Deviance & Drugs...

Today in class, we did an activity classifying drugs. We had to decide if they should be over the counter, prescription, a felony or a worse crime. But, we didn't know what the drugs were. The interesting thing was that I classified alcohol as a felony because of its affects on people even though alcohol is legal to adults ages 21 and over. We later discussed how drugs and drug laws are relative. For example, some drugs can result in trouble with the law while other are readily available at drugstores even though a lot of the drugs have similar effects and tolerance. Also, many times, it depends on the person who is being convicted of drug abuse. If upper middle class white people are caught with drugs, they are more likely to be able to pay for bail and receive sympathy from police. On the other hand, blacks in poorer areas are less likely to have money to pay for bail and are more likely to be treated very horribly. This relativity of drugs and drug laws mirrors the relativity of deviance. If an upper middle class white person is being "deviant" according to society, they might not be judged as quickly or as bad as a poorer minority. Money is also a big factor in deviance. People with more money are more likely to be able to avoid deviance or get out of it. I hope that in the future, these judgmental views of people and social deviance can be avoided or at least seen fairly among all types of people. Now that I realize this, I will try to do that.