Drugs And Society

5 Stars! from Doody's Book Reviews! (of the 13th Edition) "This edition continues to raise the bar for books on drug use and abuse. The presentation of the material is straightforward and comprehensive, but not off putting or complicated." As a long-standing, reliable resource Drugs & Society, Fourteenth Edition continues to captivate and inform students by taking a multidisciplinary approach to the impact of drug use and abuse on the lives of average individuals. The authors have integrated their expertise in the fields of drug abuse, pharmacology, and sociology with their extensive experiences in research, treatment, drug policy making, and drug policy implementation to create an edition that speaks directly to students on the medical, emotional, and social damage drug use can cause.

Updated to keep pace with the latest data and statistics, Drugs and Society, Thirteenth Edition, contains the most current information available concerning drug use and abuse. Written in an objective and user-friendly manner, this best-selling text continues to captivate students by taking a multidisciplinary approach to the impact of drug use and abuse on the lives of average individuals.

'This is a great resource that reflects the huge expertise of the authors. It will be welcomed by students, researchers and indeed anyone wanting critical but comprehensive coverage of key issues and trends concerning drugs and society - locally and globally, historically and today.' - Nigel South, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex 'Provides informative, balanced and contextualized insights into the relationships between people and drugs. Whatever your background and however knowledgeable you feel you are about contemporary drug issues, I guarantee that you will learn something unexpected and new from this valuable text.' - Joanne Neale, Professor of Public Health, Oxford Brookes University Why do people take drugs? How do we understand moral panics? What is the relationship between drugs and violence? How do people's social positions influence their involvement in drug use? Insightful and illuminating, this book discusses drugs in social contexts. The authors bring together their different theoretical and practical backgrounds, offering a comprehensive and interdisciplinary introduction that opens up a wide scientific understanding moving beyond cultural myths and presuppositions. This is an invaluable reference source for students on criminology, sociology and social sciences programmes, as well as drug service practitioners such as drug workers, social workers and specialist nurses.

This work focuses on the many critical areas of America’s drug problem, providing a foundation for rational decision making within this complex and multidisciplinary field. Broken up into three sections, Understanding the Problem, Gangs and Drugs, and Fighting Back, topics covered include the business of drugs and the role of organized crime in the drug trade, drug legalization and decriminalization, legal and law enforcement strategies, an analysis of the socialization process of drug use and abuse, and a historical discussion of drug abuse that puts the contemporary drug problem into perspective.

This book takes an original and radical look at the place of drugs in society. It looks honestly at drugs and intoxication, removing the smog of taboo and prejudice, to discover the social factors that promote drugs use and the labelling of drug users as deviant.

Drugs and the Future presents 13 reviews collected to present the new advances in all areas of addiction research, including knowledge gained from mapping the human genome, the improved understanding of brain pathways and functions that are stimulated by addictive drugs, experimental and clinical psychology approaches to addiction and treatment, as well as both ethical considerations and social policy. The book also includes chapters on the history of addictive substances and some personal narratives of addiction. Introduced by Sir David King, Science Advisory to the UK Government and head of the Office of Science and Technology, and Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the USA, the book uniquely covers the full range of disciplines which can provide insight into the future of addiction, from genetics to the humanities. Written for a scientific audience, it is also applicable to non-specialists as well. Provides an unique overview of what we know about addiction, and how scientific knowledge can and should be applied in the societal, ethical, and political context Applies the state-of-the-art research in fields such as Genomics, Neuroscience, Pharmacology, Social Policy and Ethics to addiction research Includes a preface by Sir David King, Science Advisory to the UK Government and head of the Office of Science and Technology, and in introduction by Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the USA

This handbook provides a comprehensive examination of the past and present roles of drugs in society with a focus on theory, research, policy, and practice. Includes 28 original chapters with multi-disciplinary and international perspectives by top social and behavioral scientists Reviews current knowledge in the field, including key research findings, theoretical developments, and methodological debates Identifies ongoing controversies in the field, emergent topics, and areas in need of further inquiry Discusses individual drugs as well as topics like physiological theories of drug use and abuse, public health implications of drugs, patterns of drugs and crime, international drug trade and trafficking, and designer drugs

The focus of this edited collection is a thoughtful multidisciplinary presentation of past and present U.S. drug policies and whether they are winning the so-called war on drugs (they aren't!). For the great majority of ills ascribed to "drugs" are actually caused by the black market created by drug prohibition; the more successful the war on drugs is in making the drug trade a dangerous business, the greater are the profits from increased prices, and hence the greater the incidence of disease, corruption, social disorder, and death. Drugs and Society provides individuals with the information they need to construct an alternative policy.