Full Description
This textbook provides an overview of international drug policy using a comparative framework to explore contemporary drug issues. Using a topical approach, each chapter examines a different topic pertaining to drug policy to illustrate the range of contrasting approaches adopted including: decriminalisation, prohibition, legalisation, and harm reduction. In this way, it speaks to students in the field of criminology and justice and beyond with a focus on criminal laws and the administration of criminal justice. It draws on global examples from over 30 countries throughout to discuss and compare drug policies. The book includes a host of pedagogic features including case studies, exercises, study questions, web resources and chapter summaries. It starts by providing an overview of the psychoactive and pharmacological effects of illicit drugs, discusses how to compare policies across many countries, and provides a history of the global drug prohibition regime and how it is evolving internationally. Many of the chapter topics that follow relate to "drug control regimes" which are different forms of regulatory strategies found operating in many countries around the world. It also discusses the global movement toward the decriminalization of all drugs.
It incorporates multidisciplinary, theoretical and methodological approaches drawing on the work of a wide range of scholars including historians, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, economists, and lawyers.
Contents
Chapter One- Introduction to International Drug Policy.- Chapter Two- Using Comparative Methods To Do International Drug Policy.- Chapter Three- The Psychopharmacological Effects of Drugs.- Chapter Four- Theories of International Drug Policy.- Chapter Five- American Influence on the History of International Drug Policy.- Chapter Six- International Drug Law.- Chapter Seven- Contemporary Prohibition of Tea, Tobacco, and Alcohol around the World.-Chapter Eight- Capital Punishment for Drug Related Offences Around the World.- Chapter Nine- Harm Reduction Drug Policy as an Alternative to Drug Prohibition.- Chapter Ten- Decriminalization as an Alternative to Drug Prohibition.- Chapter Eleven- Legalization as an Alternative to Drug Prohibition.- Chapter Twelve- Drug Prevention and Drug Treatment Around the World.
