Thomas Kaplan’s article in the New York Times, “State Investigates Thefts of Prescription Pads at Hospitals”, can be interpreted from several different sociological angles. “An unknown number of blank prescription forms have been stolen from the New York City hospitals over the past several years in what investigators believe is a scheme by gang members to make money from addicts desperate for prescription painkillers” (Kaplan).
If this article is read in terms of functional analysis (viewing society as an organism with dysfunctions or ‘illnesses’) light is shed on the reality of prescription medications in the U.S. Their manifest function is an honorable one, especially in the case of painkillers like oxycodone that this article refers to, as they were created to help patients. Functionalism illustrates how with these intended functions often come latent ones. Prescription drug abuse is a great example of such unintended functions because addicts often use them recreationally rather than for healing.
The prescription forms that have gone missing from hospitals for years in New York are believed to be taken by a gang identified as the Latin Kings. Though the article doesn’t focus directly on gang culture, it does raise questions related to it. Why would people feel the need to join a gang involved in such illegal activity? What kinds of things ‘created’ these people who would grow up to live this life of crime? Socialization has a lot to do with the rise of such gangs. Humans naturally feel the need to belong, and we learn a lot of our values and norms from the people around us. If a person lives in a part of New York City where the Latin Kings are dominant, and they are offered protection and companionship, it isn’t very surprising that this person might choose to join such a gang, even if it meant being involved in deviant activities like robbery or drug use.
Merton’s Strain Theory gives us a way to interpret reasons behind deviance like Kaplan’s article deals with when people have shared goals but varying means of achieving them. The first question to ask is does strain lead to anomie? Anomie is a term that describes an absence of social norms, often lawlessness, like the act of stealing thousands of prescription pads from a hospital to sell to drug addicts. The strain that leads a person to do such a thing could be something like poverty, pressure from peers, mental instability, etc.
Though these gang members may have similar cultural goals to the average American such as a safe home and economic stability, they don’t have the same means of achieving these goals as the businessman in his cubicle, or the doctors they are stealing these forms from. Whether by choice or not, they reject institutionalized means of earning money through a legal job, using more ‘innovative’ tactics of robbery and drug trafficking.
Interesting article, thanks for sharing and writing about it!
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