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The purpose of this paper is to discuss what kinds of messages about the risks of polydrug use are mediated in YouTube video blogs and on what kinds of norms and values do the vloggers base these messages.

The data consist of 12 YouTube videos where vloggers share their own experiences of the risks and harms of polydrug use. In the analysis, the actantial model of Greimas’ theory of structural semiotics was applied.

Two main types of videos were identified – sobriety and controlled use – where polydrug use has different meanings. In sobriety videos, polydrug use is presented as the heavy use of multiple substances. In the videos dealing with controlled use, polydrug use is taken as the combining of certain substances. Whereas the sobriety videos emphasized total abstinence from all substances due to their destructiveness, the videos about controlled use emphasized risk awareness when combining substances. Despite modern digital media and a new generation operating in this space, the messages of the risks of polydrug use mainly repeat those of familiar discourses.

This paper offers an analytical insight into the ways in which the risks of polydrug use are conceptualized in a YouTube context that is increasingly gaining a foothold among the youth. Greimas’ actantial model offers a fruitful tool to find semiotic meanings that hide under the surface. The model has not been applied in previous drug research.

Purpose – I extend the discourse regarding The Days of Wine and Roses (TDoWaR) as an Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) film in particular and analyses of A.A. films in general and provide a symbolic interactionist reading of TDoWaR as involving compliance dramas.

Design/methodology/approach – Borrowing from Norman Denzin's notion of a subversive reading of films, in which the author attends to the literal content of a text from a predefined perspective, I deal with the characters as if they create and maintain aligned and congruent actions that authors can analyze as conversational and interactional content. My main interest, drawing upon symbolic interactionist conceptualization and previous reviews of TDoWaR, involves the decisions made by characters to imbibe against their better judgment.

Findings – I detected four dramas (foreshadowed, evocative, profane, and complementary) that differed in interactional intensity and consequences. Each involves mutual decision making associated with self-definition and definition of the relationships. I also locate the dramas in the context of moral themes of an A. A. Film, specifically an epiphany, a categorical commitment to sobriety, an ongoing life cycle of recovery, and synchronicity.

Originality/value – Compliance dramas involve decisions to engage in ordinary activity (in this case, drinking) that becomes nonordinary, owing to semiotic, situational, historical, and interactional dynamics. The chapter can encourage thinking about alcoholism and alcoholic films as involving a moral career of a recovering alcoholic that sometimes must involve sacrifice of other prestigious moral careers (e.g., of a romantic relationship) in order to maintain the authenticity of the identity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore treatment needs and factors contributing to engagement in substance use and sobriety among women with co-occurring substance use and major depressive disorders (MDDs) as they return to the community from prison.

The paper used qualitative methods to evaluate the perspectives of 15 women with co-occurring substance use and MDDs on the circumstances surrounding their relapse and recovery episodes following release from a US prison. Women were recruited in prison; qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews conducted after prison release and were analyzed using grounded theory analysis. Survey data from 39 participants supplemented qualitative findings.

Results indicated that relationship, emotion, and mental health factors influenced women's first post-prison substance use. Women attributed episodes of recovery to sober and social support, treatment, and building on recovery work done in prison. However, they described a need for comprehensive pre-release planning and post-release treatment that would address mental health, family, and housing/employment and more actively assist them in overcoming barriers to care.

In-prison and aftercare treatment should help depressed, substance using women prisoners reduce or manage negative affect, improve relationships, and obtain active and comprehensive transitional support.

Women with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders are a high-risk population for negative post-release outcomes, but limited information exists regarding the processes by which they relapse or retain recovery after release from prison. Findings inform treatment and aftercare development efforts.

The historian can provide quite a different explanation, other than the currently held views, for the emergence of the Red Terror in 1918.

The fireworks had started and seemingly the world was having a party. I went to bed seeking oblivion through sleep. Next morning, amid the worldwide hype of Millennium celebration, the grim reality of my plight remained unchanged. Despair, terror and isolation were waiting for me when I woke and would dog me remorselessly through yet another day. I was coming to the end of my stay in an addiction treatment centre and I was afraid of the world outside ‐ afraid of reality itself!

This chapter examines the role of multimodal rhetoric in processes of theorization. Empirically, we investigated the theorization process of a highly disruptive innovation in the history of architecture: reinforced concrete. Relying on archival data from a prominent French architectural journal in the period from 1885 to 1939, we studied the rhetorical modes at play in the theorization of reinforced concrete. First, we found that theorization entailed two recursive activities: dramatization and evaluation. While dramatization relies on both verbal and visual (i.e., multimodal) means, evaluation relies on verbal means. We integrated these components into a dynamic model of theorization that explains how visual discourse contributes to theorization beyond the effects of verbal discourse.

Just like human beings, some companies engage in recurrent bad behaviour that negatively impacts their stakeholders and their prospects for long-term survival. For example, some firms become caught up in a vortex of corruption. SNC-Lavalin, a large Canadian consulting engineering company, is an example of one organisation that embarked on this path. Since then, the company has taken numerous steps to overcome its persistent problems with corruption. The object of this study is to determine whether these steps can be compared to the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which is recognised for helping individuals overcome addiction to alcohol and drugs.

To examine events at SNC-Lavalin between 2000 and 2022, the authors carry out an in-depth examination of internal and external documentation. Three sources of data are used: archival documents, news articles and corporate documentation.

The results of the analysis show that the AA 12-step program seems to correspond to the steps SNC-Lavalin has taken over time. The “organisational” version of this program that the authors have developed could be useful to advisers of companies that are struggling with other types of bad behaviour and wish to stamp it out. These bad behaviours include the exploitation of vulnerable manpower, the exploitation of consumers through planned obsolescence or aggressive sales practices and pollution in all its forms.

The study has certain limitations. It should be noted that the analyses were limited to public information. In addition, given the quantity of public information available for the period from 2009 to 2022, a methodical approach to selecting the sources of information elements was applied, which inevitably entailed ignoring other sources of information (e.g. television, radio and internet).

This study adds to previous work by providing an original and global perspective of the steps taken by a large international consulting engineering firm to overcome its recurring corruption problems. The parallel drawn with AA’s 12-step programs seems to correspond surprisingly well to the steps taken by the company. This parallel can potentially serve as a roadmap for advisers who have to counsel companies on recurring misconduct that has harmful repercussions for their stakeholders.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of SFST training in North Carolina. Effectiveness was assessed by comparing differences in the following variables before and after training: (1) the officers’ DWI arrest rates, (2) the officers’ DWI conviction rates, and (3) the arrested drivers’ blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels. Other variables examined included: the officers’ confidence levels in (4) identifying DWI drivers, (5) writing complete and accurate reports about DWI drivers; and (6) testifying clearly and convincingly in court. The results of this study suggest that officers equipped with SFST training are more confident in their abilities to detect DWI offenders, to write a complete and accurate report, and to testify in court clearly and convincingly. Also there is some evidence that these increased abilities correlate with an increase in DWI arrests.