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The Drugtakers is one of the clearest and most dramatic examples of deviance amplification.

In this programme Jock Young discusses what is meant by a ‘sociological approach’ to drug use, the importance of looking at societal reaction and some of the benefits and difficulties of using ethnographic methods.

He describes how his research illustrated the ways in which media fantasises about drug use were translated into realities. Drugs took on a new social meaning, and soft and hard drug users were driven closer together by a common sense of injustice and alienation.

In the final part of the programme Young talks about drug taking in contemporary societies and how much worse the problem has become, something anticipated in The Drugtakers.

This programme will be relevant to those studying deviance, sociological theory and research methods.