bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Alcohol and Drug Use and Abuse among Indian-Americans: A Review of Issues and Sources
Authors: Heidenreich C. Adrian
Published: November 2015

There is much concern that alcohol and drug abuse are among the top problems in the United States generally, and also a “high priority” health and social problem among Indians. For that reason, there have been numerous programs of education, prevention, and treatment directed toward and developed in Indian communities. Nevertheless, many personnel at both national and local levels and in both rural and urban areas lack adequate acquaintance with pertinent conceptual issues and sources on alcohol and drug use and abuse among Indians specifically. The purpose of this article is to help remedy that lack by reviewing the range of literature and presenting an overview of some of the major perspectives which should inform any approach to Indian alcohol and drug use and abuse.
Some Reflections on the Evolution of Current American Approaches to Problems of Drug Abuse and to the Treatment of Drug Abusers
Authors: Jaffe Jerome H.
Published: November 2015

In this article the author, who was the first director of the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention, looks at changes during the last decade in American approaches to dealing with problems of drug abuse and the treatment of drug abusers.
Methadone Maintenance in Perspective
Authors: Sells S. B.
Published: November 2015

After ten years since its introduction by Dole and Nyswander methadone maintenance remains a controversial treatment for opiate addiction. In a historically oriented examination of the sources of controversy, changes over time, and evaluation evidence, the present status of methadone maintenance treatment reflects the influence of a complex mixture of pressures and counterpressures in the political, economic, social, law enforcement, and medical domains. Both social control aspects, representing official concern with “the addiction problem,” and medical-rehabilitational aspects are merged in the system that makes methadone available as an experimental drug for maintenance treatment. Evaluation results show that this treatment has overall been highly effective and that in cost benefit terms, even if it were structured to include all of the staff and rehabilitation services required for optimal results, it would still compare favorably with residential, inpatient, and comparable outpatient treatments.
The Utility of Treatment Programme Development Research
Authors: Rosenbaum Paul D.
Published: November 2015

Evaluation research has not often been successful in terms of its ability to bring about changes in agencies concerned with the treatment of alcohol and other drug dependencies. This failure is shown to be in part a product of the historical development of evaluation research and of researchers' traditional relationships to service deliverers. A brief description of a formative approach to evaluation is presented as a way of overcoming these difficulties. An example of agency change is provided.
Ethical Issues in the Testing of New Drugs in Man
Authors: Gardner E. Clinton
Published: November 2015

The following analysis of ethical issues in the testing of new drugs is located in a broader discussion of ethical issues in medical experimentation with human subjects generally. Major ethical principles which have emerged from the recent debate concerning biomedical and behavioral research are examined, special attention being given to the meaning and theological/philosophical basis of the consent requirement. Two models of medical ethics are examined, one beginning with the primacy of the “benefits to society” and the other with the primacy of the subject as person. The development and testing of a vaccine for the prevention of viral hepatitis type B is considered as a test case in the development and testing of a new drug.
The Legislation of Drug Law: Economic Crisis and Social Control
Authors: Morgan Patricia A.
Published: November 2015

This paper uses California's first opium law in 1875 to examine the process of early drug legislation, specifically the political and economic conditions leading up to the passage of the law. We explore the possibility that initial opium prohibition was simply a component of a larger process of social control aimed at securing the isolation of the Chinese in the lower rungs of the labor market. It is suggested that analyses of social control must take into account the interrelationship between economic, political and ideological motivations behind any quest for prohibitive legislation.
A Research Model for a Comprehensive, Health Service Oriented Understanding of Drug Use
Authors: Dembo Richard , LaGrand Louis E.
Published: November 2015

The growing theoretical and methodological sophistication of the drug field is reflected in two major trends: (1) the recognition that drug use needs to be considered in the context of the social and cultural experiences of the people taking them, (2) appreciation that a comprehensive understanding of substance use requires that the use of legal and illicit drugs be studied. These trends imply a number of important issues that should be related to in developing a health service oriented understanding of drug use in any population group. The present paper addresses these issues and highlights the important implications their incorporation into research can have on developing drug abuse prevention and treatment services for different drug using individuals and groups.
An Update on Drug Dependence in the Elderly
Authors: Pascarelli Emil F.
Published: November 2015

The present status of drug abuse patterns among the elderly is complex. As we learn more about drug dependence, stereotyped ideas have given way to the realization that medical, psychiatric, environmental and socioeconomic factors play a major role in the way drugs are perceived and misused by the elderly. While opiates use persists, many elderly are now in methadone treatment programs where the median age continues to rise. Presently the principal drugs of abuse for the aged are in the category of depressants including alcohol. Mixed drug use is particularly hazardous. Hallucinogens, marijuana and stimulants are primarily drugs of the youth culture.
Indulgence, Excess, and Restraint: Perspectives on Consummatory Behavior in Everyday Life
Authors: Herman C. Peter , Kozlowski Lynn T.
Published: November 2015

A regulatory model of consumption is outlined, with an emphasis on upper and lower regulatory limits which govern consumption. We argue that aversive physiological symptoms counteract failure to maintain consumption within regulatory limits, but that consumption within these limits is affected by various situational and cognitive factors. This model is applied to the consumption of food, alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, with particular attention to the distinctive features of regulation that pertain to each. Implications are derived regarding the multiple meanings of “excessive”and “insufficient” consumption in this framework. We also discuss the relative (perceived) contributions of physiological and “personal” mechanisms of regulatory control and ensuing effects of self-perception and attribution. Concluding remarks concern the complexities of multiple substance use.
Controlling Heroin Addict Crime
Authors: Blum Richard H.
Published: November 2015

This article derives and offers conclusions from a literature review coupled with a study of California narcotic police operations over this last year. The bibliography and, perhaps, excerpts from the basic working paper may become available. * Since, at the time of this writing, it appears equally likely that they may not, this article is put forward.
Heroin Maintenance: A Medical View
Authors: Goldstein Avram
Published: November 2015

People who are fed up with crime in the streets think, simplistically, that heroin maintenance will solve the problem. According to the medical view presented here, heroin maintenance will not solve any problem, either for the addict or for society, and it will have predictable adverse consequences. Some problems have no complete solution. Some “solutions” can be worse than the problems they are meant to solve.
Popular and Unpopular Prevention
Authors: Worden Mark
Published: November 2015

Popular prevention, modeled on therapy, involves working with adequate people in life-enhancement activities. In contrast, unpopular prevention is policy-oriented and aims at the social, economic, and political structures contributing to alcohol and drug abuse. Until the policies that reinforce the status quo change, alcohol and drug abuse prevention efforts will be unsuccessful and trivial, and popular prevention will continue to spawn programs that are piecemeal, cosmetic, ineffective, fun, and futile. Before instituting programs, prevention coordinators would do well to re-examine the most damaging and costly forms of drug abuse and raise the questions: do these efforts have anything to do with stabilizing current drug abuse? Will they have any impact on the primary drugs of abuse, alcohol and tobacco? Does the program offer anything substantive to help with problems related to drug-induced nutritional deficiency, industrial chemicals, food additives, OTC concoctions, and ethical pharmaceuticals? Or is the focus on illicit recreational euphoriants? Reviewing these and other burning questions, the author is less than optimistic about the future of prevention.
Sentencing Narcotics Offenders in Great Britain and the United States: A Comparison
Authors: Uelmen Gerald F.
Published: November 2015

While the American Criminal Justice System is certainly harsher on drug users than the British, both appear to single out the seller for harshest treatment, and the divergency between the sentencing of sellers and possessors is significantly greater in Great Britian than in the United States. Sharp differences also occur in Great Britain among the severity of sentences for offenses involving different drugs, a factor which cannot be ascertained with available American data. Finally, both systems are more lenient with young offenders and females, and again with the divergency far more pronounced in Great Britain.
Causal and Dialectical Models of Deviance: The Case of Marijuana Use in the United States
Authors: Faulkner William R. , Krohn Marvin , Mathers Richard A.
Published: November 2015

A historical dialectical model of deviance is presented and contrasted with the empiricist conception of unidirectional causation. This historical model, focusing on the interaction over time between culture or ideology and socially structured reality is used to organize data on marijuana use in America over the past 50 years. It is argued that only a historical model of this sort can adequately account for the changing ideology and reality of deviant phenomena, including the findings of and conclusions drawn from empiricist research.
Alcohol and Drug Control Policies in the Nordic Countries
Authors: Bruun Kettil , Rosenqvist Pia
Published: November 2015

In this paper, control policies refer to governmental strategies aimed at influencing the availability of alcohol and drugs. The Nordic countries have a long tradition of control policy which has also had an impact internationally. Central characteristics of the developement of the control of alcohol, narcotics and psychotropics are described. Attention is paid especially to similarities and differences between the Nordic countries. Denmark differs most from the other Nordic countries and the differences are clearest in alcohol control. In Finland, Norway and Sweden a tendency toward more stringent alcohol control has recently emerged after an era of liberalization in the 50's and 60's. Narcotics policy is characterized by support for existing international agreements regarding criminal-political measures. As to psychotropics, no clear-cut control policy has so far been developed.
Work Factors as Potential Causal Agents of Alcohol Abuse
Authors: Herold David M. , Conlon Edward J.
Published: November 2015

The notion that an individual's work may contribute to alcohol abuse is a central theme in the job-based alcoholism literature. A review of the theoretical formulation and empirical studies on this topic, however, revealed that unequivocal evidence of such linkages is scarce. A variety of methodological problems and the absence of a unifying theory of job-based consumption are blamed for this shortcoming. In an attempt to begin building a causal literature, the methodological problems and some solutions are outlined. In addition, the basis for a theory is presented by proposing three causal pathways: a job requirement pathway, a social influence pathway and a job response pathway. The latter two pathways are discussed in detail and a variety of research areas are outlined.
An Examination of the Impact of Legal Sanctions on Adolescent Marijuana Use a Panel Analysis
Authors: Burkett Steven R. , Hickman Carol A.
Published: November 2015

This study examines the impact of appearance in juvenile court on perceptions of self, associations with peers who use marijuana, beliefs that the law is morally binding on oneself, and fear of legal sanctions for the use of marijuana, and subsequent self-reported marijuana use. A basic model specifying relationships among these variables is derived from both labeling theory and the deterrence approach. Findings from panel data collected at, two points in time from high school students (n=378), and data from juvenile court records provide not support for the hypothesis of specific deterrence and only marginal support for labeling theory. Additional findings point to the group nature of marijuana use and indicate that with the group context the potential impact of appearance in juvenile court is largely negated. Finally, no support is found for the hypothesis that the fear of legal sanctions is an effective deterrent to use. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.
Lifetime Criminality of Heroin Addicts in the United States
Authors: Ball John C. , Rosen Lawrence , Flueck John A. , Nurco David N.
Published: November 2015

A probability-based sample of 243 addicts was selected for study from a Baltimore population of 4,069 male opiate addicts. The sample was interviewed and their criminal history was traced in detail over an 11 year risk period during which they were “on the street”. It was found that these 243 heroin addicts had committed more than 473,000 crimes. As measured by crime-days, the average addict committed over 178 offenses per year and almost 2,000 offenses during his post-onset lifetime. Although the predominant offense committed was theft (as with most populations of criminals), these addicts were also involved in a wide range of other crimes: drug sales, robbery, forgery, pimping, assault, and murder. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the impact of arrest and incarceration upon the lifetime criminality of these addicts.

These research results provide a means for estimating the extent of criminality among heroin addicts throughout the United States. Our calculations indicate that the 450,000 heroin addicts in the United States commit more than 50,000,000 crimes per year and that their lifetime criminality exceeds 819,000,000 offenses.
The Need to Drink “too Much”
Authors: Straus Robert
Published: November 2015

Factors associated with the need to drink too much alcohol are considered within a biobehavioral frame of reference. The determination of how much is too much is traced to the nteraction of factors that include the nature of alcohol, biological variations in individual responses to alcohol, psychological processes, socio-cultural norms, medical advances affecting the average life span and the perception of alcohol's potential benefits and harms, and major societal and technological changes affecting the liabilities of intoxication. The concept of social dependency is suggested as a way of explaining persistent needs to drink excessively that originate outside the individual and are not impelled by physiological or psychological dependence.
Family Therapy with Adolescent Drug Abusers and Their Families: Defying Gravity and Achieving Escape Velocity
Authors: Reilly Dennis M.
Published: November 2015

Adolescent drug abuse is a symptom of family system dysfunction. It reflects a defect in the normal family “launch sequence,” by which the adolescent is prepared for gradual disengagement and separation from the family of origin. Malfunctioning patterns of interaction characteristic of families of drug abusers are described, as is the central role played by impaired mourning and impacted grief. Family therapy is recommended as the treatment of choice in preparing the youthful drug abuser to resume the launch sequence and achieve successful separation and individuation from his or her family.
Regulation of Opiates
Authors: Lauderdale Pat , Inverarity James
Published: November 2015

This paper examines the creation of a social problem from behavior previously viewed as within the province of individual preference to the reconceptualization of that behavior as necessitating legal proscription. From a commodity sold in the competitive market, opiates became defined as a social problem ostensibly requiring the most extreme criminal sanctions. While interest groups played a decisive role in the creation of opiate legislation, the actions of such groups can be explicated only through reference to the social context, namely, a social structure characterized by an increasingly regulated international and national economy, the rationalization of bureaucratic agencies, and the expansion of formal, rational legal procedures. The analysis provides new insight into the unintended consequences of drug regulation.
The Effects of Community Type on the Use and Availability of Marijuana among Illinois Adults
Authors: Bell Ralph
Published: November 2015

Previous research on adult marijuana use shows that younger adults, males, unmarried persons, and adults with higher education have the highest usage rates. National studies on adult drug use, furthermore, report that marijuana use is highest in large metropolitan areas. As Fischer (1976) points out, however, younger, unmarried, better educated adults tend to live in large urban centers. Thus, the effects of living in large cities on marijuana use may be an artifact of the demographic composition of large urban areas as suggested by proponents of the compositionalist theory of urban behavior (Fischer, 1976). Using data from a statewide survey of Illinois adults, the effects of community type on ever use, current use, and the availability of marijuana are examined. Logistic multiple regression analyses are used to examine the effects of community type on these use and availability variables after controlling the effects of the socio-demographic characteristics of the adults. The results lend support to Fischer's (1975; 1976) subcultural theory of behavior for both the use and the availability of marijuana.
Drinking in the Mass Media: A Nine-Year Project
Authors: Breed Warren , De Foe James R. , Wallack Lawrence
Published: November 2015

A nine-year study involved content analyses of five types of national media. Using stratified random samples, television, magazines, daily newspapers, college newspapers, and comic books were studied. Emphasis was placed on drinking patterns as well as on quantitative frequency and distribution measures. Alcohol appearances took a variety of forms. Depictions and discussions of alcoholism were infrequent; more common were alcohol appearances as unplanned and “taken for granted.” Many appearances were minor. Frequency was considerable; however, in television series, use of alcohol was more frequent than use of coffee, tea, soft drinks and water combined. Each medium had its own manner of presentation. Using a process called “cooperative consultation” intervention with media personnel to change alcohol-relevant materials was shown to be possible.
Sin or Solace? Religious Views on Alcohol and Alcoholism
Authors: Royce James E.
Published: November 2015

The Bible condemns drunkenness as evil, yet praises wine as a gift from God. The concept of alcoholism as a disease is of much later origin, and has moral implications on which the churches have varied opinions. Islam forbids alcohol, but Moslem scholars are divided on how much is actually consumed by its followers. Mormons and fundamentalist Protestants are in the same dilemma. The Jews and European Christianity developed viniculture while forbidding drunkenness; American denominations agree on the latter, but differ widely and even vehemently on whether drinking itself is wrong. The W.C.T.U. and other movements which led to Prohibition in the U.S. confused abstinence with temperance, creating a false dichotomy between total abstinence and drunkenness which actually negated the concept of temperance. Both Alcoholics Anonymous and various current religious approaches exemplify a rapprochement between theism and the disease model.
Social Thought, Cultural Belief and Alcohol
Authors: Marshall Mac
Published: November 2015

American conventional wisdom about the effects of ethanol beverages on drinkers is discussed. It is argued that “rediscovery” of the disease model of alcoholism has coincided with the public “ownership” of alcohol-related problems by physicians. The role medical practitioners have played in establishing and upholding American beliefs about alcohol is discussed, and it is noted that this has prevented other points of view from gaining public attention. This is lamentable since many of the “scientific beliefs” that underlie the medical model do not stand up to scrutiny when the cross-cultural record is examined. The importance of considering psychosocial and cultural factors along with biophysical and medical variables in achieving a complete understanding of the relationship between human beings and alcohol is emphasized.
Reflections of Social Thought in Research on Women and Alcoholism
Authors: Clemmons Penny
Published: November 2015

The author posits the notion that research on alcoholism and women in the last five decades is a reflection of social thought and that these reflections change according to the social context in which they occur. The author traces the historical evolution of alcoholism research as it applies to women and uses a phenomenological method to identify specific themes in the literature. These themes are discussed as reflectors of social thought in different historical periods; the significance of the social context of these periods is also considered. Identification of these themes provides one means of addressing the relationship between research on women and alcoholism and social thought. Applications to research, prevention, and treatment are discussed.
Trends in Drug Use in Norway
Authors: Hauge Ragnar
Published: November 2015

The extent of drug problems, especially among young people, is a heated topic in the public debate in Norway. Two points of view oppose each other. Some maintain, on the basis of data from the criminal statistics, that drug problems are increasing; others, on the basis of data from survey studies, maintain that they are not. Both parties may, however, be right. The data seem to indicate that there no longer is any increase in the recruitment of new users, but since drug use is a recent phenomenon, the number of older users who continue their drug use in adult age is increasing. Since these users are a group with serious personal and social problems, drug problems in Norway can be said to be increasing.
Why Did They Leave the Drug Scene? A follow-up Study of 100 Drug Abusers Treated in a Therapeutic Community Ward
Authors: Vaglum Per
Published: November 2015

One hundred young drug abusers who were treated in a therapeutic community ward of the Henderson type were followed an average of 4–5 years. Forty-four percent were completely abstinent from drugs in the last year. Compared to the non-abstinent group, they had milder drug abuse at admittance, were more rarely criminals, alloplastic or having reality testing deficits, and more often carried an image of a divided family. During therapy, they more frequently gave up their membership in the drug culture, and more often improved their education and/or occupational competence and their relationship to parents. At follow-up, they attributed their successful abstinence to both individual and situational factors, the latter mostly to different kinds of close relationships. Those who attributed some help to therapy, had more frequently established a non-ambivalent relationship to spouses or fiancés. The process out of drug abuse in therapy was characterized by several stages: reality confrontation and disclosure, passive subjection to treatment, attachment, alterations of identity and development of social skills.
The Course of Drug Dependence Related to a Theory of Guilt Awareness and Guilt Feeling
Authors: Heitun Odd Gunnar
Published: November 2015

This paper presents a conceptual model for the understanding of drug abuse or drug dependence in youngsters. In this theory drug abuse in interpreted as a reaction to guilt awareness (guilt consciousness) and guilt feeling, defined thusly: Guilt awareness (guilt consciousness) is the emotion a man experiences when he believes that he is guilty, whether this is true or not. Guilt feeling is the emotion a man experiences when he believes that he lacks some of his human dignity or some of his humanity. The conceptual model is presented in an abbreviated fashion and with special emphasis on the course of drug dependence. It is illustrated by some clinical examples and is discussed in relation to some literature.
Evaluating the Alternative: A follow-up Study of Two Different Farming Communes
Authors: Waal Helge
Published: November 2015

The paper describes the methodology used to evaluate two farming communes for young drug addicts. The communes were founded in 1970 by ex-patients and young idealists who believed in alternative ways of solving human problems.

The period evaluated was from. 1970–1975. Employees and former members were interviewed in 1977 and 1978. The clients had a follow-up period of 8 to 105 months with a mean period of 55 months.

The two seemingly identical communes differed widely in content. Situational factors and pre-project circumstances were decisive factors. Client members in both communes provided convincing evidence of having experienced real alternatives to institutional life. Process evaluation leads to several conclusions concerning the conditions necessary for such alternatives to be effective.

At follow-up the communes differed in their resultant profiles. One commune was more successful with youngsters who were mainly abusing cannabis and hallucinogens. The other was more successful with “mainliners.” Both communes were found to compete favorably with ordinary treatment facilities.

Some tentative conclusions are offered.
Methodological and Substantive Issues Involved in Using the Concept of Risk in Research into the Etiology of Drug Use among Adolescents
Authors: Dembo Richard , Blount William R. , Schmeidler James , Burgos William
Published: November 2015

The present paper reviews the various sets of variables that have been found to relate to youths' drug use. It considers various experiences, deriving from our accumulated knowledge, which need to be incorporated into research into the etiology of drug use, and discusses methodological strategies and models of analysis which show promise of improving the state of the art in this field. Documentation is provided concerning the usefulness of screening subsets of cases on relevant risk variables prior to data analysis.
Early Precursors and Concurrent Correlates of Patterns of Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence
Authors: Simcha-Fagan Ora , Gersten Joanne C. , Langner Thomas S.
Published: November 2015

This study examines social, familial and child behavior antecedents of adolescent illicit drug use. The sample studied is a subsample of a follow-up sample of Manhattan children, whose mothers were interviewed at two points in time, with a 5 year interval. The subsample constitutes those study children age 14 to 22 at Time II, who were interviewed directly 6 months following the second interview with the mother. The findings indicate that early predictors have a significant and substantial influence on later illicit drug use. Importantly, differential patterns of illicit drug use exhibit relatively distinct antecedents. The use of marijuana-only is related to socioeconomic background and early child behaviors; the use of drugs other than marijuana is related to parental-marital behaviors, the quality of the bond between parents and children and early adjustment problems (with peers and at home); heroin use is strongly associated with parental-marital behaviors indicative of familial disorganization and parental antisocial behaviors.
Effect on Traffic Safety of Lowering the Drinking Age in Three Australian States
Authors: Smith D. Ian , Burvill Peter W.
Published: November 2015

Lowering of the drinking age in three Australian States was found to adversely affect traffic safety. In the case of the South Australian reduction from 20 to 18 years the significant increase in the number of male drivers and motorcyclists injured still existed four to six years later. For Western Australia and Queensland different results were obtained for the metropolitan and Rest-of-State areas. A highly significant increase in drink-driving enforcement activity in Queensland was not able to contain the adverse effect on traffic safety of increasing the availability of alcoholic beverages.
Coercion and Treatment
Authors: Luger Milton
Published: November 2015

Most practitioners in the field of drug treatment believe a person cannot be rehabilitated unless he or she wishes to be. Coercion, they state, could never lead to the incorporation of the personal insights and understandings required to check substance abuse. The author postulates that there is a role for early intervention, based upon coercion, to interrupt self-destructive conduct and set the stage for later treatment.
Women and Alcohol Research: A Review of Current Literature
Authors: Taylor Mary E. , St. Pierre Suzanne
Published: November 2015

The changes in women's drinking patterns over the past few decades have attracted the attention of researchers and funding agencies. The result has been a multitude of research projects exploring different aspects of women's alcohol consumption, alcohol misuse, and alcohol abuse. This review includes selected current studies on women's drinking patterns, alcohol surveys, alcoholism, polydrug use, alcohol and pregnancy, treatment programs, and women in the workplace. A discussion of related research concerns is followed by recommendations for improving the data base on women and alcohol consumption.
Alcohol Problem Prevention: A “Common Sense” Approach
Authors: Bacon Selden D.
Published: November 2015

In view of the low likelihood of the acceptance of the social science approach to alcohol problems proposed several years ago, a “common sense” approach is suggested as an alternative. Several assumptions guide this proposal, the principal one being the absence of any significant progress in the reduction of alcohol problems in the United States over the past 200 years. By the development of a common vocabulary and direct methods of observation and data collection, the “common sense” approach would provide for identifying the strengths of the multitude of past and current efforts in dealing with alcohol problems in terms of both intervention and prevention. The guiding criterion in such an approach would be the impact on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems, the definition of which would be a major task of the research.
Alcohol and Minority Youth
Authors: Wright Roosevelt , Watts Thomas D.
Published: November 2015

This article discusses alcohol and minority youth, and introduces this special issue of the Journal of Drug Issues. Minority youth who use (or abuse) alcohol in American society deal with three realities: using “alcohol,” being “minority,” and being young (“youth”). All three dimensions are viewed by the larger society with mixed—sometimes hostile, sometimes fearful—reactions. With minority youth we see the disproportionate occurrence of rapid population growth, poverty, school dropouts, criminal justice system clients, and social welfare system clients. We cannot examine alcoholism among minority youth without seriously coming to grips with poverty, education, and life condition. More and better research and theoretical models are needed that help us to understand and confront this problem.
The Symbolic Power of the Modern Personal Physician: The Placebo Response under Challenge
Authors: Brody Howard
Published: November 2015

The change in a patient's condition that results from the meaning or symbolism of the encounter with the physician, rather than from the pharmacologic properties of the interventions used, constitutes the placebo response. Placebo research suggests that the placebo response forms a part of virtually all healing encounters, and is not limited to circumstances in which a “dummy” pill is used. This suggests, in turn, that the placebo effect has been important in medicine throughout history, and that the modern physician has important elements in common with her “pre-scientific” predecessors. Historical analysis of the meaning of the healing encounter for physician and patient suggests that the personal physician, as symbolizing a human intermediary between the impersonal forces of science and the suffering patient, remains an important ingredient even in modern technological medicine. Contemporary forces toward depersonalization of medical care may threaten this dimension of treatment, but appropriate research may measure those elements of the physician encounter that most effectively promote a positive placebo response.
The Role of Drug Therapy in Alternative Healing Systems
Authors: Clouse Edward H.
Published: November 2015

In the course of American history there have been many varieties of “alternative” medical practice. They include folk medicine, domestic medicine, drugstore medicine, faith healing, mesmerism, and quackery, as well as more coherent systems such as physicomedical, herbal, botanic, reformed, eclectic, hydropathic, chronothermal, chiropractic, osteopathic, homeopathic, and naturopathic medicine. This paper discusses the development and current status of the art of chiropractic, as well as the medical philosophies of osteopathy, homeopathy, and naturopathy. Particular attention is focused on how the use of drugs and drug therapy is viewed by advocates of these alternative medical practices. Their demonstrated concern for the patient as a whole and their relationship to the holistic health movement is also considered.
The Influence of Literary and Philosophical Accounts on Drug Taking
Authors: Montagne Michael
Published: November 2015

Literary and philosophical accounts of drug experiences and addiction have a long history and tradition. Such writings have been important in describing certain types of experiences, directing the use of specific drugs, and even structuring an ideology of use which reflects a larger philosophy of life. This literature has been used by the medical community as a source of therapeutic information about drugs, and by drug subcultures as guidebooks to drug experiences and in giving some meaning to those experiences. The past few decades have seen renewed interest in the drug literature from centuries past; much of it has been collected into anthologies or completely reprinted. Strategies to provide useful and relatively objective literature might improve users' knowledge of drugs, but it may not encourage more appropriate drug use nor prevent drug use problems. More studies are needed to delineate the nature and meaning of relationships between drug literature and society.
Fighting for Fees-Drug Trafficking and the Forfeiture of Attorney's Fees
Authors: Dombrink John , Meeker James W. , Paik Julie
Published: November 2015

In the past two years since the passage of 1984 amendments as part of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, government prosecutors have included defense counsel fees as forfeitable assets stemming from drug trafficking and organized crime prosecutions. This development has been described by affected defense counsel as having an “arctic” effect upon their relationships with clients, as an abridgement of Sixth Amendment right to counsel, and as a deterrent to effective lawyering in this field. Prosecutors, on the contrary, have argued that a person can neither purchase a Rolls Royce nor a “Rolls Royce class of attorney” with proceeds of criminality.

This paper delineates the issues in this debate, and their genesis, as articulated injudicial opinions; interviews with prosecutors and leading defense attorneys in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City; published articles; and transcripts of hearings held by bar associations. In addition to the fees issue, similar controversial issues, such as grand jury subpoenas of attorneys and cash reporting requirements placed on attorneys, are addressed. Particular attention is paid to the increased adversariness in this stratum of the criminal justice system, and to the impact these developments have and will have on the quality of justice in major drug trafficking and organized crime cases.
Compulsory Treatment in New York: A Brief Narrative History of Misjudgment, Mismanagement, and Misrepresentation
Authors: Inciardi James A.
Published: November 2015

The theory of civil commitment holds that while some drug users are motivated for treatment, most are not. For these, there must be some lever for diverting them into treatment. The New York experience with compulsory treatment is especially interesting, and much of what happened was never reported in the literature. The New York Parole Project was deemed a success, but for a variety of reasons the data on which the Program was evaluated were tainted. New York's Narcotic Addiction Control Commission (NACC), reportedly the largest and costliest civil commitment program in history was doomed to failure from its inception because of mismanagement and misrepresentation. First, it was founded, in part, on biased research findings. Second, its treatment facilities were former prisons having general environments that were unconducive to behavioral change. Third, treatment facility directors were for the most part political appointees with little or no administrative and/or clinical experience. Fourth, NACC's aftercare program was incapable of influencing or controlling the behavior of its charges. Finally, NACC lost public support through a number of Watergate-like coverups.
Drugs, Gender and Ethnicity: Is the Older Minority Woman at Risk?
Authors: Kail Barbara Lynn
Published: November 2015

Our knowledge of drug misuse by older women of color is very limited. This introductory article attempts to provide some background for the following chapters and an integrated overview of the issue as a whole. The reader is provided with a discussion of ethnicity and some data describing the experiences of ethnic women of color. Then the scope of the problem of drug misuse in considered. Finally the role of professionals and non-professionals in prevention and treatment is explored, followed by policy considerations.
The Distressed or Impaired Professional: From Retribution to Rehabilitation
Authors: McCrady Barbara S.
Published: November 2015

In the last twenty years, it has been recognized that professionals may have alcohol, other drug, emotional, marital, family or physical problems that impair their ability to practice their profession. This article traces the history of programs for impaired and distressed professionals; reviews types of program models; describes the New Jersey Impaired Dentists Program as an example of an impaired professionals program; and reviews literature on the effectiveness of treatment for impaired professionals.
Inside EAPs: View from the New York State Thruway
Authors: Hathaway Barbara L. , Mason Susan A. , Sonnenstuhl William J.
Published: November 2015

Article discusses the implementation of a qualitative field research project: a study of socialization processes of New York State employee assistance workers. Field techniques are described, including training to conduct in-depth research interviews; locating members of a systematic sample; administering the research instrument; and adapting to the inherent uncertainties of field research.
Wine and Male Physical Aggression
Authors: Gustafson Roland
Published: November 2015

Twenty male undergraduates were randomly assigned either to a wine-drinking group or a control group. The alcohol dose was 0.8 ml. of pure alcohol/kg. body weight. They were tested for physical aggression in a modified version of the Buss' “aggression machine.” All subjects were tested under frustrating and non-frustrating conditions. Alcohol did not increase aggression under any of these conditions although the paradigm produces increased aggression when vodka is used as an intoxicant. The results were discussed in terms of differential expectancies tied to different types of beverages.
The Implementation of an Experimental Research Design in the Evaluation of an Intervention to Prevent AIDS among IV Drug Users
Authors: McCoy Clyde B. , Chitwood Dale D. , Khoury Elizabeth L. , Miles Christine E.
Published: November 2015

A demonstration project, currently in progress in Miami, is using an experimental research design to evaluate an AIDS intervention program among IV drug users and the sexual partners of IV drug users. At the time of the initial assessment, which includes a blood test to determine HIV serostatus and an extensive interview, study participants are randomized into either a standard or an enhanced intervention protocol. The enhanced intervention group receives more intensive counseling including individual as well as group sessions. Follow-up assessments of both groups are made at six-month intervals. The before/after comparisons will assess whether frequency of risk behaviors have changed and whether observed changes are greater in the enhanced group than the standard group. Randomization to two alternative intervention groups allows for the control of many potential biases that plague other types of before/after research designs.
Cross-Cultural and Cognitive Factors Examined in Groups of Adolescent Drinkers
Authors: Brannock JoAnn C. , Schandler Steven L. , Oncley Philip R.
Published: November 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between ethnicity, cognitive level, gender, drug use, and adolescent alcohol abuse. A sample of 194 white, black and Hispanic students from two high schools and one college participated in the study. The results indicated that whites report drinking more often; using alcohol more often to relieve tension; and experiencing more peer influence to drink than blacks or Hispanics. There was a significant correlation between cognitive development and degree of alcohol abuse for females, but not for males. There was no difference between high school seniors and college freshmen on drinking behavior or drinking due to stress, but there were differences between these students and high school freshmen. Peer pressure to drink was significantly greater for high school seniors than for college freshmen. While this study was exploratory, the findings offer plausible and potentially useful contributions to identifying and treating the adolescent drinker.
Validating and Improving the Validity of Self-Reports in Adolescent Substance Misuse Surveys
Authors: Swadi Harith
Published: November 2015

Self-reports continue to be the most widely used method of data gathering in adolescent substance misuse surveys. This paper addresses the issue of validity and reliability of the data gathered using this method. The sources of error are discussed and the process of validating responses are illustrated using data obtained through our survey. Some suggestions are made to improve the validity of responses both in the planning and in the execution phases of surveys.
Coca and Cocaine: Their Role in “Traditional” Cultures in South America
Authors: Henman Anthony R.
Published: November 2015

This article examines alternatives to the War on Drugs through a comparative analysis of attitudes toward coca and cocaine in South America. Two regions of traditional coca use and cultivation — northwest Amazonas state in Brazil and the department of Cusco in Peru — are compared to highlight the differences between Peruvian and Brazilian attitudes toward coca and ethnic identity. Formulations based on a rigid dichotomy between “good” coca and “bad” cocaine are shown to confuse morality with purely practical considerations. Rather than a simple distinction between substances, the experience of indigenous drug users in South America points toward greater understanding of the importance of cultural values in controlling any kind of drug consumption, and recognition of the long-term effectiveness of “user-friendly” strategies of prevention.
Volume of Cocaine Use and Violence: A Comparison between Men and Women
Authors: Goldstein Paul J. , Bellucci Patricia A. , Spunt Barry J. , Miller Thomas
Published: November 2015

This paper examines the cocaine-violence relationship among samples of male and female street drug users using volume of cocaine use as the primary independent variable. Data derive from two ethnographic studies undertaken on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Subjects were studied as both perpetrators and victims of violence. The research was guided by a tripartite conceptual model of the general relationship between drugs and violence. A number of significant differences between males and females are identified and discussed. These findings, together with those of a previous analysis of the relationship between frequency of cocaine use and violence, provide evidence of the complexity of the drugs-violence relationship in general, and cocaine-violence relationships specifically.
The New War on Drugs: Grass Roots Movement or Political Construction?
Authors: Jensen Eric L. , Gerber Jurg , Babcock Ginna M.
Published: November 2015

The 1986 War on Drugs is analyzed from the perspective of the constructionist approach to social problems. Using the model developed by Mauss, and relying on self-report data on drug use, we argue that the objective conditions of drug use cannot explain why drugs became an issue immediately prior to the 1986 elections. Instead, explanations for the rise of drugs as a social problem are to be found primarily in the political realm. Politicians looking for a “safe” election issue took advantage of a general public concern about drug abuse by promoting drugs as a social problem. Theoretical implications for Mauss's approach are explored in a concluding section. Specifically, this model needs to be revised to allow for a more active involvement of state officials in the process of claims making.
The Alive Study: A Longitudinal Study of HIV-1 Infection in Intravenous Drug Users: Description of Methods
Authors: Vlahov David , Anthony James C. , Muñoz Alvaro , Margolick Joseph , Nelson Kenrad E. , Celentano David D. , Solomon Liza , Polk B. Frank
Published: November 2015

To identify risk factors for infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and for progression to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) among intravenous drug users, we established a cohort in Baltimore Maryland in 1988–1989. Intravenous drug users were recruited by extensive community outreach to undergo interview and confidential HIV testing in a special study site. During 13 months of recruitment, 2,921 intravenous drug users were enrolled of whome 24 percent were HIV seropositive; 90 percent returned to receive test results. Methodological issues for enhancing recruitment and retention of drug users are discussed.