Sociology

Marx saw religion as serving an ideological function, masking the underlying class relations of inequality. As a system of beliefs and values, religion was a part of the superstructure, built upon the economic base of capitalist society. Like Comte, Marx believed that religion would one day cease to be necessary, but he thought that this depended on a socialist revolution. 410

Drug addiction is shaped by social as well as psychological and physiological factors. Howard Becker, who introduced the labelling theory of deviance, looked at the ways in which people became socialized into illegal drug use (specifically cannabis) through their interactions with others. He identified the ‘deviant career’, through which beginners might drift into occasional and then regular use: this depended on their learning the techniques of smoking marijuana, learning to perceive these effects, and finally learning to enjoy them, in the company of others. 255-257