Homo Addictus: Drug Seeking as a Driving Force in History, Society, and Everyday Life

Lydia Equitz, ext. 4658, Honors 189 Office Hours: M-R, 1-3pm

Reading

David T. Courtwright, Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World

Allen Frances, Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt against Out-of-Control Psychiatric

Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life

Mike Jay, High Society: The Central Role of Mind-Altering Drugs in History, Science and Culture

Excerpted:

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

Dr. Carl Hart, High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery that Challenges

Everything You Know about Drugs and Society

Micheal Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World

Course Reader including articles from National Geographic on sugar, caffeine, marijuana, and love, Alexander Zaitchik’s web essay: “The Speed of Hypocrisy: How America Got Hooked on Legal Meth,” and relevant news articles.

Course Description

This course will provide a broad factual overview of psychotropic substance use by the human species, reviewing its variety, noting its ubiquity and exploring its anthropological connections to social acceptance and individual psychology. We will consider the economic, political and social impact of drug trades and note the many ways psychotropic drug commodification generates and redistributes wealth as it defines--and debases --cultures and individuals.

We will look closely at our own culture, socially and legally, in regard to both refined/manufactured drugs like Adderall/meth or Oxycontin/heroin and agriculture-based drugs like nicotine/tobacco and THC/hemp. We’ll examine trends in prescription practices for psychopharmaceuticals for children and adults and assess the logic and science behind US policies regarding legal and illegal, medical and recreational drugs. Our examination will include “food drugs” (sugar/carbohydrates, caffeine/coffee/tea/chocolate, alcohol/beer/wine/spirits). To help us understand what it means to be “addicted” to these substances we will consider the internal chemistry of love and the phenomenon of “sex and romance addiction.”

Course Requirements

Students will write on a series of analytical problems (40% of grade) and produce two 3-page papers (20%). In addition, each student will conduct an experiential research project requiring an attempt to “give up” a legal psychotropic substance they currently use (sugar or, in discussion with me, another option) leading to a 4-page scholarly final reflection essay (20%). Students will have the chance to revise their papers and to obtain advance comments on their final project. Daily preparation will be assessed through discussion, in-class activities, and mini-presentations (20% of grade).

Attendance

Make every effort for perfect attendance; it’s only 4 weeks. That said, you can have one absence w/o penalty, provided you keep up with all the work. If you must be absent a second time, you must do a make-up consisting of attending a 12-step (AA, NA, OA, or SLA) open meeting and making an oral report to the group. If some sort of emergency leads to a third absence, you must also write a 4-page research report on that meeting. More than 3 absences or not making up the 2nd and 3rd absences as above by the time I must submit grades will result in one grade reduction (e.g., from A- to B+) for each un-made-up absence over one. Attendance on the last day of class is required so that you can provide decoding information and fill out a course evaluation.

If something happens and you will be late for class, come anyway and you will not be counted absent. Even one hour of class could be enough, depending on the circumstances. Chronic lateness is not acceptable, however.

Plagiarism

Plagiarize just one assignment and I will fail you for the entire course. Honestly, these papers are so short it’s less trouble just to write them from scratch, and since the journal assignments are very specific, plagiarism is really easy to spot. Internet research is part of the course, so share that up-front and it will add to your participation grade.

Anonymity

All written work will be graded anonymously: you turn in the journal and papers with a code in place of your name. I will maintain a grade book based on codes separate from the name-based attendance/participation book and will decode only after all the final grades have been decided.

Late Work

Because we discuss them in class, no late journals will be accepted. Papers will be docked one grade for each day they are late.

Communication

I will hand out hardcopy of assignments in class; formal paper assignments will also be posted to D2L. Check your university e-mail daily for other communications.

Links to Other Important University Policies

http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/SyllabusLinks.pdf