The Sociology of Legal and Illegal Drug Use

Knowledge, at the end of the course, you will have obtained knowledge of the most central questions and positions in contemporary sociological debates about legal and illegal drug use and have received thorough understanding of the following:

• What characterizes cannabis use, cannabis culture, and cannabis markets?
• What is the social meaning of getting high, and what cultural practices are associated with alcohol and other drugs?
• What is the sociological approach to or understanding of addiction?
• How has the social understanding and stigma of tobacco changed and what consequences does the increasing delegalization have?
• What characterizes drug use in club setting and how is both legal and illegal drug use gendered?
• How is drug use controlled formally and informally?
• How is drug use treated, for example in prison, and what is the difference between zero tolerance approaches and harm reduction?

Skills, at the end of the course, students will:

• learn to interpret, analyze and critically discuss scholarly texts with a view to their possible implications for social and political practices in the drug field;
• learn the basis of and be able to reflect upon basic themes, problematics and dilemmas in academic, public and policy debates concerning legal and illegal drugs.

Competences, at the end of the course, students will:

• enhance their capability to question and discuss urgent and sensitive aspects of contemporary drug phenomena and policy realities through the lenses of sociological theory.
• enhance their capability to formulate and reflect on their own ideas of the individual and societal causes of drug use, their possible harm, and solutions to the "drug problem".

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Students are graded on the basis of a 4 hours digital school exam.

The candidates will take the exam on a PC and the submission is digital in Inspera Read about School exams in Inspera

Location during the exam and candidate number will be published in Studentweb about a week before the examination.

You may bring up to two copies of a general (non-legal) spelling dictionary, regardless of language. These should not have annotations/notes in them.

No other examination support material is allowed.

• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Resitting an examination