This book is intended for the drug course taught out of sociology and/or criminology/criminal justice departments. The course can be quite large and taught at the sophomore or junior level. The book may also be deemed appropriate in lower division courses, or for a lower-division graduatecourse, depending on the institution in which it is used. Most texts that are written in the area of drug use are written either from a counseling/psychology perspective or from a physiology/pharmacology point of view, and do not attempt to deal extensively with the social context of drug use inAmerican society. This text provides a broader sociological perspective on drug use than any other text currently on the market, and has an extensive section on methods and statistics for measuring drug use (important in particular for sociology students). The authors also comprehensively addressthe critical substantive and policy issues in the field.