The PGCert / Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) / MSc in Contemporary Alcohol & Drug Studies adopts a critical social science perspective to explore the interplay between psychoactive substances and society.

 

You will be introduced to a range of cross disciplinary theories, concepts and evidence to analyse:

• the use and effects of psychoactive substances
• patterns of consumption differentiated across social groups
• responses to drug and alcohol-related harms from a range of perspectives, such as criminal justice, treatment, harm reduction, public health, and health inclusion

 

We critically examine substance-related harms for individuals, families and communities and how harms are mediated by gender, class, race and ethnicity. We pay particular attention to the social, economic and political contexts of inequality and risk environments and how issues such as housing, homelessness and welfare state reforms may contribute to harms.

 

We also assess the influences of the alcohol industry; the drugs economy; and prohibition on policy and practice, and engage with current debates on alcohol and drug law reforms nationally and internationally.