Towards Drug Policy Justice

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.

"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"--

Drug-taking and drug control are alike; both are often done to excess. Against Excess shows how we can limit the damage done by drugs and the damage done by drug policies.

In More Harm Than Good, Carter, Boyd and MacPherson take a critical look at the current state of Canadian drug policy and raise key questions about the effects of Canada’s increasing involvement in and commitment to the “war on drugs.” A primer on Canadian drug policy, the analysis in More Harm Than Good is shaped by critical sociology and feminist perspectives on drugs and incorporates insights not only from individuals who are on the front lines of drug policy in Canada — treatment and service workers — but also from those who live with the consequences of that policy on a daily basis — people who use criminalized drugs. Finally, the authors propose realistic alternatives to today’s failed policy approach. “Your book really expanded thinking and understanding and had a big influence on students critical and reflective thought. Readings sparked rich conversations about their own hopes and wishes for the field, broader social and political responses and the impact on youth and families affected by substances.” - Stephanie McCune, University of Victoria Please note: an error occurred with the printing of this book, and one of the sidebars was not printed. It is available to download here. We sincerely apologize for this oversight.

The 2019 World Drug Report will include an updated overview of recent trends on production, trafficking and consumption of key illicit drugs. The Report contains a global overview of the baseline data and estimates on drug demand and supply and provides the reference point for information on the drug situation worldwide.

This book focuses on the use of drugs in our lives and how we respond to them. Whereas drug policy typically centres on the problems of illicit drugs or licit drugs used in illicit ways or circumstances, Contemporary Drug Policy instead considers the wide variety of substances we call drugs as a normal part of our personal and social experience and asks how and when drugs benefit us as well as how and when they are harmful. The evidence is clear that at some times, in some circumstances, and in some places drugs are a problem. This book does not ignore these issues but shifts our attention to making policies that also recognize their legitimate and constructive place in society. It focuses on asking questions, challenging assumptions, and developing responses to drugs based on evidence from scientific study as directed by critical criminological theory rather than mainstream theory or unfounded assumptions. Different from other books on drug policy, this book does not offer answers or solutions. Rather it shows how critical criminological theories can lead scientific research in new directions supportive of policies that offer both solutions to problems that are found to be related to drugs and an appreciation for the benefits that drugs can bring to people and society. This book will be of interest to those studying or researching drug policy as well as professionals involved in policy making processes.

From the 1950s 'girl junkie' to the 1990s 'crack mom', Using Women investigates how the cultural representations of women drug users have defined America's drug policies in this century. In analyzing the public's continued fear, horror and outrage wrought by the specter of women using drugs, Nancy Campbell demonstrates the importance that public opinion and popular culture have played in regulating women's lives. The book will chronicle the history of women and drug use, provide a critical policy analysis of the government's drug policies and offer recommendations for the direction our current drug policies should take. Using Women includes such chapters as 'Sex, Drugs and Race in the Age of Dope'; 'Regulating Adolescents in the Postwar US'; 'Fifties Femininity'; and 'Regulating Maternal Instinct'.

In recent years, British drug policy has undergone a transformation: tackling 'drug-driven' crime through criminal justice interventions has arguably become the central priority and focus. The 'criminal justice turn', as the authors refer to current UK drugs policy, is based on three simple and linked assumptions: drug-driven property crime is a major driver of local area crime rates, especially in deprived neighbourhoods; the criminal justice system can be used to target these drug-motivated offenders and direct them into treatment; and treatment can lead to significant reductions in their offending. Tough Choices: Risk, Security and the Criminalization of Drug Policy explores a series of questions about the 'criminal justice' turn in British drugs policy, from why it happened at all to what led policy to unfold in the way that it did, by analyzing policy documents and over 200 interviews conducted with key players in the policy development and implementation process. At the practice level, the authors explore how the strategic vision of the drug-crime 'problem' has shaped the ways in which drug-using offenders are identified, targeted and managed - in other words, why the implementation of the Drug Interventions Programme on the ground has taken the forms that it has. This is addressed through a detailed examination of practice in three local areas. Both the emergence of this new policy direction and its implementation in practice can best be understood as part of a wider transformation in governance in which risk-based thinking has become central to the ways in which we seek to address our contemporary insecurities. The book is based on a 30-month ESRC-funded research project on the Drug Interventions Programme and draws on the extensive empirical data generated during the project.