Current Social Thought on Alcohol and Marijuana: A Quantitative Exploration

Abstract

Social thought on alcohol and drugs has undergone a process of medicalization in recent years. Now we see the possible emergence of a public health model, characterized by renewed concern with the substance alcohol and a systemic or ecological view of the user. Through a secondary analysis of data collected by L. Harris and Associates in 1974 for the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, this paper attempts to address the following questions: Is such a public health model present in current thought on alcohol? Is such a model present in current thought on marijuana or is this substance in the process of being medicalized? How closely linked are the public's perception of these two drugs?