ANTH106 - Critical Essay: A Case Study Analysis of Drugs

This essay presents a critical analysis of a case study focused on drug use, particularly examining the social dynamics and complex processes within a heroin marketplace. Drawing upon ethnographic research and various sociological theories, the essay explores how drug markets function beyond simple supply and demand, highlighting the social relationships and cultural contexts that influence drug exchange. It addresses the motivations behind drug use, the impact of drug policies, and the potential harm that case studies can inflict on young readers by inadvertently providing a means to bypass obstacles in venturing into drug abuse. The analysis incorporates perspectives on addiction, peer influence, and the societal implications of illicit drug trade, ultimately calling for further research and effective policies to curb drug production and consumption. Desklib provides access to this essay and a wealth of other academic resources to support student learning.

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Case Study: Critical essay on analysis of drugs
The Name of the Student
The Name of the Course
The Name of the Professor
The Name of the School
The City and State where it is located
Date

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Case Study: Critical essay on analysis of drugs
Introduction
Drugs are non-food substances that improve nutritional support which causes temporal
change in functionality in the body. They are injected, inhaled, smoked, absorbed through patch
or smoked. Pharmacology terms them as chemical substances which when used causes a
biological effect. Drugs analysis goes hand in hand with abuse as attempts to ensure prescriptive
use has been received with a rampant resistance across the world (Gillespie et al., 2007, pp.920-
930). This has made it possible for this research to gap the existing resistance in observance of
caution in the administering of drugs.
Critical review
Relation to the class study
In Australia, and most definitely the entire world, drugs are known to have been in
existence for a very long time. Extensive studies in class work and weekly assignments range
from peyote, magic mushrooms, cannabis, and alcohol among other topics including drugs as a
problem, drugs and science, pharmacology, current drug policy in Australia, pharmacology
maintenance program are some of the topics which majorly focus on the usage, abuse, and
efforts to curb drugs at marketplaces and their abuse. The purpose and functionality of existence
of this taught causes directly relate to the focus of this case study (Fraser et al., 2007, pp. 192-
201).

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Complex social processes and relations
However, Dwyer (2011) in ‘The social life of smokes’ agreed that illegal drugs
marketplace is made up of complex social processes and interaction (Dwyer, 2011 pp.19-34).
Dwyer suggested that people use drugs for social purposes, which includes the maintenance of
interpersonal relations and substantiation of intimate social ties. This essay supports Dwyer’s
argument with reference to various theories, l will illustrate that drug market is made up of
complicated social relations rather usual trade. The essay will first highlight the cultural
perspective of people exchanging drugs as a way of bonding, then to explore the mentality of
sharing of drugs by people in the personal perspective.
Moreover, ethnographic studies foster the understanding of the implications of these
environments for the participants in the case study. Through undertaking submersion into core
environments where the exchanges took place, we can broaden the understanding of complex
social mechanisms that greatly influence and give shape to the cultures. This is evident in
Dwyer’s 2-year ethnographic studies of the Vietnamese heroin illegal trade practices. She used
cigarette exchange as a means to gain access to the heroin after establishing trust. Dwyer (2011)
illustrates the symbolic role of heroin exchange in creation and affirmation of social hierarchies,
maintenance of relationships and facilitating social connections within the participants.
Eventually, when social implications of drug exchange are fully understood, the relevant gaps in
current drug policies become filled.
The rampant use of harmful drugs in the social context, exclusively heroin, has called to
attention the political realm, which has caused the introduction of enforcement of several drug
policies within Australia. The involvement of illicit drugs in the society has led to a social issue
rather than just a matter of crime with the ever-changing attitude in the society today,

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emphasizing on the need for adjustments in the unbiased research. Drug lords are perceived to be
intolerable people in the society due to the fear of crime and restlessness they can impose on the
society as Lewis attests (Lewis, 2017).
Additionally, the case study shows how the economical impression of the group is
pictured by the seriousness of trading activities depicted by the group (Trocki, 2012). Drugs,
despite being exchanged secretly by means only known to them, was the major tool in trade. The
so-called the entrepreneurs ventured into the marketplaces like any other business organization
with aims of satisfying their users and customers as much as product business would strive to
deliver the required level of expectation to their clients (Wellin, 2016). A lot of caution was
exercised to avoid incidents of undercover feds and the dealers could communicate with each
other in a way known to them in case there was suspicious activity. New customers were
thoroughly examined and screened through by the dealers before they could sell the drugs to
them.
The case study on the exchange of heroin in the marketplace was a success with a clear
outline on how exchange skills and technique is conducted, when and by which group of people
(Celestini et al., 2017, pp.218-229). The study, however, gives a guideline of how a non-drug
user can engage the dealers, the steps to follow, and the efforts to put in in order to venture into
the usage of these harmful drugs. The victims that land into this idea, the study indicated that
most are post-secondary school kids waiting to join colleges and universities.
Categorically, this study could cause more harm to the society fabrics by providing a
means to by-pass, outcome, or break through the obstacles in venturing the abuses by the post-
secondary school children. This is supported and illustrated in theory of Benson and his team on
the misuse of stimulant and medication of college students (Benson et al., 2015, pp.50-76). In

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most cases, kids have the desire to do things whether positive or negative but lacking the means
to persuade their desire has always made most of them stay away from it. The case study
provides the means for such anxious teenagers and the youth to experimental experiences in a
lifetime which have always ended up being addicts.
Addiction, in the long run, comes along with peer influence, frustrations, and stress in a
person’s life who revert to drugs to aid in diverting their attention from their daily life and as a
means for leisure among the teenagers according to (Everitt and Barry, 2016, pp.23-50). In their
theory, they claim it begins with a single trigger or urges to experiment and ends up turning into
a great concern after it becomes a well-established chronic addiction.
Conclusion
Heroin, as defined by the National Institute of Drug abuse is an illicit and highly
addictive substance that is processed from morphine and can be found in different forms, with
the most common being the white powder and is injected into the body. (Lewis, 2017) Depicts
that the practice as being a ritual done by the abusers capturing the societal attention dependent
on the use of the harmful and illegal drugs.
Initially, the use of heroin increased rapidly without the society awareness of the health,
social and political aspects that relate to the abuse of the drug. Indications dictate that the dire
need to further research about illicit drugs and the society paradigm and also propose an effective
policy to aid in curbing production and consumption of all the illicit drugs that are continually
harming the human race.
The process of exchange of heroin in marketplace was one of the contributors the
successful trade of a drug business. However, for young readers, the case study could cause

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distortion and deviation of motives from educative to practicing involvement in drug abuse
(Tanesini, 2018, pp.350-367)
References
Benson, S., Kari, F., Kate, H., and Kathryn, L., 2015. Misuse of stimulant medication among
college students: a comprehensive review and meta-analysis. Clinical child and family
psychology review, 18(1), pp. 50-76.
Celestini, M., Alessandro, M., and Gianluigi, M., 2017. Tor Marketplaces Exploratory Data
Analysis: The Drugs Case. In: International Conference on Global Security, Safety, and
Sustainability. s.l.:Springer, pp. 218-229.
Dwyer, R., 2011. The social life of smokes. The drug effect, pp. 19-34.
Everitt, T. and Barry, J., Trevor W, 2016. Drug addiction: updating actions to habits to
compulsions ten years on. Annual review of psychology, Volume 67, pp. 23-50.
Fraser, A.,Suzanne, P., Kiran, D., Ella, M., David, K., Renata, T., and Carla, D., 2007. Addiction
stigma and the biopolitics of liberal modernity: A qualitative analysis. International Journal of
Drug Policy, Volume 44, pp. 192-201.
Gillespie, K., Nathan, A., Michael, P., Carol, A., and Steven, K., 2007. Factor and item-response
analysis DSM-IV criteria for abuse of and dependence on cannabis, cocaine, hallucinogens,
sedatives, stimulants and opioids. Addiction, 102(6), pp. 920-930.
Lewis, D. A., 2017. Fear of crime: Incivility and the production of a social problem.
s.l.:Routledge.
Tanesini, A., 2018. Epistemic Vice and Motivation. Metaphilosophy, 49(3), pp. 350-367.

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Trocki, C., 2012. Opium, empire and the global political economy: a study of the Asian opium
trade 1750-1950. s.l.:Routledge.
Wellin, M., 2016. Managing the psychological contract: Using the personal deal to increase
business performance. s.l.:CRC Press.