COURSE DESCRIPTION: Drug use intersects with some of the most interesting and controversial problems we face today. These include halting the spread of HIV/AIDS among and from those who use needles to inject drugs; drug-testing in the workplace, at school, and in sport venues; attempts to halt the entry of drugs into the United States and Canada; and moves--in Canada and some European countries--to decriminalize possession of certain banned substances. The construction of "drugs" is itself an historical and cultural problem of uncommon complexity. Images of taboo vie with pharmaceutical visions of salvation ("better things through chemistry," Du Pont promised citizens in the early 1950s). To grasp this tension, the course will examine the significance and diversity of drug cultures in changing historical contexts during the century, their place within dominant socio/cultural groups and subcultures, and efforts to control them. The course will also consider changing attitudes over time toward drugs, and official responses to drugs as a deviant force, including national, hemispheric, and global "wars" on illegal substances.

CORE TEXTS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS: The four major course texts are available in paperback at the campus bookstore, and several copies are on 3-hour reserve in Stauffer Library. Weekly reading assignments will be made at Tuesday lecture, with a few other items to be added to the reserve list during the term. Students should also familiarize themselves with bibliographical notes in each book, major journals in Stauffer and Bracken Libraries, and some of the important databases in the field.

David T. Courtwright, Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World (2001)

Jill Jonnes, Hep-Cats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams: A History of America's Romance with Illegal Drugs (1999)

Thomas Pegram, Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800-1933 (1998)

Joseph F. Spillane, Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States, 1884-1920

Bertram, Eva, Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial (HV5825M64 1999)

Davenport-Hines, Richard, The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, 1500-2000 (HV 5801 D25 2001)

Grinspoon, Lester, Marihuana Reconsidered, 2nd ed. (HV 5822 M3 G75 1977)

Griffith, I.L. , Drugs and Security in the Caribbean (HV5840C315G751997)

Harper’s Magazine, “This is Your Bill of Rights, on Drugs” 1999 (also available HERE on the web)

Lamour, Catherine and Michael Lamberti, The International Connection (Ed Library (HV5816 L3313)

McCoy, Alfred W., The Politics of Heroin HV5822H4M33)

Morgan, H. Wayne, Drugs in America (HV 5825M669)

Musto, David F. The American Disease, 3rd ed. (HV 5825 M84)

Scott, Peter Dale, Cocaine Politics (HV5840 C45 1991t, also a 1998 ed.)

Shapin, Steven, “Liquid Assets” (The New Yorker 2005) (also available HERE on the web)

Sheff, David, “My Addicted Son” (The New York Times 2005) (also available HERE on the web)

Stares, Paul B., Global Habit (HV5801S751996)

Time Magazine, “Should Drugs be Made Legal?” (1988)

Walker, William O. III, Drug Control in the Americas (HV5801W33)

CLASS DISCUSSION AND WEBPAGE:The professor will seek to facilitate discussion in this lecture course through his website (www.geoffsmith.org) and a web page devoted to Health 239. We’ll make use of this page for comments on lectures, questions, debates, and discussion. The bulletin board will facilitate civil and constructive class interaction. More on this early in the course; the bulletin board is http://www.geoffsmith.org/health239. Again, more to come.

COURSE LINKS: Just added. We need, crave, are jonesing for, desire, GOTTA HAVE your contributions! Send your mellowest links to Geoff or Doris; check these links out right here. Funky pictures gratefully accepted.

-- Write a position paper (750-1000 words) on one of the following propositions:

1. Resolved: The amount of violence and disorder in Canada and the United States would be lessened if government embraced a policy of controlled legalization (with no advertising, sales to minors or pregnant women) for substances like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin.



2. Resolved: Resolved: The real drug threat in our time is less the pusher in a dark alley in East Vancouver than the pharmaceutical giants that seek to create the illusion of illness in healthy persons and value profits more than all else.



3. Resolved: If government criminalizes heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, government should criminalize cigarettes and alcohol.



4. Resolved: The problem of "drugs" is as much an historical-cultural problem as it is a legal and medical problem.



5. Resolved: Those bureaucracies and administrators who seek to preserve drug-free sport should hang up their spikes, skates, cleats, whatever. There is no way to stop drugs in sport when competitors embrace the idea that winning is the only thing.



6. Resolved: There is no question that marijuana should be made available as a medical palliative.



7. Resolved: “Doping is so widespread in our culture” that a government “war on drugs” makes no sense.
   
   

This short essay will fall due at the beginning of class on October 18 . Please type your essays, double-spaced, and use proper citation and bibliographical form. Please cite your sources in footnotes or endnotes that follow the Chicago Manual of Style . See Kate Turabian, Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1996) in Stauffer reference call # LB2369.T8 1996). Do you agree or disagree with the proposition? Why? What are the major reasons? Why is your argument better than the other side? Does the other side have merit? Use examples to illustrate your points, and do focus, focus, focus your argument. Yes, that’s three focuses. Go to the libraries. Four-to-six sources should suffice for these papers. I expect more than Internet sources. Please also familiarize yourself with the code of conduct on plagiarism and academic dishonesty in the Queen's University Calendar (pp. vi-vii)—a statement of these rules comes at the end of this syllabus.

50% -- Final Exam (combination essay, multiple choice -- TBA)

5% -- Up to (traditional surprise bonus points in Prof Smith's classes).

OFFICE HOURS -- 215 PEC, Thursdays 1:30-3 and by appointment. Home phone is 544-5550 and e-mail (preferred) is smithgs@post.queensu.ca.

Teaching Assistants and Office Hours: TBA