Essay Format:

• Typed

• 12 point font

• Double spaced

• Number all pages

• Include name, student ID, essay title and case study option, and word count

• Pay attention to grammar, spelling and essay structure

• Properly reference your essay with in-text citations and include a reference list

• Reference system: use Harvard referencing

• Word limit does not include final reference list, but does include in-text citations

If you are in doubt about the essay format and referencing system required in anthropology, there are many online sources with detailed Harvard referencing for all kinds of sources that you might wish to cite, everything from a film to a play to a patent. See, for example, the University of Adelaide’s guide at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/referencing_guides/harvardStyle Guide.pdf.

Handing in your essay: You must submit your essay through Turnitin.

Turnitin: Turnitin can be accessed through the link on the iLearn page for ANTH106. Please note that you cannot resubmit the same assignment twice, so please make sure that you do not make a mistake and submit an earlier draft to Turnitin, because it is not possible to undo this.

Once you submit to Turnitin, you cannot withdraw what you have submitted. (So you can’t “accidentally” submit a plagiarised essay then withdraw it and submit the correct one.)

Extensions: any extensions must be requested with valid documentation of their necessity (e.g. medical certificate) through the university’s Special Considerations procedure. See the Policies and Procedures link in this Unit Guide for information about whether your circumstances qualify under the university’s policy and information on how to apply for consideration.

Feedback: We take feedback very seriously – Your marker will write the feedback on your electronic submission through Grademark (accessed through the Turnitin link where you submitted). Pay close attention to the feedback you get so that you can benefit from it when writing your future essay assignments.

No consideration for lost work:

It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of all work submitted for each unit. No consideration will be given to claims of 'lost work', no matter what the circumstances. Back it up, all the time.

Extensions and Special Consideration:

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will be applied - two (2) marks out of 100 will be deduced per day for assignments after the due date and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submission will be accepted for timed assessments-- eg. quizzes, online tests.

The University classifies a disruption as serious and unavoidable if it:

• could not have reasonably been anticipated, avoided or guarded against by the student; and

• was beyond the student's control; and

• caused substantial disruption to the student's capacity for effective study and/or

  completion of required work; and

• occurred during an event critical study period and was at least three (3) consecutive days duration, and/or

• prevented completion of a final examination.

Prior conditions: Students with a pre-existing disability/health condition or prolonged adverse circumstances may be eligible for ongoing assistance and support. Such support is governed by other policies (not by the Disruption to Studies Policy) and may be sought and coordinated through Campus Wellbeing and Support Services (http://students.mq.edu.au/support/ health_and_wellbeing/)

Applying for Special Consideration: The application must be completed by the student, documented by an authority (e.g. medical professional, police, etc.), and submitted online through www.ask.mq.edu.au.

The University has determined that some circumstances routinely encountered by students are not acceptable grounds for claiming Special Consideration. These grounds include, but are not limited, to:

• Routine demands of employment

• Routine family problems such as tension with or between parents, spouses, and other

  people closely involved with the student

• Difficulties adjusting to university life, to the self-discipline needed to study effectively,

  and the demands of academic work

• Stress or anxiety associated with examinations, required assignments or any aspect of

  academic work

• Routine need for financial support

• Routine demands of sport, clubs and social or extra-curricular activities

What special consideration may not be used for:

While special consideration may be used to request a deadline extension, special consideration may not be used to raise your grade on an assessment task or to get out of completing an assessment task in the unit. (So, for example, you can't submit an essay on time and then ask for it to be graded more "leniently" -- whatever that means -- on the grounds that you weren't well when you were writing the essay.)

Academic or personal difficulties:

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can be accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.

Plagiarism and Academic Honesty

The University defines plagiarism as: "Using the work or ideas of another person, whether intentionally or not, and presenting this as your own without clear acknowledgement of the source of the work or ideas." Plagiarism is a serious breach of the University's rules and carries significant penalties. You must read the University's definition of plagiarism and its academic honesty policy. These can be found in the Handbook of Undergraduate studies or on the web at: http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.htm The policies and procedures explain what plagiarism is, how to avoid it, the procedures that will be taken in cases of suspected plagiarism, and the penalties if you are found guilty.

Please note that the availability of online materials has made plagiarism easier for students, but it has also made discovery of plagiarism even easier for convenors of units. We now have specialized databases that can quickly identify the source of particular phrases in a student’s work, if not original, and evaluate how much is taken from sources in inappropriate ways. Our advice to you is to become familiar with the guidelines about plagiarism and then ‘quarantine’ the files that you are actually planning on turning in; that is, do not cut and paste materials directly into any work file that you plan to submit, because it is too easy to later on forget which is your original writing and which has come from other sources.

Turnitin is used to detect plagiarism and we take it very seriously. Plagiarism in the essays will result in referral to the University Discipline Committee and may result in a mark of zero for that assignment or, depending on the severity of the plagiarism, may even result in failing the unit. The good news is that we know the vast majority of students have no interest in plagiarising and want to make sure they correctly reference their work.

All required and recommended readings are available via Leganto.

Attendance at the university is not required in this unit. All lectures will be recorded on Echo (previously iLecture) and can be accessed via iLearn ilearn.mq.edu.au. Listen to the recordings and study the associated lecture slides.

It is your responsibility to procure a reliable and accessible Internet connection throughout the semester. This will be essential for you to complete quizzes, submit assignments and obtain your readings. Lack of Internet access or an unreliable Internet connection will not be a valid excuse for incomplete assessments. The Unit Homepage can be accessed through iLearn. The iLearn page for this unit should be your first source of information about this unit. It is essential that you regularly check the iLearn page, forums and announcements, as these will be the main means of communication between you and your convener.

Lectures: Online (on ilearn). Conveners: Dr. Siobhan Irving and Dr. Max Harwood: siobhan.irving@mq.edu.au / max.harwood@mq.edu.au

Week 1: Dec 2nd:

Topic 1: Drugs, Pharmaceuticals, and Anthropology

Dr. Lisa Wynn

This is an introduction to the unit, the topics and lecturers, and the unit requirements.  The introductory lecture begins with a review of the major categories of drugs and their effects and covers a brief history of drug use and drug policy. 

Required Reading:

Robson (1999). Forbidden Drugs, second edition, chapter 2: “Consequences of Drug Use"

Additional References:

Davenport-Hines (2004). “Prologue,” The Pursuit of Oblivion.

Davenport-Hines (2004). “Early History.” The Pursuit of Oblivion.

P. Robson (1999). Forbidden Drugs, second edition, chapter 1: “Why Use Drugs?”

Don't forget to also check out Stuart McMillen's graphic illustrated account of the Rat Park experiments in addiction: http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comics_en/rat-park/

Ethnographies of Drug Use

Dr. Lisa Wynn

In this lecture, Lisa Wynn examines how anthropologists have studied drug use.  The lecture focuses on ethnographies of drugs use and highlights their value, particularly in relation to understanding the meaning of drug use in context. This lecture defines 'ethnography' and outlines ethnographic methods. Then follows an analysis of ethnographies of illicit drug use, such as those by Philippe Bourgois. This analysis highlights the value of drug use ethnographies, in particular the understanding of the meaning of drug use in context. The lecture also examines the contribution of ethnographies to an understanding of drug rituals and symbolism and drug subcultures. 

Required Reading:

Zinberg, N.E. (1984) ‘Historical Perspectives on Controlled Drug Use’.  In Drug, Set and Setting: the Basis for Controlled Intoxicant Use. Yale University Press, pp. 1-10. 

Additional References:

Moore (1993). “Beyond Zinberg’s ‘Social Setting’.”

Grund, Kaplan & de Vries (1994). “Rituals of Regulation”

Philippe Bourgois (1995). In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.

Sudhir Venkatesh (2008).  Gang Leader for a Day.

Burr (1987). “Chasing the Dragon.”

M.H. Agar (1977) ‘Into that whole ritual thing: ritualist drug use among urban American heroin addicts’, in B.M. Du Toit ed. Drugs, Rituals and Altered States of Consciousness, Rotterdam, Balkema, pp. 137-148.

W.M. Harding & N.E. Zinberg (1977) ‘The effectiveness of the sub-culture in developing rituals and social sanctions for controlled drug use’ in Du Toit ed. op. cit. pp. 111-133. 

Hallucinogens

Dr. Lisa Wynn

The hallucinogens lecture begins with a consideration of the religious and ritual context of the use of hallucinogens among indigenous peoples of North and South America, with particular reference to shamanism. Among the specific issues discussed will be: the characteristics of shamanic trance-states, trance-states and psychotherapy, the social functions of trance-states (e.g. diagnosis of illness). Then follows a discussion of hallucinogens in the West. During the 1940s and 1950s and increasing number of Westerners, including prominent intellectuals such as Aldous Huxley, began experimenting with hallucinogens by using them personally. Later, psychologists and scientists, such as Dr Timothy Leary, began extensive studies of the hallucinogenic experience. The qualities of the drug were so powerful, revealing what seemed an alternative reality, that their use quickly became a feature of the counterculture and alternative society of the 1960s and 1970s. However, connections between hallucinogens and mental illness were also proposed and the dangers of hallucinogenic experiences led to a rapid decline in their popularity. These issues are explored in the film DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

FILM: DMT, the Spirit Molecule

The Spirit Molecule investigates dimethyltryptamine (DMT), an endogenous psychoactive compound, which exists in humans and numerous species of plants and animals. The documentary traces Dr. Rick Strassman's government-sanctioned, human DMT research and its many trials, tribulations, and inconceivable realizations. A closer examination of DMT's effects through the lens of two traditionally opposed concepts, science and spirituality, The Spirit Molecule explores the connections between cutting-edge neuroscience, quantum physics, and human spirituality. Strassman's research, and the experiences of the human test subjects before, during, and after the intense clinical trials, raises many intriguing questions. A variety of experts voice their unique thoughts and experiences with DMT within their respective fields. As Strassman's story unfolds, the contributors weigh in on his remarkable theories, including the synthesis of DMT in our brain's pineal gland, and its link to near-death experiences.

Required Reading:

Weil, A (1973) ‘Clues from the Amazon’.  In The Nature of Mind, Jonathon Cape, London, pp. 98-115.

Additional references: 

Huxley, A (1972) ‘The Doors of Perception’.  In The Doors of Perception and Heaven & Hell.  London: Chatto & Windus, pp. 5-20.)

Siskind (1973).  “Visions and Cures among the Sharanahua.”

P.T. Furst (1972) Flesh of the Gods: the Ritual Use of Hallucinogens, Illinois, Waveland Press (Chapters 1,4 & 5)

M.J. Harner ed. (1973) Hallucinogens and Shamanism, London/NY, Oxford University Press (Chapters 1,3,7,9, & 10).

M.D. de Rios (1972) Visionary Vine: Hallucinogenic Healing in the Peruvian Amazon, Prospect Heights, Waveland Press.

T. Leary (1990) The Politics of Ecstasy, Berkeley, Ronin Publishers.

M.A. Lee (1992) Acid Dreams: the Complete Social History of LSD, NY, Grove Weidenfeld. 

Drug Symbolism

This lecture outlines theories of drug use in context, with emphasis on the way rituals and social sanctions operate in drug sub-cultures and the contribution of ethnography to understanding these processes.  There will be some discussion of the symbolic analysis of drugs in relation to ‘drug problems’.  

Required Readings:

Manderson (1995).  'Metamorphoses: Clashing Symbols in the Social Construction of Drugs.’ Journal of Drug Issues 25(4): 799-816.

Manderson, D. 2005.  Possessed: Drug policy, witchcraft and belief.   Cultural Studies 19(1)

Additional references:

Marshall, M, Ames, G M, and Bennett, L. A (2001) ‘Anthropological perspectives on alcohol and drugs at the turn of the new millenium’. Social Science Medicine 53(2):153-64

Drug Law Reform

Dr. Alex Wodak

This lecture reviews international drug policy and the legislative options available for dealing with illicit drugs.  Following a consideration of current legislation regarding illicit drugs and some of their harms, the lecture considers the importance of a harm minimisation approach and what it entails.  Our guest lecturer, Dr Alex Wodak, is one of the most prominent and authoritative voices in drug research and policy in Australia.

Required Reading:

Mather, LE, Rauwendaal, ER, Moxham-Hall, VL and Wodak, AD (2013) (Re)introducing medicinal cannabis. Medical Journal of Australia 199(11):759-762

Additional References:

Wodak, A (2000) ‘Developing more effective responses’.  In G Stokes, P Chalk & K Gillen (eds), Drugs and Democracy, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. 183-200.

Wodak, A (2014). 'The abject failure of drug prohibition.' Australia and New Zealand Journal of Criminology. Access at http://idhdp.com/media/362648/anj524424_rev2-wodak.pdf.

Wodak, A (2014) New Zealand’s regulation of new psychoactive substances. British Medical Journal 348 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g1534 (Published 13 February 2014)

Wodak & McLeod (2004). “The role of harm reduction in controlling HIV...”

D.R. Bewley-Taylor (1999) The United States and International Drug Control, 1909-1997, London & New York.

D. Manderson (1993) From Mr Sin to Mr Big: A History of Australian Drug Laws, Melbourne, Oxford UniversityPress.

Week 2: 9th December:

Cannabis

Dr. Lisa Wynn

This lecture will explore the history of cannabis in Asia and the West – from its use for religious and medical purposes to its appropriation by literary and artistic circles – and examine the reasons for the shifting image of marijuana in Western countries, including the “gateway hypothesis.”  Finally, debates over decriminalisation and legalisation will be examined.

Required Readings:

Himmelstein, J.L. (1983) ‘From Killer Weed to Drop Out Drug’, Contemporary Crises, 7(1): 13-38.

W. Hall & M. Lynskey (2005) ‘Is Cannabis a Gateway drug? Testing Hypotheses About the Relationship Between Cannabis Use and the use of other Illicit Drugs’, Drug and Alcohol Review 24:39-48 

Additional references: 

C.A. de Launey (2001) What Drug problem? Cannabis and Heroin in an Alternative Community, PhD thesis, Southern Cross University.

Health and Psychological Consequences of Cannabis Use (1994), National Drug Strategy, Monograph No.25, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.

Patterns of Cannabis Use in Australia (1994), National Drug Strategy, Monograph No.27, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service

D. Solomon ed. (1969) The Marijuana Papers: An Examination of Marijuana in Society, History and Literature, UK, Panther.

Cocaine

Dr Lisa Wynn.

This lecture will discuss coca and cocaine in the Silver Triangle (Bolivia, Colombia, Peru) of South America.  The lecture examines the traditional uses of coca and then examines the contemporary situation in which peasant production of coca has become enmeshed in a global economy. 

Full film available through the MQ Library online access.  Log into the library website (library.mq.edu.au), search for "Coca Mama," then click on the link that has a "View online" option, or go directly to http://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/1641542 (but note: the direct link provided above may require that you be logged in to the library website).

 Required Reading:

Leons, M. B. & H Sanabria (1997) ‘Coca and Cocaine in Bolivia: Reality and Policy Illusion’.  In MB Leons & H Sanabria (eds), Coca, Cocaine, and the Bolivian Reality.  New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 2-46.

Wilson, S & M Zambrano (1997) ‘Cocaine, Commodity Chains and Drug Politics: a Transnational Approach’. In Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism. Westport, CT: Praeger, pp. 297-315.

Additional references:

Hellin (2001). “Coca Eradication in the Andes, Lessons from Bolivia.”

P. Gootenberg ed. (1999) Cocaine: Global Histories, London & N.Y., Routledge.

M.B. Leons and H. Sanabria eds (1997) Coca, Cocaine and the Bolivian Reality, N.Y., State University of New York Press.

Recommended viewing:  Cocaine (DVD): "This compelling three-part series from filmmaker Angus Macqueen is a chilling journey from the coca fields, impoverished farmers and cocaine-makers of the Peruvian Andes to drug gangs in the favelas of Rio, and also to the law officials who are powerless to stop this illicit trade. Macqueen spent 18 months filming this extraordinary series in Latin America and it reveals different insight into the much-maligned world of cocaine production. From the dirt-poor valleys of Peru and the shanty towns of Rio, Macqueen talks to people behind the production of cocaine, to explore the effect on the lives of the West's 'war on drugs'. He comes to the contentious and surprising conclusion that legalisation of the drug would solve the biggest of the current problems which are mostly due to the huge demand for it, ironically, from the West” --SBS website. 

From Tears to Hope: A Family Perspective on Drugs

The founder of Family Drug Support will provide a powerful personal account of drug addiction from the perspective of the family members of drug users.  He will also talk about addiction treatment and drug policy.

Raised in a quiet, picturesque village Ben was a Boy Scout, loved cricket, played in the school orchestra and looked forward to the annual family holiday. But despite his privileged start in life Ben found himself on the road to ruin, injecting heroin up to four times a day. During his last months, Ben kept a video diary of his drug use and desperate attempts to come off heroin.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=7thZbHTvZIQ

Week 3: 16th December:

Neuropharmacology

Sarah Baracz

Psychologist Sarah Baracz will lecture on the pharmacology and neurobiology of drugs. She will examine how psychoactive drugs exert their effects on the central nervous system and discuss the neurotransmitters (or brain chemicals) involved in this process. 

Required Reading:

Chapter 3 from Lilienfeld, S., Lynn, S., Namy, L., Woolf, N., Jamieson, G., Slaughter, V., & Haslam, N. (2015). Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding. (2nd ed.). Sydney: Pearson. 

Additional references:

Kalat, J.W. 2009. Chapters “The Major Issues”, “Nerve Cells and Nerve Impulses”, and “Synapses” from Biological Psychology, 10th Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth. 

Parrott et al. (2004). Excerpt from “Principles of Drug Action.”

William A. McKim, 2007.  “Dependence, Addiction, and the Self-Administration of Drugs.”  Chapter 5 of Drugs and Behavior: An Introduction to Behavioral Pharmacology, sixth edition.  New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, pp.92-127

Philip Robson, 1999.   “The consequences of drug use,” Chapter 2 in Forbidden Drugs, second edition.  Oxford University Press, pp.19-32

Charles Levinthal, 2010.  “Physical and Psychological Dependence” and “Psychiatric Definitions,” in Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society, 6th edition (Pearson International).  Boston: Allyn and Bacon, pp.40-44

William A. McKim, 2007.  “Neurophysiology, Neurotransmitters, and the Nervous System” and “Dependence, Addiction, and the Self-Administration of Drugs.”  Chapter 4 of Drugs and Behavior: An Introduction to Behavioral Pharmacology, sixth edition.  New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, pp.57-90.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6asmxr

Drug Abuse and Addiction

Dr. Sarah Baracz

Psychologist Sarah Baracz returns to explore the difference between substance abuse and substance dependence (or addiction) and examine what properties of the drug determine its harm potential and whether there are individual differences that make it more likely that a person will become addicted. She will also discuss animal models of reward and addiction that are commonly implemented to examine the neurobiological mechanisms involved in substance abuse and dependence. 

The War on Drugs

Dr. Lisa Wynn

Dr Lisa Wynn takes a critical look at the U.S.-led 'War on Drugs', examining first supply-side strategies and the reasons for the failure of these strategies, and then looking at the demand-reduction programs of the U.S. and international agencies that include crop replacement and "community participation" approaches to drug control.  

Required Reading:

Farrell, G (1998) ‘A Global Empirical View of Drug Crop Eradication and the United Nation’s Substitution and Alternative Development Strategies’, Journal of Drug Issues, 28(2): 395-436.  

Additional References:

Jelsma (2003). “Drugs in the UN System: the Unwritten History.”

M. Barrett and M.de Palo (1999). 'Community-based intervention to reduce demand for drugs in northern Thailand', Substance Use and Misuse, 13(13):1837-1879.

E.Bertram, M.Blachman, K.Sharpe & P.Andreas (1996). Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial, University of California Press.

R.Gebert and C.Kesmanee 'Issues in highland drug abuse: the genesis and current situation', in D.McCaskill and K.Kemp eds (1997) Development or Domestication? Indigenous Peoples of Southeast Asia, Chiang Mai, Silkworm Press, pp.358-397.

D.Whynes (1991). ‘Illicit drug production and supply-side drugs policy in Asia and South America’, Development and Change, 22,(3):475-494.

Labrousse (1990). ‘Dependence on drugs: unemployment, migration and an alternative path to development in Bolivia.’ International Labour Review, 29(3):33-348.

A Law Enforcement Perspective on Drugs

Jason Smith

Detective Inspector Jason R. Smith will speak about law enforcement and how drugs are policed in NSW with a brief personal account of his history of working on the NSW Drug Squad and a review of law enforcement challenges in policing drugs. 

Drugs and Incarceration

Elizabeth Hagan Lawson 

In this lecture, former ANTH106 student Elizabeth will cover a number of the issues that were being debated at a 2015 international debate about drug research and drug policy. Topics covered include the militarisation of police, #blacklivesmatter, the  prison industrial complex, and drugs and music festivals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=bs8pgajK-nc

Alcohol, Drugs, and Indigenous Australia

Kristie Harrison 

Kristie Harrison will speak about her alcohol research with a number of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS/AMSs) across the country. She has been in the alcohol and other drugs (AOD) sector working with Aboriginal communities for about 14 years and in 2017 she won the First Australians Award at the 2017 Alcohol and other Drugs Excellence and Innovation Awards in Canberra. She will speak about drug and alcohol use in Indigenous communities, showing the links between contemporary substance abuse and the historical context of colonisation. She will also discuss the current policy context, including the Intervention, the basics card, and funding issues. Many of the issues surrounding drug abuse in Indigenous Australia are not 'Aboriginal' problems; they are in fact poverty and policy problems.  However, there is a strong need for cultural and community leadership to address them.  Kristie will conclude by highlighting some community-led initiatives to address substance abuse in Indigenous communities.

Week 4: 6th January:

Political Economy of Opiates 

Associate Professor Paul Cohen

Guest lecturer Dr Paul Cohen examines the political economy of opiates in Asia, where he has conducted original ethnographic research.  Professor Cohen outlines the history of opium in Asia with emphasis on the factors contributing to the growth of the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent regions as the major sources of illicit opium production. The post World War II politics of opium in these regions will be analysed as well as the way in which local opium production and trade is linked to a global market in heroin.

Paul Cohen will also talk about his own fieldwork in the Golden Triangle, discussing the social context of opium production, consumption by ‘hill-tribe’ and peasant growers, and how local anti-opium smoking campaigns in Thailand have resulted in stigmatisation of users, new ways of thinking about addicts, and, ironically, increased heroin use.

Available at: http://vimeo.com/channels/mikefuller508033/64118843

“Raw Opium is a feature length documentary (and two-part TV series) about a commodity that has tremendous power – both to ease pain and to destroy lives. The opium poppy is the raw material for heroin, fueling a vast criminal trade larger than the economies of many countries. 

Raw Opium is a journey around the world and through time, where conflicting forces do battle over the narcotic sap of the opium poppy. From an opium master in southeast Asia to a UN drug enforcement officer on the border of Afghanistan hunting down the smugglers of central Asia; from a former Indian government Drug Czar and opium farmer to a crusading Vancouver doctor and Portuguese street worker who daily confront the realities of drug addiction.

We see how this flower has played, and continues to play, a pivotal role – not just in the lives of people who grow, manufacture and use it – but also in the increasingly tense sphere of international relations. In the process, our assumptions about addiction and the War on Drugs are challenged.”-- Raw Opium Website <rawopium.com>

Required Reading:

Cohen, PT (2013) Symbolic dimensions of the anti-opium campaign in Laos, TAJA 24:177-192

Trocki, C. A. (1999) ‘All the Drowsy Syrups of the World’.  In Opium Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950. London: Routledge, pp. 13-32. 

Additional references:

Cohen, PT & C Lyttleton (2002) Opium-Reduction Programmes, Discourses of Addiction and Gender in Northwest Laos, Sojourn, 17(1): 1-23.

Brown (1999). “Burma: The Political Economy of Violence.”      

Hoffman (1990). “Historical Shifts in the Perception of Opiates.”          

Labrousse (2005). “Drugs: The Major Obstacle to Afghan reconstruction?”   

Jelsma (2005). “Burma in the Global Drug Market.” (Labrousse and Jelsma articles found In M. Jelsma, T. Kramer & P. Vervest (eds) Trouble in the Triangle: Opium and Conflict in Burma, Silkworm Press, Chiang Mai.)

B. Lintner (1993) The Politics of the Drug Trade in Burma, Indian Ocean Centre for Peace Studies, University of Western Australia.

A.W. McCoy (1972) The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, NY, Harper & Row.

A.W.M Coy (2003) The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Chicago, Lawrence Hill Books.

C.A. Trocki (1999) Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade 1750-1950, London, Routledge.

Yawnghwe, Chao-Tzang (1993) ‘The Political Economy of the Opium Trade: Implications for Shan State’, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 23(3): 306-326.

The Political Economy of Tobacco

This lecture is about the broad health implications of smoking and the role of media in health policy and advocacy.  We will discuss Dr. Ross MacKenzie's research on global trade liberalisation and the tobacco industry, looking at the growth of the globalisation of Western brands and consequences for lower- to middle income countries.

Tobacco Wars is a comprehensive history of the cigarette, providing an in-depth, balanced, and often shocking look at the tobacco industry. The series' three one-hour episodes are organized chronologically, from the advent of the cigarette through its ascension to one of the most profitable consumer products the world has ever seen. Via first person accounts and insider documentation, Tobacco Wars vividly portrays what the companies really knew about the link between smoking and disease, explains how mankind became seduced by such a dangerous product, provides a status report on Big Tobacco today, and looks towards the future of this most controversial of industries. 

Required Readings:

Lee, S., Ling, P. M. and Glantz, S. A (2012). ‘The vector of the tobacco epidemic: tobacco industry practices in low and middle-income countries’. Cancer Causes Control 23:117-129

Yach D and Bettcher D, 2000.  ‘Globalisation of tobacco industry influence and new global responses.’ Tobacco Control 9: 206-216

Additional references:

Bell, K & H Keane, 2013. “Nicotine control: E-cigarettes, smoking and addiction.” International Journal of Drug Policy

Chapman S, Freeman B., 2008. ‘Markers of the denormalisation of smoking and the tobacco industry.’  Tobacco Control 17:25-31.

Novotny, TE and Carlin, D., 2005. ‘Ethical and legal aspects of global tobacco control.’ Tobacco Control 14:ii26-ii30.

Ballard (2001). “The Politics of Tobacco Control in Australia.”

Mackay (2001). “The Tobacco Epidemic: Some Future Scenarios.”

Goodman, J (1998) ‘Webs of Drug Dependence: Toward a Political History of Tobacco’.  In S Lock, L Reynolds & E Tansey (eds), Ashes to Ashes: the History of Smoking and Health. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi, pp. 5-29.

K. Blum et al. (1996) ‘Reward deficiency syndrome’, American Scientist, Mar-Apr.

Tyrrell (1999) Tobacco Control in Colonial Australia, ch.1 of Deadly Enemies: Tobacco and its Opponents in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, pp.3–18.

M. Wolfson (2001) The Fight Against Big Tobacco: The Movement, the State, and the Public’s Health, New York, Aldine De Gruyter.

Week 10: Tobacco and Shamanism

Dr. Lisa Wynn

Tobacco and Shamanism: Lisa Wynn will look at the pharmacology of the tobacco plant and the biochemistry of nicotine addiction. The biogeography of tobacco varieties in the New World reveals something of its earliest domestication and diffusion throughout the Americas, not as a drug of pleasure but as a sacred medicine, the use of which enable humans to visit and influence the Gods via a hallucinated ‘bridge of smoke’.  Only fifty years after Columbus’ first voyage, tobacco was being smoked in the Portuguese royal court, and fifty years after that it was being traded and smoked around the world.

Required Reading:

Wilbert, J (1987) ‘Tobacco and Shamanistic Ecstasy Among the Warao Indians’.  In P Furst (ed), Flesh of the Gods: the Ritual Use of Hallucinogens.  New York: Praeger, pp. 55-83.

Additional References:

J. Wilbert (1987) Tobacco and Shamanism in South America, New Haven, Yale University Press. 

Week 5: 13th January:

Erectile Dysfunction Drugs                                      

Lisa Wynn will look at the history of the development of the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil (Viagra) and how it is consumed cross culturally, with a comparison of the different ways that Viagra is imagined and used in Egypt, China, and the U.S. and the ways it has shaped popular understandings of masculinity and sexuality.

Film Synopsis: About the search for a "female Viagra" and how pharmaceutical companies create disease (in this case, "female sexual dysfunction" or FSD) in order to make money by treating it.  Note: at around 32:20, there are brief clips of simulated sex (no genitals, but some moaning and funny faces) from MA15+ rated movies, used to make the point that the concept of FSD relies in part on unrealistic cinematic portrayals of female sexuality. 

Required Reading:

Fishman (2007). “Making Viagra: From Impotence to Erectile Dysfunction.”

Additional references:

Everett Yuehong Zhang (2007).  “The birth of nanke (men’s medicine) in China: The making of the subject of desire.”  American Ethnologist34(3):491-508.

Everett Yuehong Zhang (2005).  “Rethinking Sexual Repression in Maoist China: Ideology, Structure and the Ownership of the Body.”  Body and Society 11(3):1-25.

Meika Loe (2004).  The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America.  New York: NYU Press.

Jay Baglia (2005).  The Viagra AdVenture: Masculinity, Media, and the Performance of Sexual Health. New York: Peter Lang.

See also this brief article by Jayne Lucke (2016) in The Conversation about flibanserin, the drug eventually approved by the US FDA to treat women with "hypo-active sexual desire disorder (HSDD)".  Its effectiveness compared to placebo is low, frequency of side effects is high, and the US drug approval process was characterised by heavy drug company lobbying.  Australia's TGA has not approved the drug for sale. https://theconversation.com/weekly-dose-flibanserin-the-drug-that-gives-women-one-extra-sexually-satisfying-experience-every-two-months-63118

Steroids

Guest lecturer Professor Greg Downey will talk about performance-enhancing drugs, their use in sports, the way they have constructed new aesthetic ideals for masculine bodies, and how blurry and subjective the line can be between ‘performance-enhancing drugs’ and the concept of ‘restoring normal masculinity’ that underpins the prescription of male testosterone replacement therapy.   

Required Reading:

Hoberman, J. (1995). Listening to Steroids. The Wilson Quarterly Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 35-44

Lecture slides:

View Greg's lecture slides online (not a powerpoint presentation to download!)

Greg has also provided a written version of this lecture, which is slightly different, but you are free to check it out, at:

http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/2012/07/09/roid-age-steroids-in-sport-and-the-paradox-of-pharmacological-puritanism/

Emergency Contraception 

Dr. Lisa Wynn

Dr Wynn will discuss her research on debates over access to emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) in the United States and Australia.  Though ECPs are not mind-altering drugs (they are just a higher dose of the same hormones found in regular oral contraceptive pills), it is striking how the American discourse surrounding them has tended to focus on many of the same concerns – one might say paranoias – that surround discourses about illegal drug use.  Is it the association between these pills and sex that leads this pharmaceutical product to be imagined in the same way as mood-altering illegal drugs?

Required Reading:

Wynn & Trussell (2006). “Images of American Sexuality in Debates Over Nonprescription Access to Emergency Contraceptive Pills” Obstetrical Gynecology 108(5):1272-6

Desmond Manderson (2011).  “Possessed: The unconscious law of drugs.”  In S Fraser and D Moore, eds., The Drug Effect: Health, Crime and Society.  Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, pp.225-239.

Additional references:

Wynn & Trussell (2006). “The Social Life of Emergency Contraception in the United States: Disciplining pharmaceutical use, disciplining sexuality and constructing zygotic bodies” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 20(3):297-320.

 The Placebo Effect

Associate Professor Lisa Wynn

Dr. Lisa Wynn will describe how anthropologists, neurologists, and psychologists have studied the placebo effect. Numerous medical studies have illustrated how powerful placebos are. Placebos can cure a headache, ameliorate depression, and even induce a powerful high in drug addicts. Yet placebos are, by their very definition, inert. Therefore, it's not the placebo that's doing all these things. It's the meaning that we attribute to the placebo, and that is a complex blend of psychology and culture acting on physiology.  Lisa will explore Moerman and Jonas's theory that the placebo effect is actually a meaning effect and we will test the correlative theory, namely that sensory perception is determined by expectations, with a class experiment involving a blind wine tasting.  

Required Reading:

Daniel Moerman and Wayne Jonas, 2002.  “Deconstructing the Placebo Effect and Finding the Meaning Response.”  Annals of Internal Medicine 136 (6):471-476.

Additional reference:

Daniel Moerman, 2002.  Meaning, Medicine and the ‘Placebo Effect.’  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.