1st Edition

The Control of Drugs and Drug Users Reason or Reaction?

By Ross Coomber Copyright 1998

    Informed debate on how, why, or even if, drugs and those that use them should be controlled needs an insight into the background of such controls, how effective they have been and what reasonable alternatives there may be. This book seeks to provide such an insight. Reviewing important aspects of past and current drug control policies in Britain and America, the international compliment of expert contributors seek to explore the rationality of the reasoning which produced the initial controls, the continuing relevance of those currently employed, and provide alternative scenarios for future policy.

    Part 1. The Emergence of Drug Controls 1. Pathologising the Soul: The Construction of a 19th Century Analysis of Opiate Addiction 2. Reform, Racism and Rackets: Alcohol and Drug Prohibition in the United States 3. The Development of Drug Control in Britain 4. Medical Power and Knowledge: The Treatment and Control of Drugs and Drug Users 5. The Agony and the Ecstasy: Drugs, Media and Morality Part Two. The Current Control Context 6. Tackling Drug Control in Britain: From Sir Malcolm Delevingne to the New Drugs Strategy 7. America's Drug War: Fact of Fiction? 8. Pragmatism or Principle? Continuity and Change in the British Approach to Treatment and Control 9. The Perils of Prohibition Part 3. Current Trends and Possibilities for the Future 10. Drug Crop Producing Countries: A Development Perspective 11. Missed Opportunities? Beneficial Uses of Illicit Drugs 12. Informal Social Controls and the Liberalization of Drug Laws and Policies 13. International Trends in Drug Policy

    Biography

    Ross Coomber