1. What are drugs? List a few that come to mind. Explain what we might mean by them in both a colloquial and a technical sense. Discuss some of the different means we use to control access to and/or prohibit certain drugs. Also, what social problems are traced to drugs and/or drug addiction, including both the legal and “illegal” ones?
2. To what degree is the War on Drugs a “real” or “shooting” war? To what degree is it a metaphorical conflict? Rather than simply answering “yes” or “no,” discuss the criteria that you might use to answer a question like this? That is, in what ways is the war on drugs like other wars (Vietnam, Iraq, etc.)? In what ways is it more like the War on Poverty that President Johnson declared back in the 1960s?