

By Paul E. Rock Copyright 1977
    332 Pages
    by Routledge

    333 Pages
    by Routledge

    This collection examines the ambiguous relationship be-tween the politically mute, average drug user and the small number, socially distant from the common user, who started the work of undermining official definitions of drug use. The drug users' identification with the issues of power, freedom, oppression, and libertarianism, triggered by the experience of police and penal regulations, is discussed, as is the influence of the growth in the collective competence of users and the changes in the using population on the shifting image of drugs.

    Introduction 1 Early History of Narcotics Use and Narcotics Legislation in the United States 2 Bureaucracy and Morality: A n Organizational Perspective on a Mora Crusade 3 The Marihuana Ta x Act 4 On Capturing an Opium King: The Politics of Law SikHan's Arrest 5 The Drug Addict as a Folk Devil 6 The Police as Amplifiers of Deviancy 7 Methadone's Rise and Fall 8 The Politics of Drugs 9 Knowledge, Power, and Drug Effects 10 Playing a Gold Game: Phases of a Ghetto Career 11 Street Status and Drug Use 12 Drug Pushers: A Collective Portrait 13 The Culture of Civility 14 Scapegoating Military Addicts: The Helping Hand Strikes Again 15 The Politics of Drugs 16 Cannabis, Alcohol, and the Management of Intoxication 17 Invitational Edges of Corruption: Some Consequences of Narcotic La w Enforcement

    Biography

    Rock, Paul E.