The Control of drugs and drug users: reason or reaction?

Abstract

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. Contents: 1. The emergence of drug controls. Pathologising the soul : the construction of a 19th century analysis of opiate addiction / Geoffrey Harding -- Reform, racism, and rackets : alcohol and drug prohibition in the United States / Michael Woodiwiss -- The development of drug control in Britain / Joy Mott and Philip Bean -- Medical power and knowledge : the treatment and control of drugs and drug users / Rachel Lart -- The agony and the ecstasy : drugs, media, and morality / Karim Murji. II. The current control context. Tackling drug control in Britain : from Sir Malcolm Delevingne to the new drugs strategy / Nigel South -- America's drug war : fact or fiction? / Bruce Billungton -- Pragmatism or principle? : continuity and change in the British approach to treatment and control / Susanne MacGregor -- The perils of prohibition / Thomas Szasz. III. Current trends and possibilities for the future. Drug crop producing countries : a development perspective / David Mansfield and Colin Sage -- Missed opportunities? : beneficial uses of illicit drugs / Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar -- Informal social controls and the liberalization of drug laws and policies / Wayne M. Harding -- International trends in drug policy / Richard Hartnoll.