Public Health, Drugs, and Culture

Public Health, Drugs, and Culture explores the intersectionality of Public Health in American culture and the history of drugs in society. It addresses the complexities of how drugs, race, ethnicity, and culture are influenced across communities by examining social, structural, and political determinants of health. As a result, this book is divided into 14 distinct chapters geared to provide a deeper understanding of these determinants of health and how they are interwoven from an ecological standpoint intra-personally, interpersonally, and institutionally, by the community and political norms within society. Accordingly, each chapter will provide an introduction and a deeper dive into each area of focus while providing case studies, video lessons, and critical thinking exercises for practical application in the classroom, workplace, and community settings. This book was written to provide a scholarly and yet, experiential notion of how public health is embedded into our lives, culture and how it is influenced by our lifestyle choices, drugs, our built environment, societal norms, and structural systems that influence our downstream outcomes. 

This book is organized by Chapters that include key words, video lessons, and case studies. Pedagogical tools used to enhance learning in this textbook include learning objectives and critical thinking discussion questions that will challenge the reader to go deeper in their understanding. Suggestion for instructors, students and advent readers in navigating this book is to read each chapter as a separate yet, compounding chapter that uniquely link each chapter together as one body of work that intersect at different points in time or in concert. Therefore, when approaching the material, read the chapters in sequence or by topic and watch the linked videos within the chapter to connect with the authors from a philosophical and practical experience connecting research and empirical data to real world experiences an interaction.