CCJ 6654 Drugs, Crime and Policy
Professor Joseph Spillane
Class Meets: Wednesday, Periods 8-10 (3:00 to 6:00), Walker 201E
Introduction
Our objectives here are threefold. First, to better understand the state of knowledge
today on the relationship between drug use, drug abuse, crime, and public policy.
This is a complicated intersection, involving our deepest understandings of the roots
of personal behavior, social life and culture, and the state. As you’ll see, the state of
our knowledge is not always what it should be! Second, we aim to better understand
how knowledge in this area is produced. Where does our “data” come from? What
are the trends in knowledge production and theorizing about drugs? Third, to provide
the necessary context that any researcher of drug issues ought to have. In other
words, this seminar aims to provide its participants with basic foundational
information about the historical, medical, and legal aspects of now-illicit drugs.
There are three required texts for this course, coupled with a number of additional
readings available online or in class handouts. The required texts are:
James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
Lisa Maher, Sexed Work: Gender, Race and Resistance in a Brooklyn Drug Market
Tracy and Acker, eds., Altering American Consciousness
* Reuter and MacCoun, Drug War Heresies
*This final reading is not in the bookstores
As for the additional readings, most will be available through the Library’s website,
so you should be able to readily acquire the readings, so long as you are properly
connected to the site. We’ll go over access on day one.
Grading
In Class Reports (20%)—On four occasions over the course of the semester, you will
be responsible for reading specific assigned texts and helping to lead the class
discussion. At that time, you’ll also submit a one-page précis of the assigned texts,
which will serve to demonstrate your understanding and engagement with the
material. Each of these four will be worth 5% toward your final grade.
In Class Participation (30%)—This seminar cannot adequately function unless most
of you are prepared most of the time (note I don’t expect perfection). Please come
prepared, having done the readings and ready to engage in meaningful discussion.
Final Paper (50%)—The final paper is in the form of a project proposal. Everyone
will be responsible for developing a proposed research project in any area or subject
of interest, so long as it is plausibly related to the course! The proposals should be
12-15 pages in length. Each should do the following: clearly articulate a research
problem; identify and discuss the relevant literature; construct a workable plan for
how one address the research problem, with a discussion of data and methods. Your
grade for this paper is inclusive of earlier stages, such as a topic proposal and outline.
WEEKLY COURSE SCHEDULE
January 18—Theories of Drug Use
 James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
January 25—Theories of Drug Use, A Historical Review
 William L. White, “The Lessons of Language” [From Tracy and Acker]
 Louis C. Charland, “Cynthia’s Dilemma: Consenting to Heroin Prescription,”
American Journal of Bioethics 2 (2002) [Project Muse]
 Ian Freckelton, “Choice, Rationality, and Substance Dependence,” American
Journal of Bioethics 2 (2002) [Project Muse]
 Lawrence Kolb, “Types and Characteristics of Drug Addicts,” Mental Hygiene
(1925) [Handout]
 Kenneth B. Clark, Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power (1965) [ExcerptHandout]
 Nancy D. Campbell, “Mapping the Historical Geography of Vulnerability to
Addiction” [unpublished paper-Handout]
February 1—The Culture of Drug Use and Control, Part I. Alcohol, Opium and
Cigarettes.
 Ron Roizen, “How Does the Nation’s ‘Alcohol Problem’ Change From Era to
Era?” [From Tracy and Acker]
 Susan L. Speaker, “Demons for the Twentieth Century” [From Tracy and Acker]
 Alan M. Brandt, “From Nicotine to Nicotrol: Addiction, Cigarettes, and American
Culture” [From Tracy and Acker]
 Catherine Carstairs, “Innocent Addicts, Dope Fiends and Nefarious Traffickers:
Illegal Drug Use in 1920s English Canada” [handout]
February 8—The Culture of Drug Use and Control, Part II. LSD and Cocaine
LSD
 Steven J. Novak, “LSD Before Leary: Sidney Cohen’s Critique of 1950s
Psychedelic Drug Research” [From Tracy and Acker]
 Humphrey Osmond, “The Exploration of Experience,” Annals N.Y. Academy of
Science (March 1957) [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/osmond2.htm]
 Andrew T. Weil, “The Strange Case of the Harvard Drug Scandal,” Look
Magazine (November 1963)
[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/look1963.htm]
 Albert Hoffman, “To the Particpants at the April 16&17, 1993 Symposiums on
the 50th Anniversary of His Discovery of LSD” [handout]
 Dave Nichols, Richard Yensen, and Ralph Metzner, “The Great EntactogenEmpathogen Debate” [handout]
Cocaine


John P. Morgan and Lynn Zimmer “The Social Pharmacology of Smokeable
Cocaine: Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be”
[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/cocaine/crack.htm]
David Banash, “Intoxicating Class: Cocaine at the Multiplex,” Postmodern
Culture 12 (2001) [Project Muse]
February 15—Tracking Drug Use, Methodological Issues.
 “The New DAWN Report”
 Kevin W. Whiteacre, “The Cultural Milieu of Criminology and Drug Research”
[Lindesmith Center]
 Timothy J. Gilfoyle, “Prostitutes in History: From Parables of Pornography to
Metaphors of Modernity” American Historical Review (February 1999)
 Lisa Maher, Sexed Work: Gender, Race and Resistance in a Brooklyn Drug
Market
 Michael Agar, “How the Drug Field Turned My Beard Gray,” International
Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002)
February 22—What is a Drug Epidemic, and Why Do They Happen?
 Hughes et al, “The Natural History of a Heroin Epidemic” American Journal of
Public Health 62 (1972) [Handout]
 Michael Agar, “A Heroin Epidemic at the Intersection of Histories: the 1960s
Epidemic among African Americans in Baltimore” Medical Anthropology 21
(2002) [Taylor & Francis/Google Scholar]
March 1— Policy Issues, an Overview
 David T. Courtwright, “Policy Hots and Historical Cools,” Bulletin of the History
of Medicine 78 (2004) [Project Muse]
 Reuter and MacCoun, Drug War Heresies, Chapters One through Six
March 8— The Drugs-Crime Connection
 Richard Curtis, “The Improbable Transformation of Inner-City Neighborhoods,”
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (Summer 1998) [Hein Online]
 McBride et al, “The Drugs-Crime Wars: Past, Present and Future Directions in
Theory, Policy and Program Interventions”
 Kenneth D. Tunnell, “The OxyContin Epidemics and Crime Panic in Rural
Kentucky,” Contemporary Drug Problems 32 (2005) [ProQuest]
March 22— The Drugs-Violence Connection
 Paul J. Goldstein, “The Drugs/Violence Nexus: A Tripartite Conceptual
Framework” Journal of Drug Issues (1985)
 Robert MacCoun, Beau Kilmer and Peter Reuter, “Research on Drugs-Crime
Linkages: The Next Generation” NIJ Special Report (July 2003).
March 29—Treatment
 Sarah Tracy, “Building a Boozatorium” [In Tracy/Acker]



Hser, Anglin, et al “Drug Treatment Careers—A Conceptual Framework and
Existing Research Findings,” Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 14 (1997)
[Ingenta Connect]
Interview with Dr. Jerome Jaffe, PBS Frontline.
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/interviews/jaffe.html]
Interview with Egil “Bud” Krogh, PBS Frontline.
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/interviews/krogh.html]
April 5—Harm Reduction
 Jim Baumohl, “Maintaining Orthodoxy: The Depression-Era Struggle for
Morphine Maintenance in California”
 Marsha Rosenbaum, Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and
Drug Education (Drug Policy Alliance, 2004).
[http://www.safety1st.org/orderSF.html]
 Robert J. MacCoun, “Toward a Psychology of Harm Reduction,” American
Psychologist 53 (1998) [http://istsocrates.berkeley.edu/~maccoun/AmPsych1998.pdf]
April 12—Supply Control on the Street
 Christopher S. Koper and Peter Reuter, “Suppressing Illegal Gun Markets:
Lessons from Drug Enforcement,”
[http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/faculty/reuter/COOK2.pdf]
 Lisa Maher and David Dixon, “The Cost of Crackdowns: Policing Cabramatta’s
Heroin Markets,” Current Issues in Criminal Justice 13 (2001)
April 19—International Supply Control
 Michael C. Kenney, “Intelligence Games: Comparing the Intelligence Capabilities
of Law Enforcement Agencies and Drug Trafficking Enterprises,” International
Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 16 (2003) [Taylor &
Francis/Google Scholar]
 Paul Gootenberg, “Between Coca and Cocaine: A Century or More of U.S.Peruvian Drug Paradoxes, 1860-1980,” Hispanic American Historical Review 83
(2003) [Project Muse]
 The Bell Helicopter Case [Handout]
April 26—The Legalization Debate
 Ethan A. Nadelmann, “The Case for Legalization,” Public Interest 92 (1988)
 Reuter and MacCoun, Drug War Heresies (Chapters 7 through 15)