Functionalist and Interactionist Views on the "War on Drugs"
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- Date Submitted: 11/03/2015 12:23 AM
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First coined in June of 1971 by President Richard Nixon, the “War on Drugs” has actually been ongoing for over a century. Americans still, however, continue to use illicit/illegal drugs with no end in sight. Why is illegal drug use still such a widespread issue in American society despite government attempts to outlaw and punish drug users? Let us explore what reasons interactionist and functionalist theorists would give for the continued use of illegal drugs in our society.
In American society, illegal drug use is considered a deviance. A deviance is any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs (Kendall, 185). So to understand how an interactionist theorist would explain illegal drug use in our society, we should first think about how interactionist theorists explain deviance. An interactionist theorist would first argue that deviance is learned through differential association, which means that people have a greater tendency to participate in activities that are considered deviant by frequently interacting with other individuals who are considered deviant (Kendall, 193). To get a better understanding of the reasoning behind illegal drug use, I polled five people that I know personally that admit to being illegal drug users. For anonymity purposes, I shall call them Subjects. I asked each person what influenced them to first try their illegal drug of choice, and each and every subject responded with something along the lines of “a friend/romantic partner offered it to me”, “my friends/potential romantic interests were doing it”, or even “I grew up watching my parents do it”. Four out of five subjects interviewed also agreed that differential association plays a large role in their continued drug use, admitting that one of the reasons why they continue to use illegal drugs is that being around others that also use makes it difficult to find the motivation to stop. Three out of five subjects...
In American society, illegal drug use is considered a deviance. A deviance is any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs (Kendall, 185). So to understand how an interactionist theorist would explain illegal drug use in our society, we should first think about how interactionist theorists explain deviance. An interactionist theorist would first argue that deviance is learned through differential association, which means that people have a greater tendency to participate in activities that are considered deviant by frequently interacting with other individuals who are considered deviant (Kendall, 193). To get a better understanding of the reasoning behind illegal drug use, I polled five people that I know personally that admit to being illegal drug users. For anonymity purposes, I shall call them Subjects. I asked each person what influenced them to first try their illegal drug of choice, and each and every subject responded with something along the lines of “a friend/romantic partner offered it to me”, “my friends/potential romantic interests were doing it”, or even “I grew up watching my parents do it”. Four out of five subjects interviewed also agreed that differential association plays a large role in their continued drug use, admitting that one of the reasons why they continue to use illegal drugs is that being around others that also use makes it difficult to find the motivation to stop. Three out of five subjects...