R. Terry Furst

Male Partners of Substance-Abusing Women in Treatment: An Exploratory Study

Despite evidence for the importance of significant others in the recovery process, little is known about male partners of female substance abusers. This paper presents a qualitative exploratory study conducted to learn more about male partners of crack/cocaine-addicted women and specifically examines the mens influence on the treatment and recovery process of their female partners. Subjects were found to have an extensive history of substance abuse and some experience with treatment; three-quarters were active crack/cocaine users. Although their attitude toward womens substance abuse was negative and their opinion of treatment for women positive, mens behavioral support for their partners was usually passive and inconsistent. Reasons are discussed why male partners of female drug users in treatment generally were resistant to active participation in family-oriented treatment: the mens active drug use, their desire to maintain the status quo in the relationship, possible focus on their own recovery, divergent views about treatment goals, and the desire to minimize stigma by association.

Social Change and the Commercialization of Professional Sports

The identification and understanding of the social factors that underlie the burgeoning commercialization of modern professional sports in the United States is the primary objective of this paper. Within this framework the transformation of baseball, football, basketball and hockey from play to professionalization is explored. By presenting sociological patterns in present sports, the immediate past and the distant past, light will be shed on the historical antecedents that engender changes in professional sports. Specifically, we would like to know what are the effect of increasing commercialization on the intrinsic nature of sports? What are the indicants that set today’s sports apart from other periods? To answer these questions and to raise others, let us start by scanning the present situation and then examine the relationship between play and work.

The Rise of the Street Middleman/Woman in a Declining Drug Market

Performing special services for others, when compensation is either explicit or implicit, is an integral part of the social organization of drug subcultures. One instrumental activity in this milieu is the service performed by the middleman or woman in obtaining illegal drugs for others. A street middleman/woman involved in drug transactions in Bushwick, Brooklyn is a person who specializes in procuring drugs for those people who cannot or do not want to purchase drugs directly from a dealer because of their unfamiliarity with the dealer and/or the fear of being arrested. They are monetarily compensated for this service by the customer. At times they also receive discounts from street drug dealers on purchases for their customers which increases their monetary compensation.

An Exploration of Stigma in the Lives of Sex Offenders and Heroin Abusers

Research was conducted on variations and commonalities of sexual offenders and heroin abusers and how they manage stigma in their everyday lives. Interviews with 13 sex offenders (SOs) and 44 heroin abusers (HAs) were conducted in New York City. Results suggest that both SOs and HAs disclose or conceal their stigmatized status based on their relationship to others and the situations in which they anticipate social condemnation. Both groups have formed intra-group hierarchies based on status, where child molesters and heroin abusers receive the most disdain. Some heroin abusers manage their stigma by engaging in behavior that we term redemptive passing, in which stigmatized individuals attempt to pass as non-stigmatized through deceptive means in order to make amends for prior harms they have caused. The stigmatization of sex offenders and heroin abusers has important implications for health, as members of these groups are less likely to seek treatment in order to distance themselves from their stigmatizing status.

Suboxone Misuse Along the Opiate Maintenance Treatment Pathway

This study explores strategies that Suboxone misusers utilize while in drug treatment. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with 14 patients who had cycled in and out of Suboxone treatment. The objective of the study is to identify strategies implemented by patients who intermittently use opiates/opioids while in Suboxone treatment. Findings indicate that some patients serially stop and start treatment in a Harm Reduction setting in New York City. Many patients suggest that they manage their opiate/opioid dependency through a sequential use of Suboxone and heroin to avoid withdrawal and to continue their misuse of opiates/opioids. Results are discussed in conjunction with the difficulties inherent to substance abuse treatment and suggestions for improvement are offered.

The “Jelling-Up” of Dope: Implications for the Transmission of HIV Among Idus

A combination of survey and ethnographic research was used to investigate what injectors have labeled as the “jelling-up” of their heroin: insolubility leading to the clogging of needles/syringes. A total of 856 interviews, were conducted in two inner-city Chicago communities. Three separate samples were drawn from heroin injectors over a period of 18 months. In each sample, 85% (n = 39), 72% (n = 417) and 81% (n = 400) of the respondents reported that their heroin clogged their needles/syringes. In each of these respective samples, 55%. 28%, and 19% of the respondents reported that they had shared needles/syringes with others because their “works” had clogged. The paper explores the conditions under which inappropriate diluent/adulterants are used in the “cutting” of heroin. A complex of factors helps explain the use of improper cuts; these include: oligopolistic market conditions engendered by gangs, ignorance of the proper diluents/adulterants. and the creation of dual markets (intranasal and injecting...

Renting Apartments to Felons: Variations in Real Estate Agent Decisions due to Stigma

ABSTRACT The study provides a qualitative analysis of 300 real estate agent responses to telephone calls from researchers posing as convicted felons and inquiring about renting an apartment. Telephone calls were made to real estate agents in New York State and primarily in New York City. Criminal conviction type was manipulated across callers who revealed three types of prior convictions: child molestation, statutory rape, or drug trafficking. Analyses indicate that decisions about renting fall within a continuum of responses, including overt rejection, deferral of rental decision to landlords, ambivalence on the part of the agent, concerns about financial ability to pay rent, and concealing the caller’s offense from the landlord. Reasons for acceptance and rejection of renting an apartment are explored. The stigmatized status of offenders appears to have contributed to the variations in the real estate agents responses.

Heroin Abuse and Collective Identity: Correlates and Consequences of Geographical Place.

Ethnographic and qualitative research were utilized to examine how the effects of geographic place can be related to heroin abuse and collective identity in non-metropolitan areas (NMAs) in the mid-Hudson region of New York State, U.S. The socio-geographic consequences of this interrelationship are explored. In-depth interviews were conducted with 237 recent admissions to drug treatment at 28 facilities in the seven mid-Hudson region counties. The effects of geographic place and collective identity emerged in interviews through narratives relating to heroin experimentation, subsequent dependence, and the lure of New York City. Heroin experimentation and the New York City lifestyle are collectively constructed by many respondents as “cool.” They are both oriented toward city life and in conflict with what respondents believe to be a lack of community and caring among city dwellers and the dehumanizing effects of the city. The idea that heroin use is cool serves as tacit permission to experiment with heroin.

A select annotated bibliography : Illegal drug research in rural and suburban areas

Abstract As the diffusion of illegal drugs continues to spread to rural and suburban areas. there is a greater need among illegal drug researchers. law enforcement, and policy makers to gain knowledge from previous work done on what is loosely termed as rural substance abuse research. To help serve that need an annotated bibliography is proffered based on three categories and one method of illegal substance abuse research. These are: drug consumption, drug distribution, drug prices, and ethnography. An exhaustive review of the literature was not undertaken, but rather a focus on research that addresses drug consumption and distribution is put forward.

Diffusion and Diversion of Suboxone: An Exploration of Illicit Street Opioid Selling

Interviews with fourteen opioid retail pill sellers provides an exploration into the diversion and diffusion of Suboxone to recreational (“week-end warriors”) drug users. The use of social media and electronic devices enables the diffusion of Suboxone to dependent and non-dependent opiate/opioid drug abusers. Overprescribing by physicians and prescribing in drug treatment settings fuels the diversion of Suboxone. The diversion and the diffusion of Suboxone have the potential to delay entrance into drug treatment and promote the misuse of the drug by both dependent opiate/opioid drug abusers and recreational users. The dilemma posed by Suboxone maintenance treatment will not be easily addressed or mitigated in the near future.