Deck 2: A History of Drug Use

Question 1

Researchers estimate that illicit drug use in the United States, as measured by use in the past month, peaks at which of the following age brackets?

A) 16-17
B) 18-20
C) 21-25
D) 26-34
E) 35 and older

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Recent increases in overall drug use in the United States have taken place mainly in the consumption of which of the following drugs?

A) heroin
B) codeine
C) cocaine
D) MDMA (Ecstasy)
E) marijuana

Answer 2

E

Question 3

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) does not include which of the following categories of the population in its sample?

A) teenagers
B) college students
C) residents of large urban areas
D) prisoners
E) the elderly

Answer 3

D

Question 4

During Prohibition (1920-1933), alcohol consumption in the United States:

A) increased.
B) decreased.
C) fluctuated wildly and randomly from year to year.
D) could not be estimated by researchers.
E) none of the above.

Question 5

Surveys indicate that:

A) legal drug use (alcohol and the nicotine in tobacco) is higher than illegal drug use.
B) illegal drug use is higher than legal drug use.
C) legal and illegal drugs at about the same rate.
D) researchers cannot even remotely estimate the size of legal or illegal drug use.
E) none of the above.

Question 6

Researchers have compared the tonnage of heroin and cocaine consumed in the United States and concluded that:

A) more tons of heroin are used than cocaine.
B) more tons of cocaine are used than heroin.
C) roughly the same tonnage of heroin and cocaine is used.
D) it is impossible to estimate the amount of these two drugs, in tons, that is used.
E) none of the above.

Question 7

The illicit drug of choice during the 1980s (the so-called "me" or "greed" decade) was:

A) LSD.
B) cocaine.
C) heroin.
D) marijuana.
E) amphetamine.

Question 8

Currently, the percentage of young adults (18-25) who have drunk at least one alcoholic beverage in the month prior to the survey is:

A) a minority-roughly one quarter (25 percent).
B) roughly half to three-quarters (50-75 percent).
C) practically everyone (over 90 percent of the population).
D) unknown.
E) none of the above.

Question 9

We may divide the history of drug use worldwide into the natural era, the transformative era, and the synthetic era. Which of the following was first used during the natural era?

A) heroin
B) cocaine
C) opium
D) morphine
E) the amphetamines

Question 10

The illicit drug of choice (that is, the illegal drug that was most likely to be used) during the 1960s was:

A) LSD.
B) cocaine.
C) heroin.
D) amphetamine.
E) marijuana.

Question 11

Which of the following drugs or drug types represent the most chemically miscellaneous group of substances?

A) the amphetamines
B) the narcotics
C) alcohol
D) club drugs
E) cannabis

Question 12

The illicit drug of choice during the 1960s (the "psychedelic" era) was:

A) LSD.
B) cocaine.
C) heroin.
D) marijuana.
E) amphetamine.

Question 13

The most commonly used illicit substance in the United States is:

A) marijuana.
B) oxycodone.
C) heroin.
D) methamphetamine.
E) cocaine.

Question 14

The drug that is consumed the greatest number of times, that is, on the greatest number of occasions in the United States, is:

A) alcohol.
B) the nicotine in tobacco.
C) the prescription amphetamines.
D) the prescription narcotics.
E) none of the above.

Question 15

The legal drug use that is consumed recreationally by more people in the United States than any other substance is:

A) alcohol.
B) the nicotine in tobacco.
C) the prescription amphetamines, taken as a whole.
D) the prescription narcotics, taken as a whole.
E) none of the above.

Question 16

The only psychoactive substance that a majority of at-least-one-time users have taken during the past month is:

A) alcohol.
B) PCP.
C) cocaine.
D) heroin.
E) LSD.

Question 17

Current alcohol consumption in the United States is at:

A) an all-time high.
B) an all-time low.
C) a fairly high point compared with most other periods of history.
D) a fairly low point compared with most other periods of history.
E) none of the above.

Question 18

Of the following, the drug that is taken the most sporadically, on a once-in-a-while basis, that is, has the lowest "loyalty" rate, is:

A) marijuana.
B) alcohol.
C) the nicotine in tobacco.
D) the amphetamines.
E) LSD.

Question 19

According to records, researchers estimate that alcohol consumption was greatest in which of the following historical eras?

A) the late 1700s
B) the early 1800s
C) between 1850 and 1919
D) during Prohibition (1920-1933)
E) after the repeal of Prohibition, 1933 to the present

Question 20

According to surveys, the use of LSD among American high school students peaked in the:

A) 1960s.
B) 1970s.
C) 1980s.
D) 1990s.
E) first decade of the 2000s.

Question 21

Considering the characteristics and effects of the substances that were introduced in this chapter, discuss why the possession and sale of some of them are legal, or legal under certain conditions, and others are completely illegal.

Question 22

Why is the term "drug abuse" problematic, slanted, and inexact?

Question 23

What are some of the most important ways that legal drug use differs from illegal use? What are some of the ways that instrumental drug use differs from recreational use? Provide examples of each type.

Question 24

Why are both the "essentialist" (or "objective") and the "constructionist" (or "subjective") definitions of what a drug is both relevant to a sociological consideration of drug use?

Question 25

Briefly summarize the different definitions of what a drug is. Which of these definitions are most relevant to the approach adopted in this book, and why?

Question 26

Is alcohol a drug? Discuss.

Question 27

Discuss some of the social changes, both nationally and worldwide, that have facilitated drug use during the past generation or so.

Question 28

Among the points made in the overview section of this chapter, which one do you believe is the most sociologically important, and why?

Question 29

Advocates of drug legalization have argued that alcohol is American society's most harmful drug, and, hence, fairness would dictate that if alcohol is legal, the currently illicit drugs should be legalized as well. In the light of some of the points the author made in this chapter, evaluate this argument.