Registry

Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2012 - 2013
Please note that this information is subject to change.

Module Title	Drugs in Society
Module Code	NS141
School	School of Nursing and Human Sciences
Online Module Resources
Module Co-ordinator	Semester 1: Mark Philbin Semester 2: Mark Philbin Autumn: Mark Philbin
Module Teacher	Mark Philbin
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

Description

In contemporary societies, drugs are used for the sake of pleasure, custom, self-regulation, treatment, enhancement, dependence and profit. Controversies abound in relation to what counts as proper and improper drug use as well as how drugs should be controlled and supplied. Within this module, these various uses and controversies are explored along with their health implications.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify the principal ways in which drugs are used in contemporary societies
2. Explore controversies about the proper and improper uses of drugs
3. Consider the significance of drug use for fundamental ideas about what it means to be a person
4. Examine debates about the control, prohibition, marketing and supply of drugs
5. Evaluate the health implications of various patterns of drug use

Workload	Full-time hours per semester
*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Lecture	18	Participation in lecture-discussion
Debate	18	Preparations for speaking in a debate
Debate	12	Participation in class debates on controversial issues related to drugs
On-line learning	12	Moodle-based reflections following from the class debates
Seminars	12	Led by persons with first-hand experience of drug use: as users, relatives or helpers
Assignment	30	Preparation of an essay relating to a specific drug
Independent learning time	23	For general reading and Moodle use
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Uses and misuses of drugs.
Examining the history, uses, misuses, effects and health implications of a range of licit and illicit drugs.

Benefit, danger and drugs.
Focusing on how to judge claims about the benefits and dangers of drugs..

Becoming a 'problem drug user'.
Exploring how persons come to be 'problem drug users' with particular reference to concepts of deviance and identity..

Normalisation and drug use.
Addressing the argument that illicit drug use is an everyday and accepted reality in the lives of many persons..

Medicalisation, medication and illness identities..
Considering the significance of medications in expanding the province of medicine and in establishing illness identities..

Drugs and human enhancement.
Exploring performance enhancement and "becoming more than oneself" through the use of drugs..

Freedom, responsibility and drug use.
Examining the libertarian case for ownership of one's own body and the associated claim that drug-taking is fundamentally a matter for personal choice..

Prohibition and harm minimisation.
Comparing prohibition and harm minimisation in terms of their implications for policy and treatment..

Life with drugs.
With first-hand accounts by persons who have used drugs in some sense or are significantly affected by their use, various dimensions of living with drugs are the focus for reflection..

Global trade in drugs.
Examining the global drugs trade with reference to both organised crime and multinational pharmaceuticals companies..

Recovery and drug use.
Exploring notions of personal change and how persons constructively alter their relationships with drugs..

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	%

Course Work Breakdown
Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Group project	A debating series which incorporates self-assessment and peer-assessment.	30%	Every Second Week
Reflective journal	Moodle-based reflective work arising from the debating series.	30%	Every Second Week
Essay	Focusing on a topic chosen by the student and drawn from the theme of drug use in everyday life.	40%	Once per semester

Reassessment Requirement
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; 1 = A resit is available for all components of the module 2 = No resit is available for 100% continuous assessment module 3 = No resit is available for the continuous assessment component
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Paul Manning (Editor): 0, Drugs And Popular Culture, 9781843922100
Paul O'Mahony: 0, The Irish war on drugs, 9780719077906
Angus Bancroft: 2009, Drugs, intoxication and society, Polity, Cambridge, 9780745635460
Marina Barnard, Fergal Keane (Foreword): 0, Drug Addiction and Families, 9781843104032
Philip Bean,: 0, Legalising drugs, 9781847423757
Philip Bean,: 0, Drugs and Crime, 9781843923312
Howard S. Becker: 0, Outsiders, 9780684836355
Allen Buchanan,: 0, Better than Human: The Promise and Perils of Enhancing Ourselves, 9780199797875
Tom Carnwath and Ian Smith: 0, Heroin century, 9780415278997
Norman K. Denzin,: 0, The Alcoholic Society, 1560006692
Paul Griffiths (Foreword), Jane Fountain (Editor), Dirk J. Korf (Editor): 0, Drugs in Society, 9781846190933
Glen R. Hanson, Peter J. Venturelli, Annette E. Fleckenstein,: 0, Drugs And Society, 9781449613693
John Harris,: 0, Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People, 9780691148168
David Healy: 2004, Let them eat Prozac, New York University Press, New York, 0814736696
Mike Jay,: 0, High Society, 9780500251720
David A. Karp: 2006, Is it me or my meds?, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 9780674021822
Peter D. Kramer: 1993, Listening to Prozac, Penguin, New York, N.Y., U.S.A., 0670841838
Rik Loose,: 0, Subject of Addiction, 1855752999
G. Alan Marlatt (Editor), Katie Witkiewitz (Editor): 0, Addictive Behaviors, 9781433804021
McKeganey, NP: 2011, Controversies in Drugs Policy and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills,
Dawn Moore,: 0, Criminal Artefacts: Governing Drugs and Users, 9780774813877
David Nutt,: 0, Drugs Without the Hot Air, 9781906860165
edited by Adriana Petryna, Andrew Lakoff, and Arthur Kleinman: 2006, Global pharmaceuticals, Duke University Press, Durham, 0822337290
Tim Pilcher,: 0, e, the incredibly strange history of ecstasy, 9780762431847
Sue Pryce,: 0, Fixing Drugs, 9780230359710
Julian Savulescu, Nick Bostrom,: 0, Human Enhancement, 9780199594962
Dominic Streatfeild: 2002, Cocaine, Virgin, London, 9780753506271
Thomas Szasz: 1996, Our right to drugs, Syracuse Unversity Press, Syracuse, NY, 9780815603337
Robert Whitaker,: 0, Anatomy of an Epidemic, 9780307452429
Andy Wilson,: 0, Northern Soul, 9781843922087