Using anthropological and ethnographic studies, this unit focuses mainly on the social and cultural contexts of drug use, both legal and illegal. This includes the economic and political factors influencing the production and distribution of drugs and the way in which these processes are enmeshed in a global economy. This unit also examines psychological theories of addiction and the neurology of drug use. Topics include: the international traffic in opium/heroin and cocaine in the Golden Triangle of mainland South–East Asia and in South America and the way this traffic intermeshes with regional politics and local tribal, peasant and commercial systems of production and exchange; the... -- Course Website
Instructor: Dr Lisa Wynn