Big Questions Seminar: How Did Opioids Become an Epidemic?
(HMS/SOC 090)
Department:
Health Medicine and Society, Sociology
College:
College of Arts & Sciences, College of Health
About:
In the United States, drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death, and opioids are the most common drug. How did we get here? This course begins with historical attention to the 19th century Opium Wars and the first “opioid epidemic” in the United States in the early 20th century. This sets our foundation to examine, through a social science lens, the contemporary intersection of structural factors such as the pharmaceutical industry, policy, police, courts, transnational drug trade, darknet markets, cryptocurrency, and socioeconomic disparities in producing a contemporary crisis.
