SOC 440 - Alcohol and Drug Use

Units: 4; Breadth Area: Diversity
Course examines drug and alcohol use and addiction in the U.S., and the ways society stigmatizes and criminalizes illicit drugs and drug users. Emphasis is on the interaction between the criminal justice system and those in marginalized communities.

Possible Instructional Methods: On-ground, or Hybrid, or Online-Asynchronous, or Online-Synchronous.
Grading: A-F grading only.
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: Overlay - Diversity
Course Typically Offered: Fall & Spring

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Gain a historical perspective on U.S. drug laws and drug law reforms between the late 1800s to the present.
Analyze how various groups intersect with the U.S. criminal justice system in relationship to race, gender, and social class and demonstrate an understanding of the disparate impact of drug enforcement on racial minority groups in the U.S..
Understand social processes through which the mass media and political discourses shape public opinion about drugs and drug dependency and influence federal drug policies and laws.
Analyze how drug laws have reinforced race and class-based structures of oppression in the U.S., discuss and debate the relationship between crime-control racial and social control.
Write an evidence-based paper advocating for a drug policy approach that includes an alternative to drug criminalization.
Work in groups to analyze aspects of drug laws and effects on various cultural groups, and present findings to the class.

Diversity Overlay Learning Outcomes

Describe the histories and/or experiences of one or more U.S. cultural groups, and the resilience and agency of group members.
Identify structures of oppression and the diverse efforts and strategies used by US. Cultural groups to combat the effects of oppressive structures.
Analyze the intersection of categories of race and gender as they affect U.S. cultural group members lived realities and/or as they are embodied in personal and collective identities.
Recognize the way that multiple differences (including gender, class, sexuality, religion, disability, immigration status, gender expression, color/phenotype, racial mixture, linguistic expression, and/or age) within cultural groups complicate individual and group identities.