Drug Addiction Human Rights And Criminal Justice

Drug Addiction, Human Rights and Criminal Justice The book is written by the author to provide the relevant materials to the students because the students were facing a lot of problems in this regard. Drug abuse and drug addiction have become alarming problem all over the world. India has also been a victim of it for more than many decades. It is actually a curse on mankind. It has crippled or crippling life in several states and countries and is also causing economic breakdown leading to paralyzing the social and economic fabric of the society. It is like a cancer disease which is destroying the life of people. It has also taken the lives of a billion people. This book is divided into eleventh chapters. The first Chapter is related to Historical Perspective of Drug Abuse and Addiction.” In this chapter, an attempt has been made to give the detail of the history of drug addiction at the global level and national level. The Second Chapter is concerned to the “Meaning and Definition of Drug Abuse and Addiction”. An attempt has been made to analyze and understand the meaning and definition of drug abuse and addiction in detail. The Third Chapter deals with the “Kinds and Classification of Drug Addiction”. The Chapter Fourth is concerned “Methods and Effects of Drug Addiction” and an attempt has been made to find out the possible methods of taking the drugs. In addition, the Effects and the Consequences of drugs addiction are also discussed. Chapter Fifth is concerned with “Responsible Factors of Drug Addiction.” In the Sixth Chapter, “The Problem of Drug Addiction in Punjab and the Other States” is discussed. Special emphasis has been made regarding the Punjab, and Eastern States. The Seventh Chapter is devoted to “Drug Addiction and Human Rights” and an attempt has been made to clarify the concept of Human Rights and Violation of Human Rights by Enforcement Agencies and Governments of the Countries. The Eighth Chapter deals with “Drug Addiction and Laws” and it covers the critical appraisal of various anti-drugs laws passed by Parliament from time to time including the NDPS Act, 1988. Chapter Ninth is concerned with “Drug Addiction the International Conventions”. The Tenth Chapter is related to the “Drug Addiction and Judiciary”. The Eleventh Chapter deals with the “Prevention and Control of Drug Addiction”. At last, some sources of information are also duly recorded in this book.

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

This book uses a human rights perspective – developed philosophically, politically and legally – to change the way in which we think about drug control issues. The prohibitionist approach towards tackling the ‘drugs problem’ is not working. The laws and mentality that see drugs as the problem and tries to fight them, makes the ‘drugs problem’ worse. While the law is the best-placed mechanism to regulate our actions in relation to particular drugs, this book argues against the stranglehold of the criminal law, and instead presents a human rights perspective to change the way we think about drug control issues. Part I develops a conceptual framework for human rights in the context of drug control – philosophically, politically and legally – and applies this to the domestic (UK) and international drug control system. Part II focuses on case law to illustrate both the potential and the limitations of successfully applying this unique perspective in practice. The conclusion points towards a bottom-up process for drug policy which is capable of reconfiguring the mentality of prohibition. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of human rights, criminal law, criminology, politics and socio-legal studies.

This is a groundbreaking book that offers key stakeholders, policy makers and professionals a much needed resource to understand the need to provide effective and humane treatment of drug users with drug addiction problems (drug dependants) who fall within the criminal justice system in Malaysia. This book begins with a narrative description of the historical evolution of drug abuse in Malaysia: beginning from the opium trade in the 18th century, with the exodus of the Chinese immigrants to Southeast Asia and Malaysia as labourers in the late 19th century which brought along the problem of opium addiction to the Malay Peninsula, to the 1970s which saw a transitional change from opium addiction to heroin and the rise in amphetamine-type-stimulant (ATS) abuse in Malaysia as the 21st century drug problem. It then provides an overview of Malaysia’s prohibition approach by waging the rhetorical War on Drugs, including the development of Malaysia’s punitive drug laws and the recent paradigm shift towards a more rehabilitative approach in drug treatment. Over the years, a considerable number of High Court cases have challenged the legality of the detention of drug dependants for treatment at Puspen via a court-mandated order. This book further presents a commentary that is founded upon the legal challenges brought about by such unlawful detention, illustrated by judicial decisions of Malaysian judges regarding the constitutional rights of the drug dependants enshrined under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution.

It has become almost accepted knowledge within international policy circles that efforts against drug trafficking and drug abuse violate human rights, and that the entire international drug control regime needs to be changed (or even discarded altogether) to adopt a more 'rights respecting' approach. Though this view has been promoted by many prominent figures and organisations, the author of this book uses his expertise in both human rights and drug control to show that the arguments advanced in this area do not stand close scrutiny. The arguments are in fact based on selective and questionable interpretations of international human rights standards, and on a general notion – more and more clearly stated – that there is a human right to take drugs, and that any effort to combat drug abuse by definition violates this right. There is no such right in international law, and the author objects to the misuse of human rights language as a marketing tool to bring about a 'back door' legalisation of drugs. Human rights issues must be addressed, but that in no way means that the international drug control regime must be discarded, or that efforts against drugs must be stopped.

Taking the shifting global drug policy terrain as a starting point, this collection moves beyond debates about whether to reform drug policies to a focus on delivering ‘drug policy justice’ – repairing the damage caused by the war on drugs as a component of reform efforts and safeguarding against future harms in legal markets. This book brings together some of the leading international thinkers and advocates on harm reduction and drug policy to introduce key questions in contemporary drug policy. Across five themes, and with contributions from different regions and disciplines, it explores ethical, legal, empirical and historical perspectives on delivering ‘drug policy justice’ from supply through to use. Essays cover a wide range of issues, from the effects of COVID on drug policy to securing economic and environmental justice, and from human rights in Asian drug policy to questions of race and equity in cannabis reforms, providing diverse insights on both prominent and overlooked drug policy challenges. Towards Drug Policy Justice is a benchmark text for scholars, students, advocates and policymakers as the book explores new models of global drug policy reform.