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Social Problems in a Diverse Society, 3Ce
Kendall/Nygaard/Thompson
CHAPTER 8
Addictions
CHAPTER SUMMARY
A wide variety of people are affected by drugs and gambling. Drugs are used either for
therapeutic or recreational purposes; they may be either legal or illegal. Drug addiction has two
essential characteristics: tolerance and withdrawal. In Canada, use of alcoholic beverages is
considered an accepted part of the dominant culture. Social scientists have identified four long-
term categories of drinking patterns. Abuse of alcohol may cause health problems, accidents, and
family problems. Despite what is known about tobacco’s dangers, just less than one-fourth of all
adults in Canada today smoke. People who do not smoke may be harmed by environmental
tobacco smoke. Prescription drugs benefit millions of people, but some people become
dependent on them; even over-the-counter drugs are subject to abuse and can be dangerous if not
taken as directed. People in this country also use illegal drugs, including marijuana, cocaine,
amphetamines (“uppers”), depressants, narcotics such as heroin, and hallucinogens. Gambling
has recently become a billion-dollar business in Canada, resulting in a greater awareness of
gambling addictions. Sociologists using an interactionist framework believe that addiction
behaviour is a learned behaviour. From a functionalist perspective, increased drug abuse and
problem gambling result from social institutions no longer keeping deviant behaviour in check.
From a conflict perspective, people in privileged positions criminalize the drugs that are abused
by the poor and powerless but not the ones abused by the privileged. From a feminist
perspective, drug abuse by women has to do with women’s vulnerability and disadvantaged
position in society. Two different types of programs exist for dealing with drug and alcohol
programs: prevention programs and treatment programs.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading Chapter 8, students should be able to:
1. Describe the four categories of long-term drinking patterns that social scientists have
identified, and discuss alcohol-related social problems.
2. List the major hazards associated with tobacco use.
3. Distinguish between licit and illicit drug use, pointing out ways in which they are similar and
dissimilar.
4. Explain the state of problem gambling in Canada, with an emphasis on variables such as
gender, age, marital status, income and region.
5. Describe the purposes and methods of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention methods,
giving examples of each.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 1

KEY TERMS
codependency drug subculture primary prevention
drug environmental tobacco smoke tolerance
drug addiction fetal alcohol spectrum disorder withdrawal
drug dependency (FASD)
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. DRUG USE AND ABUSE
A. Defining Drug Abuse

1) Drugs are used for either therapeutic (e.g., to reduce a fever) or recreational (e.g.,
to achieve a “high”) purposes. Drugs can be either:
a. Licit (legal) drugs such as vitamins, aspirin, alcohol, tobacco, and
prescription drugs that are legal to manufacture, possess, and use, or
b. Illicit (illegal) drugs such as marijuana, LSD, and cocaine, which are
socially defined as deviant.
2) Drug abuse is the excessive or inappropriate use of a drug that results in some
form of physical, mental, or social impairment. It has both objective and
subjective components. The objective component is evidence that harm has been
done to individuals, families, communities, or the entire society. The subjective
component is perceptions about the consequences of drug abuse and what should
be done to remedy the problem.
B. Drug Addiction
1) Drug addiction (or drug dependency) has two essential characteristics: tolerance
and withdrawal.
a. Tolerance occurs when larger and larger doses of the drug are required to
produce the effect that was originally produced with a small amount of the
drug. Tolerance is a matter of degree. Some drugs produce immediate and
profound levels of tolerance, whereas others produce only mild tolerance.
b. Withdrawal refers to symptoms experienced by drug users when drug use
is discontinued. An example of withdrawal is when a person quits after
long-term, heavy drinking and experiences physical symptoms ranging
from insomnia to DTs (delirium tremens) and psychological symptoms
such as a reduced sense of self worth.
II. ALCOHOL USE AND ABUSE
A. Use and Abuse Generally

1) The use of alcohol is considered an accepted part of the dominant culture in
Canada. Alcohol and alcoholic beverages are wine, beer, and liquor.
a. Among people who drink, 10 percent could account for roughly half the
total alcohol consumption in this country.

b. Although alcohol can be purchased legally by adults, it is a psychoactive

drug that is a depressant because it lowers the activity level of the central
nervous system, resulting in impaired judgment.
c. Alcohol affects mood and behaviour. Having 1 to 2 drinks often brings
about a release from tensions and inhibitions. 3 – 4 drinks affects self
control and judgement. 5 – 6 drinks affects sensory perception and a
person may exhibit signs of intoxication. At 7 to 8 drinks, the drinker is
obviously intoxicated and may go into a stupor. Nine or more drinks affect
vital centres, and the drinker may become comatose or even die. Women
are more adversely affected than men by the same number of drinks
because they have a lower percentage of water in their bodies.
2) Chronic heavy or alcoholism drinking can damage the brain or other parts of the
body. Social scientists divide long-term drinking patterns into 4 categories:
a. Social drinkers consume alcoholic beverages primarily on social
occasions.
b. Heavy drinkers consume greater quantities and are more likely to become
intoxicated.
c. Acute alcoholics have trouble controlling their use of alcohol, and plan
their schedule around drinking.
d. Chronic alcoholics have lost control over their drinking and engage in
compulsive behaviours.
B. Alcohol Consumption and Gender, Age, Marital Status and Class
1) Alcohol is consumed by nearly 80 percent of the population.
2) Gender: More men than women drink. Women who drink tend to be lighter
drinkers than men, and men are more likely than women to be labelled as problem
drinkers or alcoholics.
3) Age: More young people than older are heavy drinkers (approximately 15 percent
versus less than half of that). Binge drinking, at least five drinks at one sitting, is
reported to be a major problem among postsecondary students.
4) Marital Status: Single and never-married people are much more likely to drink
heavily than those who are married, partnered, separated, divorced or widowed.
5) Class: In Canada, the relationship between income and drinking is U-shaped, with
people in the highest and lowest income brackets reported as the heaviest drinkers
but there is actually very little difference between people based upon income.
Those with university degrees tend to drink less than those with lower educational
attainment.
C. Alcohol-Related Social Problems
1) Health problems include:
a. Nutritional deficiencies: chronic heavy drinking contributes to high caloric
consumption but low nutritional intake. Adult onset diabetes is highly
probable.
b. Alcoholic dementia: difficulties in problem solving, remembering things,
and organizing facts about one’s identity and surroundings.
c. Cardiovascular problems: such as inflammation and enlargement of the
heart muscle, poor blood circulation, reduced heart contractions, high
blood pressure, and disorders such as stroke.

d. Alcoholic cirrhosis: a progressive development of scar tissue that chokes

off blood vessels in the liver and destroys liver cells by interfering with
the cell’s use of oxygen.
e. Shorter life expectancy: often as much as 10 to 12 fewer years than non-
drinkers or occasional drinkers.
f. Abuse of alcohol and other drugs by pregnant women can damage the
unborn fetus. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is an umbrella
term used to describe the range of disabilities and diagnoses that result
from drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
2) Alcohol in the Workplace:
a. Lost productivity due to absenteeism, tardiness, and workplace accidents
from alcohol use in Canada cost about $4.1 billion annually.
b. Excessive consumption impairs the sensorimotor skills necessary to
operate machinery and equipment, and studies show a relationship
between alcohol and other drugs and many workplace injuries or fatalities.
3) Driving and Drinking:
a. Drivers who have been drinking often do not realize how much alcohol
they consumed or what its effects are on their driving ability. Many drive
dangerously even when they are not legally drunk. In Canada, driving with
a blood alcohol level over 0.08 percent is referred to as impaired driving.
b. Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes account for 13 percent of all
alcohol-related hospitalizations and 12 percent of all alcohol-related days
in hospital. In 1992, alcohol-related collisions in Canada resulted in direct
costs for damage of $482.8 million.
4) Family Problems:
a. For every person who has a problem with alcohol, an average of at least
four other people are directly affected on a daily basis.
b. Domestic abuse and violence are frequently associated with heavy
drinking. Growing up in a family affected by alcohol can have profound
effects on children.
c. Many members of alcoholic families become enablers--people who adjust
their behaviour to accommodate an alcoholic. When co-dependency
occurs, family members take on many of the alcoholic’s responsibilities
and keep the person from experiencing the full impact of his or her
actions.
III. TOBACCO (NICOTINE) USE AS A SOCIAL PROBLEM
A. The nicotine in tobacco is a toxic, dependency-producing psychoactive drug that is more

addictive than heroin.
1) It is a stimulant because it stimulates central nervous system receptors and
activates them to release adrenalin, which raises blood pressure, speeds up the
heartbeat, and gives the user a sense of alertness.
2) Just less than one in four Canadian adults smoke; over the age of 15, 25 percent
of men and 20 percent of women smoke.

B. Although the overall proportion of smokers in the general population has declined
somewhat since the 1964 Surgeon General’s warning that smoking is linked to cancer
and other serious diseases, tobacco is still thought to be responsible for about 37 000
deaths per year in Canada.
1) People who smoke have a greater likelihood of developing lung cancer and cancer
of the larynx, mouth, and esophagus because nicotine is ingested into the
bloodstream through the lungs and soft tissues of the mouth. It is estimated that
about 10 cigarettes a day on average reduces a person’s life expectancy by 4
years; more than 40 cigarettes a day reduces it by 8 years.
2) Even people who never smoke are harmed by environmental tobacco smoke.
Children who grow up where one or both parents smoke are more likely to suffer
from frequent ear infections, upper respiratory infections, and other health
problems.
C. Teenagers are the group most likely to start smoking. Smoking has been used by youth as
a form of rebellion and method of showing solidarity with peers.
IV. PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, OVER-THE-COUNTER DRUGS, AND CAFFEINE
A. Prescription drugs are dispensed only by a registered pharmacist upon approval by a

physician or dentist.
1) Pain medication is probably the most abused prescription drug. Millions of
people benefit from narcotics—opiates such as morphine (Duramorph and
Roxanol), propoxyphene (Darvon), and codeine--that relieve pain, suppress
coughing, control chronic diarrhea, and reduce heroin withdrawal symptoms.
2) Over time, users develop tolerance for the drug and begin to increase dosages to
obtain the same effect. Drug dependency that results from physician-supervised
treatment for a recognized medical disorder is called iatrogenic addiction.
3) Two widely prescribed drugs that are the subject of controversy are Ritalin and
Prozac.
a. Ritalin is a stimulant prescribed for children diagnosed with attention-
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is characterized by
emotionality, behavioural hyperactivity, short attention span,
distractibility, impulsiveness, and perceptual and learning disabilities. In
Ontario, 1.0 percent of students used drugs for ADHD in 2007. Critics
argue that parents, doctors, and teachers see Ritalin as a “quick fix” for
dealing with troublesome children.
b. Prozac, a treatment for major depression, has become a “cure-all for the
blues” for people who do not meet the criteria for clinical depression. It is
one of the most widely abused prescription drugs. Advocates believe that
Prozac enhances the quality of life for many people, freeing them from
depression and suicidal thoughts. But there is some evidence that Prozac
is associated with intense, violent suicidal thoughts in some patients.
B. Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are restricted only by the customer’s ability to pay. OTC
drugs include analgesics, sleep aids, and cough-and-cold remedies.

1) Abuse of aspirin and other analgesics can cause gastric bleeding, problems with
blood clotting, complications in surgery patients and pregnant women in labour
and delivery, and Reyes syndrome (a potentially life-threatening condition that
arises when children with flu, chicken pox, or other viral infections are given
aspirin).
2) Sleep aids are dangerous when combined with alcohol or some cough and cold
remedies because they are depressants that slow down the central nervous system.
C. Caffeine, a relatively safe drug, is a dependency-producing psychoactive stimulant. It is
an ingredient in coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks, and stimulants such as NoDoz and
Vivarin. Coffee drinkers drank 86 litres in 2006, up 6.5 litres from 1997.
1) Generally speaking, people ingest caffeine because they like the feeling of mental
alertness and reduced fatigue it produces.
2) Short-term effects include dilated peripheral blood vessels, constricted blood
vessels in the head, and a slightly elevated heart rate. Long-term effects of heavy
caffeine use (more than 3 cups of coffee or 5 cups of tea per day) include
increased risk of heart attack and osteoporosis—the loss of bone density and
increased brittleness associated with fractures and broken bones.
V. ILLEGAL DRUG USE AND ABUSE
A. History
1) In the 19th and early 20th century, people in Canada had fairly easy access to
drugs, currently illegal, for general use. There were no licensed doctors or
pharmacists, and people sold patent medicines that contained such ingredients as
opium, morphine, heroin, cocaine, and alcohol.
2) Prescriptions became required for some drugs because of the rapidly growing
number of narcotics addicts. Some forms of drug use were criminalized because
of their association with specific minority groups. For example, in Canada, opium
could legally be consumed in cough syrup, but smoking the same amount was
declared illegal in 1908 because opium smoking was linked to Chinese people in
Canada.
B. Marijuana
1) Marijuana is the most extensively used illicit drug in Canada.
2) Marijuana with high delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content has existed for
years, but potency has increased recently because more marijuana plants are now
grown indoors in Canada. Indoor crops have THC levels up to 4 times as high as
plants grown outdoors and in other nations.
3) Marijuana is both a central nervous system depressant and a stimulant. Low to
moderate doses produce sedation; high doses produce a sense of well-being,
euphoria, and sometimes hallucinations. Driving a car or operating heavy
machinery is dangerous for a person under the influence of marijuana.
4) Heavy marijuana use can impair concentration and recall. Users become apathetic
and lose their motivation to perform competently or achieve long-range goals.
Studies have found an increased risk of cancer and other lung problems associated
with inhaling because marijuana smokers are believed to inhale more deeply than

tobacco users.
5) High doses of marijuana smoked during pregnancy can disrupt the development
of a fetus and result in lower birth weight, congenital abnormalities, premature
delivery, and neurological disturbances.
6) In 2001, Health Canada authorized the use of marijuana for medical purposes and
as of July 2008, 2812 people were permitted to possess dried marijuana.
C. Stimulants
1) Cocaine is an extremely potent and dependence-producing drug derived from the
coca plant.
a. Users typically sniff the drug into their nostrils, inject the drug
intravenously, or smoke it in the form of crack.
b. 0.7 percent of Canadians aged 15 and older had used cocaine in 1994, and
this figure has remained relatively stationary over time. For some, dealing
cocaine is major source of revenue and an entry point for other drug-
related crime.
c. Most cocaine users experience a powerful “rush” in which the blood
pressure rises and the heart rate and respiration increase dramatically.
When the drug wears off, the user becomes increasingly agitated and
depressed. Some become depressed and suicidal. Occasionally, cocaine
use results in sudden death by triggering an irregular heart rhythm. People
who use cocaine over extended periods of time have higher rates of
infection, heart disturbance, internal bleeding, hypertension, cardiac arrest,
stroke, haemorrhaging, and other neurological and cardiovascular
disorders than non-users.
d. Cocaine use is extremely hazardous in pregnancy. Children born to crack-
addicted mothers typically suffer painful withdrawal symptoms at birth
and deficits in cognitive skills, judgement, and behaviour controls.
2) Amphetamines (“uppers”) stimulate the central nervous system.
a. Diet pills and pep formulas are legal when prescribed by a physician, but
many people become physically and/or psychologically dependent upon
them because they believe they cannot lose weight or have enough energy
without the pills.
b. Chronic amphetamine abuse can result in amphetamine psychosis,
characterized by paranoia, hallucinations, and violent tendencies that may
persist for weeks after use of the drug has been discontinued. Overdosing
on amphetamines can produce coma, brain damage, and even death.
D. Depressants
1) The most commonly used depressants are barbiturates (e.g., Nembutal and
Seconal) and anti-anxiety drugs or tranquilizers (e.g., Librium, Valium, and
Miltown).
2) Relatively low oral doses produce a relaxing and mildly dis-inhibiting effect;
higher doses result in sedation. Users may develop both physical addiction and
psychological dependency on these depressants.
3) Rohypnol and GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) are popular among young people
since they are inexpensive and produce mild euphoria, increased sociability, and
lowered inhibitions.

a. Rophynol (an anesthetic and sleep aid in other countries) is not approved
for use in Canada. It is known as “Roofies” and as the “date rape drug”
because a number of women have been raped after an acquaintance
slipped the drug into their drink.
b. Combining alcohol and Rohypnol or GHB has been linked to automobile
accidents and deaths from overdoses because it is difficult to judge how
much intoxication will occur when depressants are mixed with alcohol.
E. Narcotics
1) Heroin is the most widely abused narcotic but the percentage who use it is very
small.
2) Most heroin users inject the drug intravenously so they can experience an initial
tingling sensation and feeling of euphoria, typically followed by a state of
drowsiness or lethargy. Heroin users quickly develop a tolerance for the drug and
must increase the dosage continually to achieve the same effect. In high doses,
heroin produces extreme respiratory depression, coma, and even death. Shooting
up can cause users to contract hepatitis or HIV/AIDS from contaminated needles
and syringes.
3) Heroin and other opiates are highly addictive. Users experience intense cravings
for another fix and have physical symptoms such as diarrhoea and dehydration
from drug withdrawal.
4) Heroin use is linked more directly to crime than many other drugs.
F. Hallucinogens
1) Hallucinogens or psychedelics are drugs that produce illusions and hallucinations.
Mescaline (peyote), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), phencyclidine (PCP), and
MDMA (ecstasy or “E”) produce mild to profound psychological effects
depending on the dosage.
2) Mescaline or peyote was the earliest hallucinogen used in North America. Its
consumption dates back to early eras of Native American religious celebrations.
3) LSD is one of the most powerful psychoactive drugs; 10 mg of the drug can
produce highly unpredictable, dramatic psychological effects for up to 12 hours.
Users report experiences ranging from the beautiful (a “good trip”) to the
frightening and extremely depressing (a “bad trip”).
4) Among the most recent hallucinogens are PCP (“angel dust”) and MDMA
(“ecstasy”).
a. Initially, PCP was an anaesthetic used in surgical procedures, but it was
removed from production when patients showed signs of agitation, intense
anxiety, and hallucinations after receiving the drug.
b. MDMA (“ecstasy”), manufactured in illegal labs by inexperienced
chemists, is made from amphetamines that produce hallucinogenic effects.
Ecstasy or “E” has a high abuse potential and is often a part of “rave”
culture.
G. Inhalants
1) Inhalants are products such as gasoline, glue, paints, cleaning fluids, and toiletries
that people inhale to get high. Inhalant abuse is common because inhalants are
inexpensive, easy to obtain, and fast acting.
2) Inhalants contain poisonous chemicals that can make abusers sick damage their

nerve and brain cells, and even kill them.

3) While inhalant abuse is found in all ethnic groups in Canada, the prevalence of
their use may be higher among Indigenous children and adolescents.
VI. GAMBLING AND PROBLEM GAMBLING
A. Types of Gamblers
1) Psychologists in Ontario investigated the issue of gambling in Canada and
found that 54 percent of the population were non-problem gamblers, 6 percent
were at risk of problem gambling, 2.6 percent had moderate gambling problems,
and 0.8 percent had severe gambling problems.
2) Symptoms associated with problem gambling include making increased wagers,
returning to win back losses, borrowing money or selling something to gamble,
feeling guilty about gambling, experiencing financial problems, and developing
health problems such as stress and anxiety.
3) Severe problem gamblers participated more in every kind of gambling (tickets,
electronic, games with friends, casinos, horse racing, bingo, sports betting, and
speculative investment).
B. Problem Gambling and Province, Gender, Age, Marital Status, Education, and
Income
1) About 2 percent of Canadians were problem gamblers, ranging from 1.5 percent
of people in New Brunswick to 2.9 percent of people in Manitoba. A higher
percentage of men than women were severe problem gamblers, as well a higher
percentage of young people, as compared to older individuals, were severe
problem gamblers. Those who had completed post-secondary education were less
likely to be severe problem gamblers. A higher percentage of those who had the
highest level of income ($100,000+) were likely to be severe problem gamblers.
C. Gambling-Related Social Problems
1) Almost half of severe problem gamblers reported one or more problems
including: difficulty making a paycheque last; gambling with money budgeted for
something else; negatively affected personal relationships; negatively affected
work; and, thoughts of suicide.
VII. EXPLANATIONS OF DRUG ABUSE
A. The Interactionist Perspective

1) Interactionists believe drug behaviour is learned behaviour that is strongly
influenced by families, peers, and other people. People are more likely to abuse
drugs if they have frequent, intense, and long-lasting interactions with people who
abuse drugs.
2) Similarly, when there are more factors favouring drug use than there are opposing
it, the person is likely to use the drug (e.g., some children learn to abuse alcohol
or other drugs by watching their parents drink excessively or use illegal drugs;
other young people learn about drug use from their peer group).
3) People are more prone to accept attitudes and behaviours favourable to drug use if
they spend time with members of a drug subculture. Over time, people in heavy

drinking or drug subcultures tend to become closer to others within their

subculture and more distant from people outside the subculture.
B. The Functionalist Perspective
1) Functionalists point out that social institutions such as the family, education, and
religion that previously kept deviant behaviour in check have become fragmented
and somewhat disorganized. Hence, it is now necessary to use formal mechanisms
of social control to prohibit people from taking illegal drugs or driving under the
influence of alcohol or other drugs. External controls in the form of law
enforcement are also required to discourage people from growing, manufacturing,
or importing illegal substances. However, these controls are not available for
problem gambling, as it is a legal activity that provides substantial employment
and money for government budgets.
2) Prescription and over-the-counter drugs are functional for patients, because they
ease pain, cure illness, and sometimes enhance or extend life. And for doctors,
because they provide a means for treating illness and help justify the doctor’s fee.
Without pills to dispense, there would be no need for pharmacists. Dysfunctions
also occur with prescription drugs. Patients may experience adverse side effects or
develop a psychological dependence on the drug; doctors, pharmacists, and drug
companies may be sued because they manufactured, prescribed, or sold a drug
alleged to cause bodily harm to users.
C. The Conflict Perspective
1) People in positions of economic and political power make the sale, use, and
possession of some drugs illegal. Those in privileged positions criminalize drugs
such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin because historically these are substances
abused by the poor and the powerless.
2) Opium smoking was outlawed because it was associated with Chinese
immigrants. Restricting the drugs that members of a subordinate racialized/ethnic
groups use is one method of suppressing the group and limiting its ability to
threaten dominant group members or gain upward mobility in society. Those who
control the nation’s political and legal apparatus decide whether a drug is legal or
illegal.
3) Conflict theorists also point out that powerful corporate interests perpetuate the
use and abuse of legal drugs.
D. Feminist Perspective
1) Feminist theorists point out that a significant part of the explanation of drug abuse
by women has to do with women’s vulnerability, and disadvantaged position in
society.
2) A feminist approach to the problem emphasizes the different types of drug abuse
by males and females: male are more likely to use alcohol and illicit drugs, while
females are more likely to use licit, psychotherapeutic drugs. The differences in
drug taking may be explained by the risk-taking behaviour of men and the relative
willingness of women to adopt the sick role.
3) Since a much smaller percentage of severe problem gamblers are women, it is less of an
issue for feminists. The focus for feminists is the fact that many women and
children suffer from the consequences of men’s severe gambling.

VIII. THE FUTURE OF ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE
A. Prevention Programs
1) Most primary prevention programs focus on people who have had little or no
previous experience with drugs. Secondary prevention programs seek to limit the
extent of drug abuse, prevent the spread of drug abuse to other substances beyond
the drugs already experienced, and teach strategies for the responsible use of licit
drugs such as alcohol. Tertiary prevention programs seek to limit relapses by
individuals recovering from alcoholism or drug addiction.
2) Prevention, according to Canada’s Drug Strategy, is best done through a
combination of public awareness campaigns, educational resources, training
service providers, and community action.
a. Scare tactics and negative education programs have not worked. They turn
students off and do not achieve their desired goal.
b. Objective-information programs often begin in kindergarten and run
through grade 12.Using texts, curriculum guides, videos, and other
materials, teachers impart information about drugs to students, but some
students become more, instead of less, interested in experimenting.
c. Vigorous single preventative strategy campaigns for preventing drug
abuse have had limited success in deterring drug use. As one student said,
“When someone tells you not to do it, that makes you want to do it even
more”.
B. Treatment Programs
1) Treatment programs are a form of tertiary prevention, seeking to ensure that
people who have sought help for some form of drug abuse remain drug-free.
2) The Medical Treatment Model
a. This model assumes that drug abuse and alcoholism are medical problems
that must be resolved by treatment by medical officials. Treatment may
take the form of aversion therapy or behavioural conditioning. For
example, drugs (such as Cyclazocine and Nalozone) are given to heroin
and opiate addicts to prevent the euphoric feeling they associate with
taking the drugs. Supposedly, when the pleasure is gone from taking the
drug, the person will no longer abuse the drug.
b. Antabuse is used in treating alcoholism. After the person has been
detoxified and no alcohol remains in the bloodstream, Antabuse is
administered along with small quantities of alcohol for several consecutive
days. Since this combination produces negative effects such as nausea and
vomiting, the individual eventually develops an aversion to drinking.
3) Short- and Long-Term Services and the Therapeutic Community
a. Short-term services include withdrawal management (detoxification)
services, which give people a place to stay while their bodies get rid of
alcohol or drugs and adapt to a drug-free state. Long-term services include
counselling, rehabilitation, and/or the therapeutic community.
b. The therapeutic community approach believes drug abuse is best treated
by intensive individual and group counselling in either a residential or
non-residential setting. Residential treatment take place in a special house

or dormitory where alcoholics or drug addicts remain for periods of time

ranging from several months to several years. Residents receive therapy
and try new behaviour patterns outside of their drinking or drug abuse
environments.
c. Perhaps the best known non-residential therapeutic communities are
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Both
provide members with support in their efforts to overcome dependence and
addiction. AA and NA are based on a 12-Step Program that requires
members to acknowledge that they are alcoholics or drug addicts who must
have the help of “God” and of other people to remain sober or drug-free.
Group support is central to success in these programs.
d. Sociologists believe AA is successful because it provides former
alcoholics the opportunity to be “delabelled” as a stigmatized deviant and
relabelled as a former and repentant deviant. However, social class and
personality factors affect people’s ability to enter into the repentant role,
which requires a public admission of guilt and repentance, and to
successfully interact with others in the program.
ACCESSING THE REAL WORLD: ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH

PROBLEMS RELATED TO ADDICTIONS
Focus on Community Action

Have students gather information about local facilities and resources that focus on assisting
people with addiction problems, such as detoxification centres, drug treatment centres, drug
counselling centres, or AIDS Societies. Have them choose an organization that they would like
to visit and arrange an informal interview with a staff or volunteer member. Have them find out
what resources the organization offers for people suffering from addictions, and if they have
been effective in meetings their goals. Have the students also investigate any barriers that exist
for individuals accessing this help.
Next, put the students in to small groups (4-6 students) and have them report back to the group
on what they found. As a class, have the students make a comprehensive guide of all addiction
resources in your community. Have the students pass on this information to their local students’
union or campus health centre as a resource for other students to use.
Focus on Theoretical Analysis

Separate students into groups of three. Each student in the group should familiarize themselves
with a different theoretical analysis—conflict, symbolic interactionist, and feminist. The
students who are assigned the conflict theory will investigate tobacco use and abuse from this
perspective. The students who are learning about the symbolic interactionist theory will analyze
problem gambling from this perspective. Finally, the students researching feminist theory will
focus on prescription drug use and abuse from this perspective. Once they have become experts
on their topics, they will meet as groups of three and relay their findings back to the group.

Focus on Media Engagement

Have students watch three episodes of contemporary prime time television (if they do not have
access to cable they can use a website such as www.tvshack.net or www.episodecentral.com to
watch streaming video of prime time television), such as Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy, House,
Private Practice, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, Weeds, or Desperate Housewives. Have
them write a brief report on the portrayal of alcohol use and abuse in popular television. What
do they notice about the gendered, racialized and class dimensions of alcohol use? How do
people behave when consuming alcohol? How often is binge drinking portrayed? Do the
students think these television shows accurately portray the realities of alcohol use and abuse?
Make sure they take note of concrete examples to share with the rest of the class. Have a class
discussion about each student’s findings. Did all the students discover the same things? Do they
think the depiction of alcohol on television is problematic or accurate?
APPLYING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH DISCUSSION

1. Does public tolerance of alcohol and tobacco lead to increased use of these drugs? Why do
many people view the use of alcohol and tobacco differently from the use of illicit drugs?
2. What are some the most frequently abused drugs in Canada? Who is most likely to use these
drugs and why?
3. Does racialization/ethnicity, class, gender, and age play a part in alcohol and drug use and
abuse? If yes, how? If no, what does?
4. As a sociologist, how would you propose to deal with the drug problem in Canada? If you
were called upon to revamp existing drug laws and policies, what, if any, changes would you
make in them?
5. What are the main issues surrounding safe injections sites, such as the Insite program in
Vancouver? Should Canada support them? Why or why not?
6. What is the profile of the typical severe problem gambler in Canada? Why do you think that
gambling has become so problematic for some Canadians?
7. Why do you think that scare tactics and negative-education programs do little to deter youth
from engaging in illegal drug use? What kind of preventative strategies do you think would
be more effective for deterring youth from drug use?
AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION

Cheating Death —This documentary tells the story of a young Toronto man and the little
understood world of guns, gangs and drugs. 2004. 24 mins. National Film Board of Canada,
www.nfb.ca.

Cottonland—This film documents personal dependency on prescription painkillers by many in

the economically depressed community of Glace Bay, illuminating the conditions under which
addiction thrives. 2006. 54 mins. National Film Board of Canada, www.nfb.ca.
Donna’s Story—An intimate portrait of a fiercely determined survivor, this film profiles a Cree
woman who left behind a bleak existence on the streets, and has re-emerged as a powerful voice
counselling Aboriginal adults and youth about abuse and addiction. 2001. 50 mins. National Film
Board of Canada, www.nfb.ca.
East Side Showdown—Middle-class homeowners, angry radicals, desperate drug addicts and
people simply looking for a place to lay their head: all are players in a bitter struggle in the
downtown Toronto neighbourhood of Dundas and Sherbourne. 1999. 46 mins. National Film
Board of Canada, www.nfb.ca.
Fix: The Story of an Addicted City—This is the story of Vancouver’s struggle to open Canada’s
first safe injection site for drug users. 2002. 93 or 45 mins. Canada Wild Productions.
www.canadawildproductions.com
Pieces of a Dream: A Story of Gambling—Set in St. Paul, Alberta, this documentary focuses on
Philip Wong, who committed suicide at the age of 36 as a result of his problems with a gambling
addiction. 2003. 48 mins. National Film Board of Canada, www.nfb.ca.
The Tobacco Conspiracy—This documentary takes a hard hitting behind the scenes look at the
enormously powerful tobacco industry and the corruption and manipulation that are part of it.
2005. 52 mins. National Film Board of Canada, www.nfb.ca.
Through a Blue Lens—This film tells the story of a unique group police officers who formed a
non-profit group dubbed the Odd Squad, and their relationship with addicts in Vancouver’s
Downtown Eastside. 1999. 52 mins. National Film Board of Canada, www.nfb.ca.
Flipping the World: Drugs Through a Blue Lens—Inspired by the hit documentary Through a
Blue Lens, Flipping the World is an honest look at the world of youth and drug addiction, as told
by those who have been there. Seven culturally diverse high school students meet with members
of the Odd Squad – Vancouver police officers who, since 1998, have been filming people
addicted to drugs. 2000. 30 mins. National Film Board of Canada, www.nfb.ca.
Hoffman’s Potion—This documentary offers a compassionate, open-minded look at LSD and

how it fits into our world. Featuring interviews with LSD pioneers, beautiful music and stunning
cinematography, this is much more than a simple chronicle of LSD's early days. It's an
alternative way of looking at the drug... and our world. 2002. 56 mins. National Film Board of
Canada, www.nfb.ca.

CRITICAL READINGS
Brady, Kathleen T., Sudie E. Back, and Shelly F. Greenfield. 2009. Women and Addiction:
A Comprehensive Handbook. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Courtwright, David T. 2004. Dark Paradise: A History of Opiate Addiction in America. London,
GB: Harvard University Press.
Csiernik, Rick. 2003. Responding to the Oppression of Addiction: Canadian Social Work.
Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars Press.
Langton, Jerry. 2007. Iced: The Crystal Meth Epidemic. Toronto, ON: Key Porter Books.
Levinthal, Charles F. 1999. Drugs, behaviour, and Modern Society (2nd edition). Boston, MA:
Allyn and Bacon.
Marlatt, G. Allan (Ed.). 2002. Harm Reduction: Pragmatic Strategies for managing High Risk
Behaviours. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Maté, Gabor. 2009. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addictions.
Toronto, ON: Vintage Canada.
McCown, William G. 2007. Treating Gambling Problems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Pearce, Debbie, Deborah Schwartz and Lorraine Greaves. 2008. No Gift: Tobacco Policy
and Aboriginal People in Canada. Vancouver: British Columbia Centre of
Excellence for Women's Health.
Thombs, Dennis. 2006. Introduction to Addictive Behaviours (3rd edition). New York, NY: The
Guilford Press.

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I shall never forget the impression Dobbs made on me that night,
as we two walked in from the starlight to the glare of the gas-
burners.
A BLAZE OF HONESTY.
As I have said before, he had a tall and striking figure. His face
was ugly. He was ungraceful, ragged, and uncouth. Yet there was a
splendid glow of honesty that shone from every feature, and
challenged your admiration. It was not that cheap honesty that
suffuses the face of your average honest man; but a vivid burst of
light that, fed by principle, sent its glow from the heart. It was not the
passive honesty that is the portion of men who have no need to
steal, but the triumphant honesty that has grappled with poverty, with
disease, with despair, and conquered the whole devil’s brood of
temptation; the honesty that has been sorely tried, the honesty of
martyrdom; the honesty of heroism. He was the honestest man I
ever knew.
THE PATHOS OF INCONGRUITY.
There was one feature of his dress that was pathetic in its
uniqueness. He wore a superb swallow-tail dress-coat; a gorgeous
coat, which was doubtless christened at some happy wedding (his
father’s, I suppose); had walked side by side with dainty laces; been
swept through stately quadrilles, pressed upon velvet, and to-night
came to me upon a shirtless back, and asked “trust” for a half-dozen
newspapers.
It had that seedy, threadbare look which makes broadcloth, after
its first season, the most melancholy dress that sombre ingenuity
ever invented. It was scrupulously brushed and buttoned close up to
the chin, whether to hide the lack of a shirt, I never in the course of
six months’ intimate acquaintance had the audacity to inquire. In the
sleeve, on which rosy wrists had, in days gone by, laid in loving
confidence, a shriveled arm hung loosely, and from its outlet three
decrepit fingers driveled. His hat was old, and fell around his ears.
His breeches, of a whitish material, which had the peculiarity of
leaving the office perfectly dirty one evening and coming back pure
and clean the next morning. What amount of midnight scrubbing this
required from my hero Dobbs, I will not attempt to tell. Neither will I
guess how he became possessed of that wonderful coat. Whether in
the direst days of the poverty which had caught him, his old mother,
pitying her boy’s rags, had fished it up from the bottom of a trunk
where, with mayhaps an orange-wreath or a bit of white veil, it had
lain for years, the last token of a happy bridal night, and, baptizing it
with her tears, had thrown it around his bare shoulders, I cannot tell.
All I know is, that taken in connection with the rest of his attire, it was
startling in its contrast; and that I honored the brave dignity with
which he buttoned this magnificent coat against his honest rags, and
strode out to meet the jeers of the world and work out a living.
FIVE DOLLARS A WEEK.
I knew Dobbs for six months! Day after day I saw him come at
three o’clock in the morning. I saw his pale face, and that coat so
audacious in its fineness, go to the press-room, fold his papers, and
hurry out into the weather. One night I stopped him.
“Dobbs,” says I, “how much do you make a week?”
“I average five dollars and twenty cents, sir. I have twenty-seven
regular customers. I get the paper at fifteen cents a week from you,
and sell it to them at twenty-five cents. I make two dollars and
seventy cents off of them, and then I sell about twenty-five extra
papers a morning.”
“What do you do with your money?”
“It takes nearly all of it to support me and mother.”
“You don’t mean to tell me that you and your mother live on five
dollars and twenty cents a week?”
“Yes, sir, we do, and pay five dollars a month rent out of that. We
live pretty well, too,” with a smile, possibly induced by the vision of
some of those luxuries which were included under the head of “living
pretty well.” I was crushed!
Five dollars and twenty-five cents a week! The sum which I waste
per week upon cigars. The paltry amount which I pay almost any
night at the theater. The sum that I spend any night I may chance to
strike a half-dozen boon companions. This sum, so contemptible to
me—wasted so lightly—I find to be the sum total of the income of a
whole family—the whole support of two human beings.
I left Dobbs, humiliated and crushed. I pulled my hat over my eyes,
strolled down to Mercer’s, and bought a twenty-five cent cigar and
sat down to think over my duty in the premises.
... One morning the book-keeper of the Herald, to whom my
admiration for Dobbs was well known (I having frequently delivered
glowing lectures upon his character from the mailing table to an
audience of carriers, clerks, and printers), approached me and with a
devilish smack of joy in his voice, says:
“I am afraid your man Dobbs is a fraud. Some time ago he
persuaded the clerk to give him credit on papers. He ran up a bill of
about seven dollars, and then melted from our view. We have not
seen or heard of him since—expect he’s gone to trading with the
Constitution now, to bilk them out of a bill.”
This looked bad—but somehow or other I still had a firm faith in
my hero. God had written “honesty” too plain in his face for my
confidence in him to be shaken. I knew that if he had sinned or
deceived, that it was starvation or despair that had driven him to it,
and I forgave him even before I knew he was guilty....
About a week after this happened, a bombazine female—one of

those melancholy women that occasionally arise like some Banquo’s
ghost in my pathway, and always, I scarce know why, put remorse to
twitching at my heart-strings—came into my sanctum and asked for
me.
“I am the mother,” says she, in a voice which sorrow (or snuff) had
filled with tears and quavers—“of Mr. Dobbs, a young man who used
to buy papers from you. He left owing you a little, and asked me to
see you about it.”
“Left? Where has he gone?”
“To heaven, I hope, sir! He is dead!”
“Dead?”
A CONSCIENTIOUS DEBTOR.
“Yes, sir; my poor boy went last Thursday. He were all I had on
earth, but he suffered so it seemed like a mercy to let him go. He
were worried to the last about a debt he was owin’ of you. He said
you had been clever to him, and would think hard ef he didn’t pay
you. He wanted you to come and see him so he could explain as
how he were took down with the rheumatizum, but that were no one
to nuss him while I come for you. He had owin’ to him when he were
took, about three dollars, which he have an account of in this little
book. He told me with his last breath to cullect this money, and not to
use a cent tell I had paid you, and if I didn’t git enough, to turn you
over the book. I hev took in one dollar and tirty cents, and”—with the
air of one who has fought the good fight—“here it is!” So saying, she
ran her hand into a gash in the bombazine, which looked like a
grievous wound, and pulled out one of those long cloth purses that
always reminded me of the entrails of some unfortunate dead
animal, and counted out the money. This she handed me with the
book.
I ran my eye over the ruggedly kept accounts and found that each
man owed from a dime up to fifty cents.
“Why, madam,” says I, “these accounts are not worth collecting.”
“That’s what he was afraid of,” says she, moving toward a bundle
that lay upon the floor; “he told me if you said so, to give you this,
and ask you to sell it if you could, and make your money. It’s all he
had, sir, or me, either, and he wouldn’t die easy ’til I told him I wud do
it! God knows”—and the tears rolled down her thin and hollow
cheeks—“God knows it were a struggle to promise to give it up. He
wore it, and his father before him. How many times it has covered
’em both! I had hoped to carry it to the end with me, and wrap my old
body in it when I died. But it was all we had which was fine, and he
wouldn’t rest ’til I told him I wud give it to you. Then he smiled as
pert-like as a child, and kissed me, and says, ‘Now I am ready to go!’
He were a good boy, sir, as ever lived”—and she rocked her old
body to and fro with her grief. Need I say that she had offered me the
old dress-coat? That sacred garment, blessed with the memory of
her son and his father, and which, rather than give up, she would
willingly pluck either of the withered arms that hung at her sides from
its socket!
I dropped my eyes to the account book again—for what purpose I
am not ashamed that the reader may guess.
In a few moments I spoke:
“Madam, I was mistaken in the value of these accounts; most of
the debtors on this book, I find upon a second look, are capitalists.
The $11 worth of accounts will sell for $12 anywhere. Your son owed
me $7. Leave the book with me; I will pay myself, and here is $5
balance which I hand to you. Your son was a good boy, and I feel
honored that I can serve his mother.”
She folded the old coat up and departed.
I kept the book.
It was a simple record of Dobbs’s life. Here ran his expense list—a
dreary trickle of “bacon” and “meal” and “rent,” enlivened only once
with “sugar”; a saccharine suggestion that I am unable to account
for, as it surely did not comport with either of the staples that formed
the basis of his life. Probably, on some grand occasion, he and his
mother ate it in the lump.
Here were his accounts, of say fifty cents each, on men accounted
responsible in the world’s eye—accounts for papers furnished
through snow, and sleet, and rain! Some of them showed signs of
having been called for a dozen times, being frescoed with such
notes as “Call Tuesday,” “Call Wednesday,” “Call Thursday,” etc.
On another page was a pathetic list of delusive liniments and
medicines, with which he had attacked his stubborn disease. Such
as, “King of Pane—kored a man in Maryetti in 2 days, $1.00”; “Magic
Linament—kores in 10 minnits, $2.00 a bottel”; and so on through
the whole catalogue of snares which the patent office turns out year
after year. Poor fellow! the only relief he got from his racking pains
was when God laid his healing hand on him.
I shall keep the book as long as I live.
In its thumbed and greasy leaves is written the record of a heroism
more lofty and a martyrdom more lustrous than ever lit the page of
book before or since.
I think I shall have it printed in duplicate, and scattered as leaven
throughout the lumpy Sunday-school libraries of the land.
A CORNER LOT.
“H E has been at that for thirteen years.”

And the speaker laughed as he watched an old man
gathering up a bucket of stones and broken bricks. The old man
continued his work until his bucket was filled, and then started back
toward Spring Street, stopping on the way to resurrect a rusted old
hoop that was nearly buried in the gutter.
After walking about three blocks he stopped at the corner of
Spring and James streets, and laying the rusty hoop carefully upon a
great heap of hoops of all kinds and sizes, he carried the bucket to
the back of his lot, a part of which was considerably lower than the
front, and emptied the bucketful of bricks and stones.
He was a very old man—about seventy years old, apparently—in
his shirt-sleeves, and wearing a dingy straw hat. He was feeble, too,
and his steps were slow, but he stopped only to get a drink of water
at the back door, and then ambled off with the empty bucket.
The little frame structure is half store and half residence. Just
inside the door to the store sat a portly old lady of sixty or
thereabouts. “Who is that old man yonder with that empty bucket?”
“Him! Why that’s old man Lewis Powell, and he’s my husband. I
thought everybody knowed him.”
“Is that all he does?”
“Fill up the lot, you mean? No, no, he puts hoops on barrels and
kegs, and raises calves and such like, but that’s his main business.
He’s been at it now for nigh on to fourteen years.”
“And how much has he filled in?”
“Oh, from the sidewalk on back. The lot is fifty by eighty, and it
used to be just one big hole. Now here on Spring Street where the
front is, the bank went nearly straight down ’cause the eye of the
sewer was right there. Then the sewer was open and run in a gully
the whole length of the lot, and just about in the middle of the lot.
Here on James Street, at the side there, it wasn’t so steep. The front
of the old house was about half-way down the bank, and the pillars
at the back was over ten feet high. The house wasn’t more’n twelve
feet that way, either, so you can tell how steep it was. And right at
the back door the sewer passed.”
“How deep was it?”
“Well, right here at the front the city men measured to the sewer
once, and it was a little over twenty feet below the sidewalk. The
back of the lot was a little lower. It was one big hole fifty by eighty,
and almost in the bottom of it was the old house.”
“Fourteen years ago.”
“Fourteen years ago we bought it from Jack Smith on time. It
wasn’t much, but me and Jenny and Joe and Stella just buckled
down and worked like tigers. The neighbors made fun of us at first,
and even the niggers thought it was funny. Now, I aint telling you this
because I’m stuck up about it, but it just shows what the Powell
family has done, and it shows what any poor folks can do if they just
stick at it.”
“Didn’t the old man help?”
“Yes, a little. But we had to live, and then he spent lots of his time
a-fillin’ up, so the brunt of the money part fell on me and the children.
We bought the mudhole, and he made the mudhole what it is now.
Right here where the mudhole was there is a corner lot, and them
what used to laugh at us would like mighty well to own it now.”
And the old lady smiled as though the thought was a very pleasant
one.
“Yes, sir,” she continued, “it’s worth a good deal now, and the first
thing you know, when the streets get paved along here, it will be
worth a lot more than it is now.”
“And the old man?”
“The old man has worked mighty faithful. Little at a time he has
fetched dirt, and rocks, and bricks, and trash. Then the city put a
pipe there for the sewer, and he begun at the sidewalk on Spring
Street and filled back. The bank kept getting further and further, and
after, I don’t know how long, we built this little house on the filled-in
part. The old man kept fillin’ back till we’ve got a pretty big back yard;
and there’s only a little part left to fill back there. You see, he never
tore up the old house—the patchwork palace of ’77—just throwed in
around it and in it till he has almost buried it.”
“Why?”
“Oh, it’s just a notion of his. He didn’t want to see the old house
tore up, and there it is now, with just the roof stickin’ out. In a little
while it will be one level yard, fifty by eighty, and a corner lot, too.
And by the time it all gets filled up—well, me and the old man is
gettin’ feeble now, and we won’t last much longer. But, now that we
are all out of debt, and just enough left to do to keep the old man’s
hand in, it does me good to think of that old mudhole, and how we
had to save and slave and pinch to pay for it. And I think the old man
likes to stand there at the corner and look back how level and
smooth it is, and think how it was done, a handful at a time, through
the rain and the snow and the sunshine. Fourteen years! It was a big
job, but we stuck to it, and I’m restin’ now, for my work is done. The
old man don’t work like he used to, but he says his job aint finished
yet, and he keeps fillin’ up.”
“And when his work is done—”
“Then he’ll rest, too.”
THE ATHEISTIC TIDE SWEEPING
OVER THE CONTINENT.
T HE Threatened Destruction of the Simple Faith of the Fathers by

the Vain Deceits of Modern Philosophers.—An Attack Christians
Must Meet.
[WRITTEN FOR THE CONSTITUTION, 1881.]
New York, January 26.—The dread of the times, as I see it, is the
growing skepticism in the leading circles of thought and action
throughout the country—a swelling tide of atheism and unbelief that
has already swept over the outposts of religion.
I am not alarmed by the fact that Henry Ward Beecher shook
hands with Ingersoll on a public stand, and has since swung beyond
the limit of orthodoxy, any more than I am reassured by the fact that
Stephen H. Tyng has, by indorsing the miracles at Lourdes, swung
back into the stronghold of superstition. These are mere personal
expressions that may mean much or little. They may be classed with
the complaint of Dr. Talmage that he found religion dead in a circuit
of 3000 miles of travel last year, which complaint is balanced by the
assertion of Dr. Hall that the growth of religious sentiment was never
so decisive as at present.
I have noted, in the first place, that the latter-day writers—
novelists, scientists and essayists—are arraying themselves in great
force either openly on the side of skepticism, or are treating religious
sentiment with a readiness of touch and lack of reverence, that is
hardly less dangerous. I need not run over the lists of scientists,
beginning with Tyndall, Huxley and Stephens, that have raised the
banner of negation—nor recount the number of novelists who follow
the lead of sweet George Eliot, this sad and gentle woman, who
allied sentiment to positivism so subtly, and who died with the
promise on her lips that her life would “be gathered like a scroll in the
tomb, unread forever”—who said that she “wanted no future that
broke the ties of the past,” and has gone to meet the God whose
existence she denied. We all know that within the past twenty years
there has been an alarming increase of atheism among the leading
writers in all branches. But it is the growth of skepticism among the
people that has astonished me.
I am not misled by the superb eloquence of Ingersoll nor the noisy
blasphemy of his imitators. I was with five journalists, and I found
that every one of them were skeptics, two of them in the most
emphatic sense. In a sleeping-car with eight passengers, average
people I take it, I found that three were confirmed atheists, three
were doubtful about it, and two were old-fashioned Christians. A
young friend of mine, a journalist and lecturer, asked me a few
months ago what I thought of his preparing a lecture that would
outdo Ingersoll—his excuse being that he found Ingersoll so popular.
I asked Henry Watterson once what effect Ingersoll’s lectures had on
the Louisville public. “No more than a theatrical representation,” was
the quick reply. Watterson was wrong. I have never seen a man who
came away from an Ingersoll lecture as stout of faith and as strong in
heart as he was when he went there.
I do not know that this spirit of irreligion and unbelief has made
much inroad on the churches. It is as yet simply eating away the
material upon which the churches must recruit and perpetuate
themselves. There is a large body of men and women, the bulk
probably of our population, that is between the church and its
enemies; not members of the church or open professors of religion,
they have yet had reverence for the religious beliefs, have respected
the rule of conscience, and believed in the existence of one
Supreme Being. These men and women have been useful to the
cause of religion, in that they held all the outposts about the camp of
the church militant, and protected it with enwrapping conservatism
and sympathy. It is this class of people that are now yielding to the
assaults of the infidel. Having none of the inspiration of religion, and
possessing neither the enthusiasm of converts nor the faith of
veterans, they are easily bewildered and overcome. It is a careless
and unthinking multitude on which the atheists are working, and the
very inertia of a mob will carry thousands if the drift of the mass once
floats to the ocean. And the man or woman who rides on the ebbing
tide goes never to return. Religious beliefs once shattered are hardly
mended. The church may reclaim its sinners, but its skeptics, never.
It is not surprising that this period of critical investigation into all
creeds and beliefs has come. It is a logical epoch, come in its
appointed time. It is one of the penalties of progress. We have
stripped all the earth of mystery, and brought all its phenomena
under the square and compass, so that we might have expected
science to doubt the mystery of life itself, and to plant its theodolite
for a measurement of the Eternal, and pitched its crucible for an
analysis of the soul. It was natural that the Greek should be led to
the worship of his physical gods, for the earth itself was a mystery
that he could not divine—a vastness and vagueness that he could
not comprehend. But we have fathomed its uttermost secret; felt its
most secret pulse, girdled it with steel, harnessed it and trapped it to
our liking. What was mystery is now demonstrated; what was vague
is now apparent. Science has dispelled illusion after illusion, struck
down error after error, made plain all that was vague on earth, and
reduced every mystery to demonstration. It is little wonder then that,
at last having reduced all the illusions of matter to an equation, and
anchored every theory to a fixed formula, it should assail the mystery
of life itself, and warn the world that science would yet furnish the
key to the problem of the soul. The obelisk, plucked from the heart of
Egypt, rests upon a shore that was as vaguely and infinitely beyond
the knowledge or aspiration of its builders as the shores of a star that
lights the space beyond our vision are to us to-day; the Chinaman
jostles us in the streets, and the centuries that look through his
dreamy eyes have lost all sense of wonder; ships that were freighted
from the heart of Africa lie in our harbor, and our market-places are
vocal with more tongues than bewildered the builders at Babel; a
letter slips around the earth in ninety days, and the messages of
men flash along the bed of the ocean; we tell the secrets of the
universe as a woman tells her beads, and the stars whirl serenely
through orbits that science has defined; we even read of the instant
when the comet that plunged in dim illimitable distance, where even
the separate stars are lost in mist and vapor, shall whirl again into
the vision of man, a wanderer that could not shake off the inexorable
supervision of science, even in the chill and measureless depths of
the universe. Fit time is this, then, for science to make its last and
supreme assault—to challenge the last and supreme mystery—defy
the last and supreme force. And the church may gird itself for the
conflict! As the Pope has said, “It is no longer a rebel that threatens
the church. It is a belligerent!” It is no longer a shading of creed. It is
the upsettal of all creeds that is attempted.
It is impossible to conceive the misery and the blindness that will
come in the wake of the spreading atheism. The ancients witnessed
the fall of a hundred creeds, but still had a hundred left. The vast
mystery of life hung above them, but was lit with religions that were
sprinkled as stars in its depths. From a host of censers was their air
made rich with fragrance, and warmed from a field of altars. No loss
was irreparable. But with us it is different. We have reached the end.
Destroy our one belief and we are left hopeless, helpless, blind. Our
air will be odorless, chill, colorless. Huxley, the leader of the
positivists, himself confesses—I quote from memory: “Never, in the
history of man, has a calamity so terrific befallen the race, as this
advancing deluge, black with destruction, uprooting our most
cherished hopes, engulfing our most precious creed, and burying our
highest life in mindless desolation.” And yet Mr. Huxley urges on this
deluge with furious energy. The aggressiveness of the atheists is
inexplicable to me. Why they should insist on destroying a system
that is pure and ennobling, when they have nothing to replace it with;
why they should shatter a faith that colors life, only to leave it
colorless; why they should rob life of all that makes life worth living;
why they should take away the consolation that lifts men and women
from the despair of bereavement and desolation, or the light that
guides the feet of struggling humanity, or the hope that robs even the
grave of its terror,—why they should do all this, and then stand
empty-handed and unresponsive before the yearning and
supplicating people they have stripped of all that is precious, is more
than I can understand. The best atheist, to my mind, that I ever
knew, was one who sent his children to a convent for their education.
“I cannot lift the blight of unbelief from my own mind,” he said, “but it
shall never fall upon the minds of my children if I can help it. As for
me, I would give all I have on earth for the old faith that I wore so
lightly and threw off so carelessly.”
The practical effects of the growth of atheism are too terrible to
contemplate. A vessel on an unknown sea that has lost its rudder
and is tossed in a storm—that’s the picture. It will not do for Mr.
Ingersoll to say that a purely human code of right and wrong can be
established to which the passions of men can be anchored and from
which they can swing with safety. It will not do for him to cite his own
correct life or the correct lives of the skeptical scientists, or of leading
skeptics, as proof that unbelief does not bring license. These men
are held to decency by a pride of position and by a sense of special
responsibility. It is the masses that atheism will demoralize and
debauch. It is thousands of simple men and women, who, loosed of
the one restraint that is absolute and imperious, will drift upon the
current of their passions, colliding everywhere, and bringing
confusion and ruin. The vastly greatest influence that religion has
exercised, as far as the world goes, has been the conservative
pressure that it has put upon the bulk of the people, who are outside
of the church. With the pressure barely felt and still less
acknowledged, it has preserved the integrity of society, kept the
dangerous instincts within bounds, repressed savagery, and held the
balance. Conscience has dominated men who never confessed even
to themselves its power, and the dim, religious memories of
childhood, breathing imperceptibly over long wastes of sin and
brutality, have dissolved clouds of passion in the souls of veterans.
Atheism will not work its full effect on this class of men. Even after
they have murdered conscience by withholding the breath upon
which it lives, its ghost will grope through the chambers of their brain,
menacing and terrible, and to the last,—
Creeping on a broken wing
Through cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear!
It is on the young men and women—the generation bred in the

chill atmosphere of unbelief—that atheism will do its worst. With no
traditions in which to guide their faith, no altar before which they can
do reverence, no ideal to which their eyes can turn, no standard lofty
enough to satisfy, or steadfast enough to assure—with no uplifting
that is not limited, no aspiration that has wings, and no enthusiasm
that is not absurd—with life but a fever that kindles in the cradle and
dies in the grave,—truly atheism meets youth with a dread prospect,
sullen, storm-swept, hopeless.
In the conflict that is coming, the church is impregnable, because
the church is right; because it is founded on a rock. The scientists
boast that they have evolved everything logically from the first
particles of matter; that from the crystal rock to sentient man is a
steady way, marked by natural gradations. They even say that, if a
new bulk were thrown off from the sun to-morrow it would spin into
the face of the earth, and the same development that has crowned
the earth with life would take place in the new world. And yet Tyndall
says: “We have exhausted physics, and reached its very rim, and yet
a mighty mystery looms up before us.” And this mystery is the
kindling of the atoms of the brain with the vital spark. There science
is baffled, for there is the supreme force that is veiled eternally from
the vision of man.
The church is not bound to the technicalities of argument in this
contest. It has the perfect right to say, and say logically, that
something must rest on faith—that there must be something in the
heart or soul before conviction can be made perfect. Just as we
cannot impress with the ecstasies and transports of earthly love a
man who has never loved, or paint a rainbow to a man who has
never seen. And yet the time has passed when religion can dismiss
the skeptic with a shriek or a sneer. I read one little book a year ago,
gentle, firm, decisive; a book that demonstrated the necessity and
existence of the Supreme Being, as clearly and as closely as a
mathematical proposition was worked out. But the strength of the
church is, after all, the high-minded consistency of its members; the
warmth and earnestness of its evangelism; the purity and gentleness
of its apostles. If the creeds are put at peace, and every man who
wears the Christian armor will go forth to plead the cause of the
meek and lowly Nazarene, whose love steals into the heart of man
as the balm of flowers into the pulses of a summer evening—then
we shall see the hosts of doubt and skepticism put to rout.
Of course I have no business to write all this. It is the province of
the preachers to talk of these things, and many no doubt will resent
as impertinent even the suggestion of a worldling. And yet it seems
so sure to me that in the swift and silent marshaling of the hosts of
unbelief and irreligion there is presaged the supremest test that the
faith of Christians has ever undergone, that I felt impelled to write.
There are men, outside of the active workers of the church, who
have all reverence for its institutions and love for its leaders; whose
hearts are stirred now and then by a faith caught at a mother’s knee,
or the memory of some rapt and happy moment; who want to live, if
not in the fold of the chosen, at least in the shadow of the Christian
sentiment, and among the people dominated by Christian faith; and
who hope to die at last, in the same trust and peace that moved the
dying Shakespeare—wisest, sweetest mind ever clothed in mortal
flesh—when he said: “I commend my soul into the hands of God, my
Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of
Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting.”

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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 1

I. DRUG USE AND ABUSE

A. Defining Drug Abuse

II. ALCOHOL USE AND ABUSE

A. Use and Abuse Generally

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b. Although alcohol can be purchased legally by adults, it is a psychoactive

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d. Alcoholic cirrhosis: a progressive development of scar tissue that chokes

III. TOBACCO (NICOTINE) USE AS A SOCIAL PROBLEM

A. The nicotine in tobacco is a toxic, dependency-producing psychoactive drug that is more

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 4

IV. PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, OVER-THE-COUNTER DRUGS, AND CAFFEINE

A. Prescription drugs are dispensed only by a registered pharmacist upon approval by a

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 5

V. ILLEGAL DRUG USE AND ABUSE

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 6

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 7

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nerve and brain cells, and even kill them.

VI. GAMBLING AND PROBLEM GAMBLING

VII. EXPLANATIONS OF DRUG ABUSE

A. The Interactionist Perspective

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 9

drinking or drug subcultures tend to become closer to others within their

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 10

VIII. THE FUTURE OF ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE

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or dormitory where alcoholics or drug addicts remain for periods of time

ACCESSING THE REAL WORLD: ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH

Focus on Community Action

Focus on Theoretical Analysis

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Focus on Media Engagement

APPLYING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH DISCUSSION

AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 13

Cottonland—This film documents personal dependency on prescription painkillers by many in

Hoffman’s Potion—This documentary offers a compassionate, open-minded look at LSD and

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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Canada Inc. 15

About a week after this happened, a bombazine female—one of

“H E has been at that for thirteen years.”

T HE Threatened Destruction of the Simple Faith of the Fathers by

[WRITTEN FOR THE CONSTITUTION, 1881.]

It is on the young men and women—the generation bred in the

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