James D. Orcutt is professor of sociology Florida State University, where he has received seven teaching awards and has published numerous articles on drug- and alcohol-related problems. He has served as president and vice president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and is a former editor of Social Problems.David R. Rudy is professor of sociology and dean at the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy at Morehead State University. He is the author of Becoming Alcoholic: Alcoholics Anonymous and the Reality of Alcoholism, and received the Morehead State University Distinguished Researcher Award.

• Chapter 1 General IntroductionPart 2 Section I. The Social Construction of Drug and Alcohol ProblemsChapter 3 IntroductionChapter 4 1. Constructing the Ownership of Social Problems: Fun and Profit in the Welfare StateChapter 5 2. Deviant Drinking as Disease: Alcoholism as a Social AccomplishmentChapter 6 Shocking Numbers and Graphic Accounts: Quantified Images of Drug Problems in the Print MediaPart 7 Section II. Political and Ideological ContextsChapter 8 IntroductionChapter 9 Comparative Ideologies and Alcoholism: The Protestant and Proletarian EthicsChapter 10 Setting the Public Agenda: 'Street Crime' and Drug Use in American PoliticsChapter 11 Truth and DARE: Tracking Drug Education to Graduation and as Symbolic PoliticsPart 12 Section III. Social Patterns: Epidemiological ResearchChapter 13 IntroductionChapter 14 Explaining Racial/Ethnic Differences in Adolescent Drug Use: The Impact of Background and LifestyleChapter 15 Drinking by Black and White Women: Results from a National SurveyChapter 16 Race, Class, and Gender Differences in Substance Abuse: Evidence of Middle-Class/Underclass Polarization among Black MalesPart 17 Section IV. Social Worlds: Qualitative ResearchChapter 18 IntroductionChapter 19 You Can't Help but Get Stoned: Notes on the Social Organization of Marijuana SmokingChapter 20 11. Shifts and Oscillations in Deviant Careers: The Case of Upper-Level Drug Dealers and SmugglersPart 22 Section V. Links to Other Social ProblemsChapter 23 IntroductionChapter 24 The 'Drunken Bum' Theory of Wife BeatingChapter 25 Drugs-Crime Connections: Elaborations from the Life Histories of Hard-Core Heroin AddictsChapter 26 15. Social Misery and the Sanctions of Substance Abuse: Confronting HIV Risk Among Homeless Heroin Addicts in San Francisco

In Drugs, Alcohol, and Social Problems, Orcutt and Rudy have compiled fourteen articles illustrating the rich and diverse nature of drug and alcohol problems present within sociological discourse. The articles in this text represent valuable contributions to the study of drug and alcohol problems. They are readings that all students and scholars in the drug and alcohol field will appreciate. Those interested in the social construction of social problems will find this book particularly satisfying.