A critical thinking on social disapproval and marijuana use

A well shared stereotype depicts sociologists always dealing with the reinvention of the wheel. Maybe this is the reason why sociology has frequently represented a land of conquest for the scientific disciplines who, in a way or another, have perceived themselves as similar to it. Psychiatrists, epidemiologists, psychologists, economists and marketing experts have often ventured into sociological research, trusting in their capacity of handling its conceptual tools. Needless to say that the results obtained in this way have been deeply unsatisfying. The article by Keyes and colleagues entitled Social Norms of Birth of Cohorts and Adolescent Marijuana Use in the United States, 1976-2007 published on Addiction (a journal that seems particularly inclined to host the happy-go-lucky sociological excursions of biomedical scientists) is no exception. Authored by psychiatrists, epidemiologists and anesthetists, the essay shows a strong insensibility to the sociological literature right from the beginning. In the introduction, the writers declare tersely that the adolescent’s marijuana use has been quite often explained at the individual level while rarely have explanation at collective level been provided.