Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Chapters 3, 7, and 12, and review the following
resources: Read Ending the War on Drugs (Links to an external site.) and When Addiction Has a White Face
(Links to an external site.) then watch The Children of the Opioid Crisis in Dayton Ohio | NBC News (Links to
an external site.)
After reviewing the required resources, please address each of the following:
How has the issue of drug addiction and the war on drugs changed over the past 20 years? Has drug addiction
been treated as a crime or as a medical issue in our society? Which do you think is best? Defend your answer
using information from the resources provided.
Drug addiction has increasingly affected whites, women, and middle/upper class people. How is this change
related to the social construction of drug addiction in our society? In other words, how has this “new face” of
drug addiction changed the ways in which society defines drug abuse as a crime or a medical issue?
Describe some of the social consequences of the opioid crisis on children and families.
Based on the article, Ending the War on Drugs (Links to an external site.), select one of the “harm reduction”
strategies being implemented in the United States. Describe the social action and explain why you think it is an
effective response to the social problem over arrests and incarceration.
Do you think the shift to “harm reduction” strategies rather than criminalization is related to the changing
demographics of addiction in the United States (i.e., the increase of whites, women, and middle/upper class
people)?
Sample Solution