Drugs and Deviance

This week in class, we did an activity connecting deviance to drugs. For this activity we had to decide if a certain type of drug is legal, prescription, illegal, or a felony. This was fun and interesting. While trying to figure out what group each drug would be a part of, most of us were just trying to figure out what the drug was. I think most people did this because certain drugs already had certain labels on them based on what they knew. What struck me the most during this was that caffeine got an unexpected rating. Some groups thought it should have been illegal or prescription. This was so weird to see. This is something that some people consume daily in typical beverages like coffee, sodas, and even chocolate. It's weird to think that caffeine was grouped as something illegal when it can be found so easily. I drink coffee and pop often and I never thought about what kind of label it has. Everyone would say that it is safe and legal just because everyone knows that from its name and reputation. Another one that was intriguing to find out about was the nicotine. Nicotine was rated as a felony or illegal. Its odd because even though it has such horrible effects, its still legal, and people don't consider it such a big problem. I think the biggest thing I learned from this activity was that certain drugs have labels that are only taken from where the location is and when it is. Other states would probably classify these drugs more differently than we did.