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Connecting Sociological Theory and Social Issues

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Connecting Sociological Theory and Social Issues

Drug abuse is a topic of sociological significance because it is all around our daily lives whether we want it to be or not. Drug abuse today can influence or impact our family, community, and the economic and political life. Whether the drugs that are being abused are prescribed or recreational it can lead to bad consequences that the abuser may not have intentionally caused. It is also an important aspect to social life which sociologists can analyze with the three main theoretical perspectives of functionalism, conflict, and interactionism.
Constructing a clock with its many different cogs and gears together is like the functionalist perspective of sociology because it “emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability” (Schaefer, 14) because without the various parts the clock or society cannot function. Drug abuse, through a functionalist view, may view it as dysfunctional. “A dysfunction refers to an element or process of a society that may actually disrupt the social system or reduce its stability” (Schaefer, 14). But, some people may view drug abuse as functional because this kind of abuse creates employment for police officers, rehabilitation clinics, some therapies, and medical doctors. So, without the drug abusers there would be a lot of uncreated employment. The functionalist view of drug abuse can be contrasted effectively by the conflict perspective of sociology.
Sociologists with the conflict view see the world in a “continual struggle” in order to better understand it. They believe “that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups” (Schaefer, 14) over various items of interest, and the tension may not necessarily be violent. The use of abusing drugs can cause a domino reaction. If there is a drug abuser with in a family it can be

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