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News

Class focuses on addiction

Changing attitudes toward drug and alcohol use will be examined

by Chi Chi Nwaorie
The Daily Cougar

This is the final article in a five-part series in which Daily Cougar staff writers provide a look into an interesting, non-core class being offered in Spring 2007.

Drug Use Addictions and Recovery, a course offered through the Department of Sociology, gives students an opportunity to escape the humdrum of core classes while acquiring an interesting look at role in society controlled substances.

The course will look into the legal and moral issues surrounding drugs and alcohol. Students can expect to explore how sociological analysis is useful in understanding societal definitions and judgments about drugs and alcohol, as well as the expansive subject of addiction. 

Russell L. Curtis, an associate professor and director of graduate studies for the Sociology Department, will lecture on such topics as alcohol consumption, crack cocaine use, the acquired need for heroin, dysfunctional dependencies on food, excessive uses of physical exercise and the various emotions associated with addictions.

Two major themes that Curtis will examine are factors underlying the use of drugs in the U.S. and changes in how alcohol and drug consumption and sale are defined, especially concerning the labels of "alcoholic" and "addict." Both themes will be associated with the ideological patterns and cultural factors associated with alcohol and drug use.

The course will also examine how institutions such as religion, the criminal justice system, education, the economy and marriage and family are related to drug use.

Curtis will take an in-depth approach to teaching about addictions. 

"Students will be asked to attend both an Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous meetings for this course," Curtis said.

Approximately 1,100 pages of readings will be assigned to students, averaging 25 pages per day, Monday through Friday throughout the semester, not including the optional reading list found on the syllabus. 

Many of the assigned texts will explore the role of drugs and alcohol in American society. Drinking: A Love Story by Carolyn Knapp, Smashed: Story of a Broken Childhood by Koren Zailckas and A Million Little Pieces by James Frey are a few of the required readings. 

Curtis said he was reluctant to put Fray's book on the required reading list. 

"The volume A Million Little Pieces is on the optional reading list because of the controversies created by the author given that it was written as a biography but turns out to be largely fictional," Curtis said. 

The course will also include a look at addiction-related films over the past 85 years, including Requiem For A Dream, Blow, Traffic and Training Day.

"We study the films, and we may show some of the films, but what I am trying to get them to see is to see the trends or the way that alcohol and drugs are portrayed in the media," Curtis said.

For more information on SOC 3382, access the course listing at Enrollment Services Online at www.uh.edu.

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