bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Relationship between Physical Abuse, Sexual Victimization, and Adolescent Illicit Drug Use
Authors: PÉrez Deanna M.
Published: November 2015

Researchers have typically relied on clinically or legally involved persons to assess the influence of childhood maltreatment on illicit drug use, limiting the generalizability of findings. A few studies have sampled from the general population to explore this relationship, although these studies tended to focus on a particular type of maltreatment (sexual assault vs. physical abuse vs. neglect). The present study attempted to elucidate the role of various measures of maltreatment, namely sexual victimization, physical abuse, and the co-occurrence of both types of abuse, in adolescent illicit drug use and age of onset of drug use. Using a sample of Mexican-American and non-Hispanic White adolescents, the current research addressed (1) whether the three measures of abuse were related to self-reported measures of illicit drug use, (2) the relative effects of the three measures of abuse on illicit drug use, and (3) whether, among drug users, the three measures of abuse were related to self-reported age of onset of illicit drug use. Findings indicated that physical abuse and sexual victimization, as well as the co-occurrence of both, were significantly associated with frequency of various types of illicit drug use, but that among drug users, no measure was a particularly robust predictor of mean age of onset of drug use. Results also suggested that physical abuse was generally more strongly related to illicit drug use than sexual victimization or the co-occurrence of both. implications of these findings for future research are discussed.
Women and Drug Treatment Experiences: A Generational Comparison of Mothers and Daughters
Authors: Sterk Claire E. , Elifson Kirk W. , Theall Katherine
Published: November 2015

Drug use and treatment frequently are investigated from an individual perspective. In this paper, we focus on the perceptions of drug treatment among women in 48 mother/adult daughter dyads. Two-thirds of the women were crack cocaine users and they all were part of a larger study on intergenerational drug use. The women were recruited using targeted sampling, followed by theoretical sampling. In the tradition of feminist research, data collection primarily involved open-ended interviews, following a life course perspective. Data analyses involved the constant comparison method of the grounded theory process. A popular assumption is that women enter drug treatment because they are ordered by the court to do so. Overall, the mothers emphasized internal factors as most salient. Another theme in the women's stories was the perceived barriers to entering drug treatment. A better understanding of the internal and external factors regarding drug treatment decisions will assist us in clarifying treatment readiness. The women also made suggestions for more holistic and women-focused drug treatment.
Race/Ethnic Differences in the Sequences of Drugs Used by Women
Authors: Young Vernetta D. , Harrison Roderick
Published: November 2015

This study focuses on race-specific gender differences in the use of drugs. Data were obtained from the 1995 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA). The analysis examined race-specific gender differences in the ages of onset of drug use, the specific class of drug used first, and the pairs of drugs that groups report using. The analysis also was used to partially test whether the best fitting model that Kandel and associates found for female subjects in their sample also held in this cross-sectional sample and if the same model held across race-specific female groups. Data reveal that the average age of first use of specific drugs and the pair-wise comparisons of the age of initiation for the five classes of drugs differ by race/ethnicity. These data also reveal that the pathways of involvement in drugs presented by Kandel and associates, Model 1, with both alcohol and cigarettes preceding marijuana, was the best fitting model. The data further indicated that Model 1 remained the best fitting across race-ethnic groups but repeatedly classified fewer women than Model 2.
Coverage, Sample Design, and Weighting in Three Federal Surveys
Authors: Cowan Charles D.
Published: November 2015

Three surveys are reviewed, each designed for a different purpose and each covering a different population. This paper addresses the issues of coverage, sample design, and weighting In three national surveys: Monitoring the Future (MTF), the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Philosophically, the three studies are very different, since they take very different approaches to the problem of measurement. Two of these surveys use samples of schools while the other survey (NHSDA) is a survey of households. NHSDA Is also aimed at the entire population, whereas the two school based surveys deal only with teens. YRBS has both a national sample base and separate samples/studies for states and local areas. This review deals only with issues related to estimates for the teenage population that is targeted by the three surveys, and only for the nationally based samples. Subnational estimates are considered as part of this review.
The Co-Ingestion of Nonmedical Prescription Drugs and Alcohol: A Partial Test of Social Learning Theory
Authors: Steele Jennifer L. , Peralta Robert L. , Elman Cheryl
Published: November 2015

Over the last decade, scholars have examined simultaneous polydrug use among illicit drug users; however, the co-ingestion of nonmedical prescription drug (NMPD) use and alcohol has been largely overlooked. Also overlooked have been the incorporation and testing of theoretical explanations for this type of substance use behavior. In the current paper, we test social learning theory as an explanation for NMPD use and the co-ingestion of nonmedical prescription drugs and alcohol on a Midwest university sample using a bivariate probit equation model. Support is found for the influence of differential association, social reinforcement, and definitions of use on the co-ingestion of NMPDs and alcohol.
The Professionalization of Drug Abuse Treatment
Authors: Bromley Jess W.
Published: November 2015

This article attempts to review the role of the physician in the area of drug abuse treatment and suggests that part of the treatment should be offered to the drug addict in a medical model familiar to him — the physician's office. Physicians and citizens, alike, have responded far too long to the myths that characterize the heroin addict as a degenerate sociopath and that only paraprofessional former heroin addicts, coming out of the drug milieu, are capable of relating to or helping drug addicts in their rehabilitation. Physicians are quite capable of rendering professional care to the patient who abuses substances, but our nation's heritage of inhibitory drug abuse treatment legislation has kept the physician's hands tied in this area, and recent changes in legislation have only begun to untie that knot.
Why Worry if the Whole Game is Up? Perspectives on Drug Education
Authors: Krippner Stanley
Published: November 2015

A survey of drug education programs indicates that many of them have severe shortcomings. Twelve suggestions are given for improving these programs: student participation, effective use of school personnel, avoiding inconsistent presentations, differentiating experimental from illicit use of LSD-type drugs when discussing the dangers, avoiding an appeal to fear or guilt, facilitating communication, keeping faith with the students, encouraging dissenting students to work within the legal structure to change the marijuana laws, respecting experiential reports, avoiding hypocrisy, organizing scientific or therapeutic research programs, and paying attention to the larger social context.
Drug Advertising and the “Pain, Pill, Pleasure” Model
Authors: Berger Arthur Asa
Published: November 2015

Dr. Berger comments upon the social forces within our society promoting the use of drugs. He sees the promotional advertising of over-the-counter drugs in television and in other media as contributing dramatically to what he refers to as the “pain-pill-pleasure” syndrome. Arguing that the drug manufacturers should reassess their social responsibility to society, he believes that there should be a restructuring and redirection of current advertising practices.
The Role of the Federal Trade Commission in Regulating Over-the-Counter Drug Advertising
Authors: Donegan Thomas J.
Published: November 2015

Mr. Donegan's presentation touches upon some of the legislative and administrative problems facing the FTC in reviewing unfair practices in drug advertising. The FTC's primary concern is with the truthfulness of advertising practices and is now requiring substantiation of drug claims. Mr. Donegan sees a move in the direction of reviewing the possible relations between drug advertising and drug abuse. He actively encourages empirical research to substantiate this charge.
Dangerous New Attacks on Methadone Maintenance
Authors: Primm Beny J.
Published: November 2015

Methadone maintenance as a treatment modality is under new forms of attack, both directly and indirectly, primarily by public and press. These are in addition to earlier attacks, largely on the ground that methadone is itself addicting, an argument still used by its opponents, particularly by those who espouse the ideology of the drug-free therapeutic community. The new attacks concentrate on methadone maintenance abuses, but usually fail to be coupled with calls for correction of the abuses. This could lead to a dangerously premature change in public policies, which now give strong support to methadone maintenance as a treatment method for those dependent on opiates, particularly heroin. Many of the abuses are very real. But remedies also exist. They can and should be applied in order to preserve and substantially increase the effectiveness of methadone maintenance as a treatment modality. A series of remedies is proposed.
Law Enforcement Politics and Drug Abuse
Authors: Weisman Irving
Published: November 2015

The officially announced goals of the 1973 New York State Drug Laws are noted and the nature of these laws is described. Anticipated results of enforcement and actual impact of these laws are compared against a background of related trends in drug abuse control. This assessment suggests that these laws were a political response, consistent with some public fears and attitudes but in opposition to trends in legal and socio-medical thinking and national policy. Some alternatives are considered.
Whither Alcohol Research?
Authors: Freed Earl X.
Published: November 2015

In the quest for directions to answer the unyielding question, “Why does an individual abuse alcohol?,” the use of animal models of tension reduction and the search for the unique prealcoholic personality have been joined by studies with a biological frame of reference.
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: A New Era in an Old Campaign
Authors: Chafetz Morris E. , Hertzman Marc
Published: November 2015

On May 14, 1974 the President signed into law the Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1974. This legislation renews and extends the Federal commitment to the fight against alcoholism. This article reviews the major provisions of the Act and suggests how it can be implemented.

The Amendments incorporate features of the Model Uniform Act with an incentive for their adoption by the States, an historic first. The essential features include decriminalizing the drunkenness offense and assuring adequate treatment for all alcoholic people. The Amendments also strongly rule out discrimination against alcoholic people and protect the confidentiality of records.
Secondary Prevention of Alcoholism: Problems and Prospects in Occupational Programming
Authors: Roman Paul M.
Published: November 2015

The recent past has seen a surge of interest in and funding of programs designed to combat alcohol problems. One of the few innovative approaches in the alcohol problem field is the occupational programming concept. Policies are developed within work organizations which call for the identification of performance deterioration which may stem from problem drinking. Employees so identified are offered assistance with their problem without penalty, although the leverage of the job setting is used to pressure behavior change. Promotion of these concepts has become a small-scale nationwide movement. Among the current problems facing those in occupational programming are the absence of a sound research base and a lack of direction in the development of supportive constituencies.
Top and Bottom: How Police Administrators and Public Inebriates View Decriminalization
Authors: Rubington Earl
Published: November 2015

Decriminalization of public drunkenness implies that police and public inebriates should come into less frequent and less intensive social contact. As these contacts decrease in both frequency and intensity, both parties should be more willing to admit that alcoholics are sick, not criminal. And, as a result, both police and inebriates should be more favorable to the idea of decriminalization.

Preliminary results of a study of the effects of decriminalization In Boston lend some support to these expectations. Nine police administrators favor decriminalization and would be more favorable if there were more detoxification facilities. Twenty-one inebriates interviewed in a detoxification center report less frequent contact with, and more consideration from, police patrolmen. Fifteen of the 21 favor decriminalization. Those inebriates who have the highest rates of contact with detoxification facilities are more likely to define themselves as alcoholics.
Social and Regulatory Consequences of Misleading Medical Information
Authors: Ruskin Arthur
Published: November 2015

Arguing that the scientific method must be the ultimate test in determining drug efficacy and safety, Dr. Ruskin points out that the medical profession is often plagued by unscientific attitudes and “research.” Like their patients, physicians are influenced by nonscientific sources of drug information such as advertising and often trust their own “experience” rather than the results of controlled clinical and epidemiologic trials.
The Myth of Addiction
Authors: Coleman James William
Published: November 2015

The pursuit of a personal lifestyle is motivated and directed by the myths, definitions, and ideas which make it meaningful to the individual participant. The central feature of the concept of addiction is the belief in the tremendous power of narcotic drugs—the power to produce a chemical euphoria or to “hook” the careless user. Once addicted, the user is believed to be compelled to continue using narcotics regardless of the personal consequences. It is the contention of this paper that this conception is erroneous. It is not the narcotics themselves which produce addiction and its associated behavioral syndrome, but the use of narcotics (or the belief that one is using narcotics) combined with an acceptance of the conventional definition of addiction. Since the user is convinced that the development of physical habituation will create a compulsive craving for narcotics, it in fact produces that result and he begins to behave in the manner expected of an addict.
Prestige, Paranoia and Profit: On Becoming a Dealer of Illicit Drugs in a University Community
Authors: Lieb John , Olson Sheldon
Published: November 2015

This article presents a thematic analysis of the process of becoming a dealer of illicit drugs in a University community during the period between the mid sixties and early seventies. After separating the themes which defined the experience—prestige, paranoia and profit—attention turns to how these themes interwove to produce the stages involved in becoming a “dealer.” In the final section interest turns to some ways this process of becoming deviant parallels other instances of within-and-between-system social mobility.
California Civil Commitment: A Decade Later
Authors: McGlothlin William H.
Published: November 2015

Both the court criteria for commitment and program policies have undergone significant changes in the past several years. The large majority of current commitments follow a felony conviction and typically occur only when the alternative sentencing disposition is more severe. Civil commitments without a criminal conviction are very rare. Program policy changes have resulted in a parole-incarceration time ratio of nearly 3:1 in comparison to 1:1 prior to 1970.

A follow-up study of early commitments found that those continuing in the program generally performed better than a comparable sample discharged shortly after admission. Comparisons under the strict (pre-1970) and more lenient regimens showed roughly comparable behavior, but the availability of methadone maintenance was also a significant factor in reducing heroin use during the latter period.
Value Foundations for Drug Use
Authors: Veatch Robert M.
Published: November 2015

This article investigates the relationship of value foundations to the use of drugs. The argument is presented that it is logically impossible to make drug use decisions without evaluating the outcomes of various alternatives and choosing the most highly valued in the circumstances. A map of the major value foundations upon which drug choices might be made is provided, and their relationship to one particular drug category, the anti-anxiety agents or tranquilizers, is explored. The conclusion is reached that a purely therapeutic drug ethic may be problematic as an acceptable basis for drug use.
Social Benefits and Social Costs of Drug Control Laws
Authors: Kramer John C.
Published: November 2015

While drug control laws tend to reduce the incidence of drug use, their enforcement is not without cost to society. Among the most obvious costs is the development of black markets in drugs and the criminalization of users. Modest control laws can substantially reduce drug use without incurring serious social costs. However, increasing the severity of control laws adds less and less to the benefits achieved and more and more to the costs to society. Ultimately the costs outweigh the benefits. We should aim for optimum levels of control by weighing both the benefits and costs of our drug control laws.
Drug Education: Further Results and Recommendations
Authors: Blum Richard H. , Garfield Emily F. , Johnstone Judy L. , Magistad John G.
Published: November 2015

This is a report of an experiment in drug education which took place over two years among entering 6th graders in five suburban California schools. Five types or modes of drug education were compared for their impact on non-medical psychoactive drug use. The study derived its rationale from our prior longitudinal evaluation of educational impact (Blum, Blum and Garfield, 1976). The present study had, as additional objectives, the replication of the prior study for 6th graders and a follow-up of students from the prior study to see if educational effects on drug use were maintained over the total four year period. Teacher substudies were also made.
Patient Education and the Older Drug Taker
Authors: Thorson James A. , Thorson Judy R.
Published: November 2015

Much of the drug misuse and abuse that has been identified among the elderly may be the result of ignorance on the part of the drug taker. However, taking the responsibility for self-administration of drugs away from the older patient is an example of role reversal and is often perceived as insulting. Most of the medications that are taken by older people are self-administered, and the practitioner has an important function to perform in developing an educational program that will help to assure that older drug takers will receive accurate and timely dosages. Individual sessions conducted by a responsible clinician provide for the most effective learning on the part of the aged. Objectives and techniques for effective patient drug education are discussed.
Measuring How People Control the Amounts of Substances They Use
Authors: Apsler Robert
Published: November 2015

A new measure—control style—is presented as an alternative approach to measuring drug use in an effort to avoid the many limitations of existing methods. Control style and a traditional number of occasions of use measure are compared in their relationship to two dependent variables—drug dependency and drug problems. Results of a large, random household survey investigating individuals' use of many substances show that 1) responses on the control style measure are consistent and related to other measures in a meaningful way; 2) control style is more strongly associated with drug problems than is number of occasions, but the reverse holds for drug dependency, and the pattern varies with the particular substance; and 3) there is little overlap between the two measure in accounting for variation in drug problems and dependency. Thus, control style appears to be an important new tool for measuring drug use.
Growth of Substance Use and Misuse: Some Speculations and Data
Authors: Hunt Leon Gibson
Published: November 2015

What happens to misuse of psychotropic substances when general use spreads? The answer to this question is crucial to public health policy on control of drugs and alcohol, but it remains unanswered. Part of the difficulty lies in the different indicators of increasing use — per capita consumption versus incidence of new use — which measure separate aspects of growth of use. A second problem is related to the length of time between first use of a substance and the appearance of serious consequences. For those users who evolve to abusers, this interval is short for some drugs (like heroin) and long for others (like alcohol).
State Characteristics and Admissions to Drug Treatment Programs
Authors: Singh B. K.
Published: November 2015

This study examines the association of sociodemographic characteristics of states with primary drug of abuse at admission and reasons for discharge. Data on drug admissions and reasons for discharge were derived from the national monitoring system of admission to federally supported drug treatment programs (CODAP) and sociodemographic characteristics of states are derived from the 1976 Statistical Abstract of the U.S. Results indicated wide variations among states in terms of primary drugs at admission and reasons for discharge. State characteristics were differentially related with admissions as well as reasons for discharge. Generally larger states with a high percentage of urban population had higher proportionate admissions for heroin while smaller states with more rural populations had proportionately more admissions for drugs other than heroin. It was also indicated that the higher the percentages of admission for heroin, the lower the proportion of completed treatment. Policy and research implications are discussed.
New Careers for Moral Entrepreneurs: Teenage Drinking
Authors: Chauncey Robert L.
Published: November 2015

Views of the creation and maintenance of social problems have largely omitted the influence of government agencies. An examination of one behavior (teenage drinking) reveals efforts by one government agency (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) to generate a social problem in the face of evidence which belies the inflammatory rhetoric. The difficulties of community agencies and parents of teenage drinkers in responding to the federal campaign exemplify the questionable nature of the government claims.
What Happened in Harlem? Analysis of a Decline in Heroin Use among a Generation Unit of Urban Black Youth
Authors: Boyle John M. , Brunswick Ann F.
Published: November 2015

The annual prevalence of heroin use among a cross-section of black adolescents and young adults from Harlem fell from eight percent in 1970–71 to less than three and a half percent in 1975–76. The most important component of this change was a sharp decline in the rate of heroin initiation among younger birth cohorts. Controlling for differential opportunity based on age of cohorts, twenty-two percent of this sample who were born in 1952 initiated use of heroin by age 18, compared to three percent of those born in 1957.

The explanation that appears most plausible for these findings is that, for most individuals, the actions of initiating and continuing heroin use appear to be a product of rational choice. And the context within which that choice was made was appreciably altered in this generation unit of Harlem youth.
“Time-out”: The Recreational Use of Drugs by Portuguese-American Immigrants in Southeastern New England
Authors: Cabral Stephen L.
Published: November 2015

This writing will examine the recreational use of alcoholic beverages and marijuana by the Portuguese-American members of a social club located in a coastal city in Southern New England. The ways in which Portuguese-Americans use alcoholic beverages and marijuana to distinguish and to assert reference group identity within their club will also be considered. MacAndrew and Edgerton's (1969) formulation of drunken behavior as a “time-out” will be used as a model to assess the “stoned” behavior of those who smoke marijuana. Conflicting opinions about the use of these licit and illicit substances by Portuguese-American immigrants and their descendants will be critically reviewed.

Readers who traditionally think in terms of the effect of a drug will learn here that even the simplest drugs have a wide range of effects depending not only on their chemistry but on the ways in which they are used, the user's attitudes and expectations, society's attitudes and expectations and countless other factors (Brecher et al., 1972: xi).

This study will examine the recreational use of two popular drugs, alcohol and marijuana, by Portuguese-American residents of an ethnic neighborhood in a coastal city located in Southeastern New England. For convenience this writing will describe the use of these licit and illicit substances by youths and adult men with the specific socio-cultural context of a well-known men's social club. This enquiry will comment on the significance of the socially organized and controlled use of intoxicating beverages and marijuana for asserting group identity and reinforcing social bonds which distinguish different reference groups within the Portuguese community. MacAndrew and Edgerton's (1969) formulation of drunken behavior as “time-out” will be generalized to the “stoned” behavior of those who smoke marijuana. The utility of this explanatory model to account for conflicting opinions about the use of alcoholic beverages and marijuana by Portuguese-American immigrants will be critically reviewed.
Unconventional Treatment Models for Young Drug Abusers in Scandinavia
Authors: Waal Helge
Published: November 2015

The problem of drug abusing youths has, in addition to strengthening ordinary treatment systems, also inspired a multitude of unconventional programs. These are found in different settings both within and outside the health systems. This paper presents the theoretical premises associated with these unconventional projects and describes the different types found in Scandinavia. A close analysis of three of the most important projects, selected from Denmark, Sweden and Norway, is presented. Preliminary research results are presented from these studies. Finally the paper evaluates the projects, their purposes and objectives, and attempts to forecast future developments.
Methadone Treatment: The Nordic Attitude
Authors: Hallgrimsson Olafur
Published: November 2015

After a rapid glimpse of the American and English situations, an overview is given of Nordic health policies and attitudes regarding methadone maintenance treatment. The extent to which the method has been put into practice and finally the research done in this field is described. Scepticism about methadone maintenance is strong and only to a limited extent has it been used in the Nordic Countries. Research carried out in the Nordic countries does not clarify the international dilemma that scientific proof for the legitimacy of using a potent narcotic in the treatment of drug addicts is still absent 15 years after its development.
Sexual Drinking and Drift
Authors: Wilmot Richard
Published: November 2015

This paper deals with interactional changes which occur when alcohol intoxication is sought as part of a sexual scenario. It focuses on the “situation of company” that occurs in relation to “sexual drinking” i.e. drinking for a sexual motive, and how such a situation can equivocate interaction and thereby distort the principles of time, dose, and effect. When such distortion occurs without the full knowledge of the participants, sexual anomie also occurs. In this regard, alcohol can be viewed as a sexual talisman rather than a sexual aphrodisiac.
Effectiveness of Comprehensive Employee Assistance Programs at Reaching Alcoholics
Authors: Foote Andrea , Erfurt John C
Published: November 2015

Discussion of alcohol-focused us. comprehensive programs leads to the conclusion that the primary difference between the two program models is not the disease focus but the program structure. Programs focused on alcohol problems tend to emphasize the role of supervisors in identification and confrontation; programs focused more broadly tend to emphasize the role of the employee assistance program. Data relevant to these issues suggest that supervisors are no more likely than others within industrial organizations to identify employees having alcohol problems, although confrontation by a supervisor may have a greater impact. The EAP model was found to be more prevalent among larger plants than smaller ones. Programs that saw primarily alcoholics did not in general see more alcoholics than programs that provided services for a wider variety of problems, as long as at least one-third of the client group had alcohol problems.
Sowing Seeds of Change: How Work Organizations in New York State Responded to Occupational Program Consultants
Authors: Trice Harrison M. , Beyer Janice M. , Coppess Cynthia
Published: November 2015

The article reports on both qualitative and quantitative research evaluating the role and success of an “expanded” network of Occupational Program Consultants. It concentrates on two basic questions: what OPCs actually did, and, second, what outcomes did they achieve relative to their mandated goals—to encourage and aid employers and unions in adopting and implementing job-based alcoholism programs. First, largely qualitative data, with some quantitative, provided a description of inherent difficulties in the role: its newness, problems of legitimacy and power, financial insecurity, role conflicts, and role ambiguities. Initially these produced substantial amounts of goal displacement that were temporarily overcome, but reemerged to plague the network near the end of this three-year study. Despite these problems the OPCs were able to devise a plausible strategy—to carefully select client organizations for their probable responsiveness, and bypass reluctant ones. This resulted in an average of 21 program start-ups per OPC for the first two years of the state network. Next, the study went to a statewide sample of work organizations where the OPC had made substantial presentations and secured data from them on how their organization had responded. This data was used in both bivariate and multivariate analyses to determine what characterized work organizations that responded favorably to the OPC. These characteristics were: prior familiarity with job-based programs, union support, perception of OPC as competent and empathetic, viewing programs as good for both labor and public relations, as relatively easy to administer, and as helping supervisors manage marginally performing employees.
Questioning the Conventional Wisdom a Comment on the Marijuana Arrest Studies
Authors: Erickson Patricia G.
Published: November 2015

A detailed critique of American official record studies of marijuana arrests casts doubt on the widely accepted “coincidental” explanation of police intervention. The empirical base appears inadequate to sustain previous assertations that most marijuana arrests occur by chance when the police suspect some other type of offence. Alternative explanations which allow for deliberate marijuana enforcement activity merit further consideration.
Employment among Opioid Addicts during a Four Year follow-up after Drug Abuse Treatment
Authors: Simpson D. Dwayne
Published: November 2015

Follow-up interview data for 1,155 opioid addicts, based on a 4-year period after leaving community-based drug abuse treatment programs, showed that levels of employment and productive activities (a composite measure reflecting employment, school, and homemaking) were generally stable over time. Almost half of the males and females were involved in some type of productive activities in all 12 months of each year examined, and only about one-fourth reported no productive activities at all each year. As expected, males reported higher rates of employment and females were higher in homemaking activities. Employment was associated with lower opioid drug use and criminal involvement during the follow-up period, suggesting the need for continued support and development of community training and employment placement programs as part of a comprehensive treatment system for drug abusers.
Social Control in Worksettings: Using the Constructive Confrontation Strategy with Problem-Drinking Employees
Authors: Trice Harrison M. , Beyer Janice M.
Published: November 2015

The article describes two concepts relative to the relationship between social controls and deviant behavior: control-managed and control-produced concepts. It uses both to describe a job-based strategy for intervening in problem-drinking behavior: constructive confrontation. Declining job performance that accompanies alcohol abuse is used as a basis for supervisors' confronting employees about deficiencies in performance and constructively offering alternate courses of behavior, emotional support, and practical assistance designed to help them toward rehabilitation. Article traces the development of the strategy, its relationship to social controls that manage drinking behavior in other cultures, and how it represents similar ways to intervene in pluralistic American society. Here, work settings generate formal expectations of performance combined with informal group pressures to define the lower limits of acceptable behavior. Workplaces are also mechanisms for preventing the progression of deviant drinking by helping to keep employees in nondeviant groups, thereby avoiding the deviant process. Various evaluations of the strategy suggest remarkably favorable outcomes. Article concludes that the strategy represents an application of a social learning paradigm that is currently coming into prominence in the behavorial sciences.

Current Employee Assistance Programs have grown from the strategy. They have, however, failed to clearly adopt it, and often have tended to ignore it. In addition, the occupational make up of the movement has generated a cooptation trend that could weaken the strategy, even mark its demise, if current trends continue.

We wish to gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Professor Paul Roman, and the financial assistance of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation.
Alcohol and Drug Offenders in the Juvenile Justice System: Are There Differentials in Handling?
Authors: Frazier Charles F. , Potter Roberto Hugh
Published: November 2015

The American stance on law and control policy relating to alcohol and drug use has been replete with vacillations. Decriminalization and treatment oriented responses have emerged alongside continued support for laws calling for stiffer penalties and stepped up enforcement. In this situation, concern has grown over the possibilities that liberal legislation is subverted in actual practice to serve other purposes. It is feared offenders may be coerced into alternative sentences in the name of treatment and that such treatments may ultimately be more restrictive than traditional punitive dispositions. The present study examines the dispositions of juvenile offenders at three levels in the justice system. Alcohol and drug of fenders are compared to other offender types. Our data show no significant differentials in the severity of disposition alcohol and drug offenders receive. Moreover, the data show that youths violating drug and alcohol statutes are no more likely than other offender types at the same level of offense seriousness of being coerced into treatment programs.
The Drug-Crime Debate: Obstacles to Understanding the Relationship
Authors: Clayton Richard R. , Tuchfeld Barry S.
Published: November 2015

Two general obstacles to an understanding of the drug-crime relationship are discussed at length. The first deals with the lack of consensus in the literature and the second deals with definitions of causality. The Hirschi and Selvin (1973) conception of causality is applied to the available data and found to support a causal relationship. A model for examining the causal status of a relationship is also presented along with comments on the scientific community's reaction to policy makers. Finally, an abbreviated crime-drug research agenda is suggested.
Alcohol, Drug Use, and Delinquent and Criminal Behaviors among Male Adolescents and Young Adults
Authors: Tuchfeld Barry S. , Clayton Richard R. , Logan John A.
Published: November 2015

This paper examines the relationship between reported delinquent and criminal behavior and drug use patterns among male adolescents and young men in the United States. In an effort to refine prior analyses on the subject, pattern of alcohol use is viewed as a variable worth considering in conjunction with heroin and/or cocaine use patterns. The analysis indicates that the drug patterns relate differentially to the selected indicators of delinquent and criminal behavior and that generalizations about these relationships depend on the nature of the criterion behavior and on ethnic group differences. It is concluded that the clearly excessive criminality of hard drug users does not make hard drug use a powerful predictor of criminality in the population as a whole, since a relative few of all criminal acts are committed by hard drug users and that pattern of alcohol use is a salient variable.
The Productivity of Crime in the United States: Drugs and Capital Accumulation
Authors: Timmer Doug
Published: November 2015

Under particular social and historical conditions crime represents—to dominant economic interests—a mechanism for capital accumulation that may be more advantageous and preferable to legal or licit capital formation. There are at least four reasons for this: illegal industry is often “growth industry”; these activities are unregulated, untaxed and characterized by high profit margins; significant structural linkages between illicit capital and profit on the one hand, productivity, capital formation and private accumulation on the other; and, the transformation of labor-market conditions that are increasingly favorable to the sale of illicit and illegal goods and services. These propositions are then illustrated by examining their applicability to the production and distribution of illegal drugs—primarily heroin—in the U.S.
Relationships between Drug Education and Drug Use: Carts and Horses
Authors: Goodstadt Michael S. , Sheppard Margaret A. , Chan Godwin C.
Published: November 2015

Analysis of survey data obtained from large samples of students at intervals two years apart indicates that reported alcohol and other drug use and problems are positively related to reported drug education, especially among the younger cohorts. Reasons for these results are proposed; definitive resolution of the issues awaits more detailed and controlled research.
Look-Alike and Sound-Alike Drugs
Authors: Teplitsky Benjamin
Published: November 2015

Look-alike and sound-alike drugs can be misinter-preted by a nurse reading doctors' orders and by a pharmicist compounding physicians' prescriptions. Such misunderstandings can result in the administration of a drug not intended by the prescriber. Awareness of such look-alike and sound-alike drugs can reduce potential errors.
Ill and against the Law: The Social and Medical Control of Heroin Users
Authors: Klein Dorie
Published: November 2015

This discussion focuses on the criminalization and medicalization of heroin users in the United States in two historical periods: the late teens to early twenties, and the late sixties to early seventies. Comparative analysis reveals that while different social circumstances have stimulated specific state responses, class and ethnic patterns of drug use have played a leading role in shaping overall policy. Continuous clashes and adjustments between licit and illicit markets have reflected deeper economic and ideological conflicts. The essence of official policy, whether under a public health or a criminal justice rubric, has been the attempt to effect a real and symbolic order. Claims to the contrary notwithstanding, the advocates of reform and of the medical approach to addiction have accommodated more than they have challenged law enforcement. Doctors' professional interests and the uses of medical rhetoric to justify state policy have changed, but the control aspects within the medical model stand out sharply. This analysis of the limits of conflict and structures of resolution between specific heroin policymakers draws on an appreciation of more general political, economic, and social forces which shape the interplay of “deviance” and the official reaction to it. This theoretical orientation departs from the leading paradigms in the sociology of drug control developed within labelling and interest-group frameworks.
An Examination of Spontaneous Remission from Problem Drinking in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky
Authors: Stall Ron
Published: November 2015

The topic of spontaneous remission from problem drinking is of special interest in alcohol studies as it has immediate relevance to both applied and theoretically oriented research. Despite this importance, little is known of the factors which work to encourage the resolution of problem drinking careers without formal treatment. The primary goal of this research has been to inductively identify thematic patterns of behavior and social contexts important to the rise and “spontaneous” decline of problem drinking careers. New directions, based on these themes, are suggested for further research on spontaneous remission from problem drinking.
Rethinking the Alcohol Problem: A Natural Processes Model
Authors: Mulford Harold A.
Published: November 2015

A multivariate natural processes model for thinking about alcohol use and abuse is offered as an alternative to the traditional static-entity, single-cause way of thinking that historically generated a series of formal institutional attacks on different supposed causes of alcohol abuse, but which failed to solve the alcohol problem. The work seeks a model that better fits what is known about the alcohol problem, and one that leads to more effective informal constraints on alcohol abuse.

Alcoholics are viewed as being at some stage of an alcoholic process, a rehabilitation process, a labeling process, a clinicalization process and a dissocialization process. This way of thinking challenges the traditional notion that alcoholics are all-of-a-kind entities and that there is a single cause, or even a single set of causes, that account for the drinking of all alcoholics, or that explains the drinking of the same person at different times.

Rather, it directs us to consider the dynamics of the changing combinations of interacting social, psychological and physiological forces influencing a person's drinking behavior as he progresses in the several processes.
Problem Drinking or Problem Thinking? Patterns of Abuse in Sociological Research
Authors: Blum Terry
Published: November 2015

Representation of alcohol studies in major sociology journals is very limited. The articles which do appear are of considerable significance as a window to the sociological community of the alcohol research specialty. A review of three articles appearing in these major journals reveals substantial problems in methodology, and gaps between the data and the stated conclusions. These problems are considered within the framework of broader issues, especially the impact of excluding non-drinkers from statistical analyses and medicalized assumptions about the meaning of alcohol use. Cross fertilization between alcohol studies and prominent sociological literature is recommended.
The Relationship between Changing Societal Economies and Alcohol Use: A Case for Tolerance Quotient Expansion
Authors: Hoffman Eric
Published: November 2015

This paper presents a general sensitizing model for the analysis of societal differences in alcohol use. This model incorporates three general processes; (1) the relative position of a society within a world-economic system, (2) the effects of such changes upon both societal members and social structure and (c) the potential ameliorative and disintegrative results of alcohol use in the face of such change. These changes and resultant alcohol use are mediated by two general mechanisms. The first is the infusing of a society's industrial products with symbolic meaning and the second is a change in the tolerance quotient level for alcohol use to adjust to individual and system stress. This model is discussed in terms of its potential utility for providing a more general approach for the study of epidemiology of alcohol use.

“In broad terms the problem as the sociologist sees it centers on the use and nonuse of alcohol in different societies. Along with his anthropological stablemates he is directly concerned with the use and nonuse of alcohol as they are affected by social organization and culture—culture taken here to mean the patterned regularities of behavior which are socially derived and transmitted cumulatively by societies and groups.” ( Lemert 1956:306)
Alcohol Abuse as a State: Illustrations of the ‘Structuration Model’
Authors: Glassner Barry
Published: November 2015

The structuration model is described as a strategy for the sociological analysis of alcohol and other substance use and abuse. The method centers on the derivations of social meanings of objects and behaviors that are neglected through the use of other strategies. An expansion of understanding of alcohol use through the development of positive explanations is illustrated through data on drinking-related expressions among Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, focusing upon the avoidance of alcohol problems.
The Resolution of Alcohol-Related Problems: In Search of a Model
Authors: Tuchfeld Barry S. , Marcus Susan H.
Published: November 2015

This paper proposes dimensions and elements which are salient for the development of a model about resolution processes among those experiencing alcohol-related problems. A general model with proposed variables is presented. Problems relating to the conduct of research on these phenomena are briefly discussed, and implications for prevention and treatment research are explored. The need for studies of varying types of alcohol-related careers and types of resolution pathways, i.e., institutional and non-institutional, is emphasized as a means of conceptualizing change through the life course.