Emeriti Faculty

Research Interests

Law, crime, and social justice; drugs in society; political sociology.

Biography, Education and Training

B.S., Babson College
M.A., San Francisco State University
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Public Health, University of California, Berkeley

Selected Publications

BOOKS

2014   Expanding Addiction: Critical Essays, edited with Robert Granfield (Routledge).

1997   Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice, with H.G. Levine et al (University of California Press).

1991   Cocaine Changes: The Experience of Using and Quitting, with D. Waldorf and S. Murphy (Temple University Press).

1987   American States of Mind: Political Beliefs and Behavior (Yale University Press).

1974   Morphine Maintenance: The Shreveport Clinic, 1919-1923, with D. Waldorf, M. Orlick (Drug Abuse Council short monograph).

JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

2022  "Intoxications and Their Meanings," in Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication, G. Hunt, et al., eds. (Routledge)

2020  "Toward a Post-Prohibition Research Agenda," in Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Cannabis Research (Routledge)

2018  "A Guerra ao Crack:  A Criacao de uma Droga Demoniaca nos EUA," in B. Alexander, E. Merhy,, P. Silveria, eds., Criminalizacao ou Acolhimento (Sao Paulo, Brazil:  Saude em Redes).

2016   “Going Dutch: Drug Policy at the Crossroads,” Criminology & Public Policy Vol. 15, Issue 3.

2015   “Prohibition and its Discontents”, Contexts. Vol. 14, Issue 4.

2014  “Criminal Law and Cultural Lag: Drug Prohibition as Anachronism,” Die Sinnprovinz der Kriminalität, H. Hess and H. Schmidt-Semisch, eds. (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden).

2014  “Addiction Is Not Just a Brain Disease,” in R. Granfield and C. Reinarman, eds. Expanding Addiction (Routledge).

2012  “The War on Drugs,” Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History (Oxford University Press) with H.G. Levine.

2012  "Crack Cocaine," Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History (Oxford University Press) with H.G. Levine.

2012  "Beyond Deviance and Disease: Drug Users as Subjects,” Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, Vol. 19.

2012  “On the Cultural Domestication of Intoxicants,” in Intoxication and Society: Problematic Pleasures of Drugs and Alcohol, J. Herring, D. Weinberg, P. Withington, eds. (Palgrave McMillan).

2011  "Does Cannabis Cause Poverty, Too? Beyond the Malevolence Paradigm," Addiction 106.

2011  "Who Are Medical Marijuana Patients? Population Characteristics from Nine California Assessment Clinics," Journal of Psychoactive      Drugs 43/2, with H. Nunberg, T. Heddleston, F. Lanthier.

2011  “Cannabis in Cultural and Legal Limbo: Criminalisation, Legalisation, and the Mixed Blessing of Medicalisation in the USA,” in The Drug Effect: Health, Crime and Society, S. Fraser and D. Moore, eds. (Cambridge University Press).

2010  “The Trouble with Drink and Drugs: Why Prohibition and Criminalization Matter,“ Addiction, Vol. 105 with H. G. Levine.

2009  "Signs and Shapes of a Culture of Tolerance: Ethnographic Impressions from Amsterdam," Sustain: Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Issues 21. 

2008  “Drug Arrests and DNA: Building Jim Crow’s Database,” Gene Watch 21, with HG Levine at al.

2007  “Lineaments of Cannabis Culture: Rules Regulating Use in Amsterdam and San Francisco,” Contemporary Justice Review. Vol. 10, No. 4 with P.D.A. Cohen.

2007  "Cannabis Policies and User Practices: Market Separation, Price, Potency, and Accessibility in Amsterdam and San Francisco," International Journal of Drug Policy 20.

2007  "Policing Pleasure: Food Drugs, and the Politics of Ingestion," Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 7/3.

2007  “Law, Culture, and Cannabis: Comparing Use Patterns in Amsterdam and San Francisco,” in Pot Politics: Marijuana and the Costs of Prohibition, M. Earleywine, ed., (Oxford University Press), with P. Cohen.

2006  "Die soziale Konstruktion von Drogenpaniken," Sozialwissenschaftliche Suchtforschung, [Socioscientific Addiction Research], B. Dollinger, ed., (Hamburg: Verlag fur Sozialwissenschaften, 2007). Revision and German translation of "The Social Construction of Drug Scares, "in Constructions of Deviance, P. & P. Adler, eds. (Wadsworth, 2006). 

2006  “Hess's Mafia, the Mosaic of Criminological Theory, and the Corporate Crime Wave,” in Kriminalitats-Geschichten, Hamburger Studien zur Kriminologie und Kriminalpolitik, Band 41, R. Behr, H. Crèmer-Schafer, & S. Scheerer, eds. (Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 2006).

2005  "Between Genes and Addiction: A Critique of Genetic Determinism," Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. 5, Issue 4.

2005  "Librarians and Other Subversives: Truth Can Be a Casualty in Drug Wars, too," International Journal of Drug Policy, Vol. 16. 

2005  "Addiction as Accomplishment: The Discursive Construction of Disease," Addiction Research and Theory 13.

2004  "Public Health and Human Rights: The Virtues of Ambiguity," International Journal of Drug Policy, 15.

2004  "Crack in the Rearview Mirror: Deconstructing Drug War Mythology," Social Justice 31, with H.G. Levine.

2004  “The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and San Francisco,” American Journal of Public Health 94, with P.D.A. Cohen and H. Kaal.

2002  “Cannabis Control: Cost Outweigh Benefits,” British Medical Journal 324, with A. Wodak and P.D.A. Cohen.

2001  “Capitalism, Prohibitionism, and the Drug Policy Reform Movement,” International Journal of Drug Policy 12.

2000  “Why Dutch Drug Policy is a Threat to U.S. Drug Warriors,” in Drug Legalization: Current Controversies, S. Barbour, Ed. (Greenhaven Press).

1998  “Fundamentalism Cannot Make the Facts Go Away,” The International Journal of Drug Policy, Vol. 9.

1997  “Mass Consumption Culture and Consciousness Alteration,” Journal of Performance Enhancing Drugs 2, with H.G. Levine.

1997  “The Drug Policy Debate in Europe: The Case of Califano vs. The Netherlands,” International Journal of Drug Policy 8.

1995  “Twelve-Step Movements and Advanced Capitalist Culture: On the Politics of Self Control in Postmodernity,” in Social Movements and Cultural Politics, M. Darnovsky, B. Epstein, and R. Flacks, eds. (Temple University Press).

1994  “Glasnost in U.S. Drug Policy,” International Journal of Drug Policy 5.

1994  “Pharmacology Is Not Destiny: The Contingent Character of Cocaine Abuse and Addiction,” Addiction Research and Theory 2, with D. Waldorf and S. Murphy.

1993  “From Prohibition to Regulation,” in Confronting Drug Policy: Illicit Drugs in a Free Society, R. Bayer and G. Oppenheimer, eds. (Cambridge University Press).

1992  “Dominant Ideology and Drugs in the Media,” The International Journal on Drug Policy, 3/1, with C. Duskin.

1991  “Needle Sharing, Shooting Galleries, and AIDS Risks Among Intravenous Drug Users,” Criminal Justice Policy Review 3, with D. Waldorf and S. Murphy.

1991  “From Prohibition to Regulation: Lessons from Alcohol Policy for Drug Policy,” The Milbank Quarterly 69/3 with H.G. Levine. 

1991  “Political Pedagogy, Democratic Discourse,” Journal of Urban and Cultural Studies 2.

1990  “Drifting into Dealing: Becoming a Cocaine Seller,” Qualitative Sociology Vol. 13, No. 4., with S. Murphy and D. Waldorf. 

1989  “Crack on Context: Politics and Media in the Making of a Drug Scare,” Contemporary Drug Problems 16 with H.G. Levine.

1989  “An 11-Year Follow Up of a Network of Cocaine Users," British Journal of Addiction 84, with S. Murphy and D. Waldorf.

1988  “Social Organization and Differential Association: A Longitudinal Study of Violent Offenders,” Crime and Delinquency 34, with J. Fagan.

1988  “The Social Construction of an Alcohol Problem: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and Social Control in the 1980’s.” Theory and Society 17.

1988  “Scapegoating and Social Control in the Construction of Public Problems: Empirical and Critical Findings on Cocaine and Work,” Research in Law, Deviance and Social Control, 9, with D. Waldorf and S Murphy.

1987  “Culture, Cognition, and Disinhibition: Sexuality and Alcohol in the Age of AIDS,” Contemporary Drug Problems 14, with B. C. Leigh.

1985  “Causality, Context, and Contingency: Relationships Between Drug Abuse and Violent Delinquency,” Contemporary Drug Problems, 12, with J. Watters and J. Fagan.

1983  “Unemployment and Economic Crisis,” Berkeley Journal of Sociology 28.

1983  “Constraint, Autonomy, and State Policy,” Journal of Drug Issues 13.

1979  “Moral Entrepreneurs & Political Economy: Historical/Ethnographic Notes on Construction of the Cocaine Menace,” Contemporary Crises: Crime, Law, and Social Change 3.

1974   "Addicts, Everything But Human," Urban Life 4/1 [now Journal of Contemporary Ethnography]

BOOK REVIEWS

2016  "Illness or Deviance? Drug Courts, Drug Treatment, and the Ambiguity of Addiction", J. Murphy. (Temple University Press, 2015). American Journal of Sociology 121/6.

2015  “Social Poison: The Culture and Politics of Opium Control in Britain and France, 1821-1926", H. Padwa (Johns Hopkins 2012). International Journal of Comparative Sociology 56/1.

2013  “Drug Dilemmas,” review of Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know by M. Kleinman J. Caulkins, A. Hawken, (Oxford University Press 2011). Health Affairs Vol 32, Issue 7.

2010  "Two Worlds of Drug Consumption in Late Modern Societies," I. Eisenbach-Stangl, J. Moskalewicz, B. Thom (Surrey, UK: Ashgate). Contemporary Sociology 39, 5.

2002  "Making Hate a Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement," Valerie Jenness and Ryken Grattett (Russell Sage Foundation 2001). American Journal of Sociology 107 

2000  “The Future of Anomie Theory”, N. Passas and R. Agnew, eds. (Northeastern University Press, 1997). Contemporary Sociology 29/1.

1997  “There's No Success Like Failure: The Persistence of Punitive Prohibition,” review of Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial, by Bertram, Blachman, Sharp, & Andreas (University of California Press, 1996). Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 553 (1997). Published in longer form in Health Affairs 16.

1994  Review Essay, “Sociological Denial and Temperance Ideology in Drug Policy Discourse,” review of Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results, by M. Kleiman (Basic Books, 1992). Criminal Justice Ethics 12 (1993); reprinted, International Journal of Drug Policy 5.

1993  Review Essay, “The Politics of Drug Policy: Deja Vu All Over Again,” review of The Search for Rational Drug Control, by F. Zimring and G. Hawkins (Cambridge University Press, 1991); Traffickers: Drug Markets and Law Enforcement, by N. Dorn, K. Murji, & N. South (Rutledge, 1992); and Drug Control Policy, by W.O. Walker, ed (Penn State Univ. Press, 1992). Contemporary Sociology 22.

1991  "Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring", Terry Williams (Addison-Wesley). Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 20/1.

1989  Editorial: Remembering Heretical Heroes: Norman E. Zinberg and Edward M. Brecher. Contemporary Drug Problems.

1988  Culture, Identity, and Politics, by Ernest Gellner (Cambridge University Press). Social Science Quarterly 69.

1988  Pathways from Heroin Addiction: Recovery Without Treatment, by Patrick Biernacki (Temple University Press). Qualitative Sociology 11.

1986  Life With Heroin: Voices from the Inner City, by B. Hanson, et al., Eds. (Lexington Books). Contemporary Sociology 15.

1986  Feeling Good, Doing Better: Ethics and Non-therapeutic Drug Use, by T. Murray, W. Gaylin, R. Macklin, Eds. (Humana Press). Contemporary Sociology 15.

POPULAR MEDIA

2007  "5 Myths About That Demon Crack: The Supreme Court's Sentencing Problem." Washington Post, October 14, 2007.