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

Lydia Equitz, ext. 4658, Honors 189

Office Hours

Immediately after class and by appointment

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

Michael 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 and Alexander Zaitchik’s web essay: “The Speed of Hypocrisy: How America Got Hooked on Legal Meth”

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 farmed 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 a series of journal assignments (30% of grade) and two 3-page papers (25%). In addition, each student will conduct an experiential research project requiring an attempt to “give up” a legal psychotropic substance they currently use (sugar unless alternative is approved by instructor) leading to a 4-5 page scholarly final reflection essay (25%). 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 14 days. 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 etc.) 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 5-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 you failing the course. 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. Chronic lateness will affect your participation grade negatively.

Plagiarism

Plagiarize just one assignment and I will fail you for the entire course.

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 of the accelerated nature of this course, no late work will be accepted after the day it is due. Assignments are due in class, but if you are behind, turn in what you have before the building closes for the day so you can catch up with the next assignment that night. I won’t penalize a couple of assignments turned in this way, but don’t make it a habit.

Communication

I will hand out hardcopy of assignments in class and also post them to D2L. Check your university e-mail daily for other communications.

Links to Other Important University Policies

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