SOC 2070 Lecture : SOC 2070 Chapter 8.docx

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2070
• Professor: Andrew Robinson

Document Summary

Illicit drug use can look at drug use as deviant behaviour from both the positivist and constructionist perspectives. From a positivist perspective the issue that needs explaining is why some people use illegal substances some focus on individualistic explanations such as biological or personality factors. Others examine differences between and among people living in certain types of social and economical structures (different types of neighbourhoods, societies, social structures, cities versus small towns, etc. ) All take drug use as the dependent variable, as the variable that needs to be explained. Examine the consequences of actions such as drug use the appeal of drugs is partly a result of their effects. Even laws against and prosecution of murder, rape, and robbery, unarguably harmful acts with genuine victims, are constructed in a certain way for certain reasons. Drug use, like every other existing endeavor or social condition, has a socially constructed or subjective dimension: the public"s feeling about it.