Author Shane Butler tells the story of how Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was established in Ireland - the first European country to start an AA group - in 1946, and how it gradually came to establish itself as a mainstream Irish institution, the need for which has become clearer as alcohol consumption levels increase. AA is described as a hybrid institution, straddling healthcare and religion, and the book looks in detail at how early Irish members negotiated working relationships with the mental health system and the dominant Catholic Church. The book also focuses on AA's commitment to the avoidance of conventional, organizational management systems, involving clearly-identified leaders and top-down instructions for front-line members. The survival of AA in Ireland, as elsewhere, is attributed primarily to the fact that it has remained firmly outside of alcohol politics, seeing itself as a 'fellowship' which exists only to help individuals who seek its help in relation to their own powerlessness over alcohol. It is recognized, paradoxically, that AA in Ireland could not have negotiated such a smooth entry to this country without the energies and skills of its early leaders, and this book documents the activities of these leaders who - with the assistance of AA in the United States - strategically managed the fellowship's establishment in a potentially hostile environment.

In recent years, the reduction of alcohol-related harm has emerged as a major policy issue across Europe. Public health advocates, supported by the World Health Organisation, have challenged an approach that targets problem-drinking individuals, calling instead for governments to control consumption across whole populations through a combination of pricing strategies, restrictions on retail availability and marketing regulations. Alcohol, Power and Public Health explores the emergence of the public health perspective on alcohol policy in Europe, the strategies alcohol control policy advocates have adopted, and the challenges they have faced in the political context of both individual states and the European Union. The book provides a historical perspective on the development of alcohol policy in Europe using four case studies – Denmark, England, Scotland and Ireland. It explores the relationship between evidence, values and power in a key area of political decision-making and considers what conditions create – or prevent – policy change. The case studies raise questions as to who sets policy agendas, how social problems are framed and defined, and how governments can balance public health promotion against both commercial interests and established cultural practices. This book will be of interest to academics and researchers in policy studies, public health, social science, and European Union studies.

How is drug policy developed? Members of the Pompidou Group research platform from 17 European countries have studied this question, taking into account differing national political contexts, the influence of international conventions and drug strategies at V European level, the evolution of scientific knowledge, and treatment of drug addiction in the most broad sense of the word. This work in part provides a reply to the question whether countries opt for an integrated policy on substances, or for a separate policy for each substance. This publication also attempts to identify to what extent civil society, practice and science influence the formulation of drug policy.

With contributions from leading international academics across the social sciences, this accessible handbook takes a critical look at the key theories, disciplinary approaches, contemporary issues and debates in the field. · Part I Central Social Science Theories Drug and Alcohol Studies · Part II Pillars in Social Science Drug and Alcohol Studies · Part III Controversies and New Approaches in Social Science Drug and Alcohol Studies This Handbook is an excellent reference text for the growing number of academics, students, scientists and practitioners in the drug and alcohol studies community.

Though any psychoactive substance can be revered or reviled as a drug, as people’s cultural norms shift, ultimately its status is determined in law by the state. This publication explores the regulation of drugs – alcohol and cannabis to heroin and cocaine – and practices such as social drinking and public injecting under political regimes. Drugs are discussed in their geographical contexts: the colonial legacy of cannabis prohibition for bioprospecting in Africa; the veracity of the persistent notion of the narco-state; Turkey’s governance of drinking amid civil unrest; and alcohol’s place in the neoliberal political economy of Ireland. In addition, drug policies are examined: from problems in managing drug-related litter in the UK to supervised injecting facility provision in Australia; harm reduction in Canada; and the global network of drug policy activists. Place is significant, but porous borders, territorial overlaps and multi-scalar linkages are influential in remaking the world through current challenges to the ‘war on drugs’. This book was originally published as a special issue of Space & Polity.

Identifying effective approaches to creating coherent policies regarding licit and illicit drugs has been the priority of the Pompidou Group during its 2010-14 work programme. Over the years, research has evolved in this field as demonstrated in the group’s publications: From a policy on illegal drugs to a policy on psychoactive substances in 2008 and Towards an integrated policy on psychoactive substances: a theoretical and empirical analysis in 2010, and then Reflections on the concept of coherency for a policy on psychoactive substances and beyond in 2012. This last publication attempted to put into perspective the salient points of what may be termed a coherent policy on psychoactive substances. It proposed six indicators, around which the concept of coherency was developed: conceptualisation, policy context, legislative and regulatory frameworks, strategic frameworks, responses/interventions and structures and resources. The initial target for the use of these six indicators is that all drugs policies should be in line with the concept of “well-being”. At the very least, they should not contradict each other and at best they should be in harmony. On this basis, in 2013 and 2014, researchers refined these indicators and tested them in their countries, namely Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Norway and Portugal to verify whether they provided a valid tool to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of a coherent policy on psychoactive substances. The results appear in this publication and indicate that such markers may be indeed used as a basis for discussion on the issue of coherence and in some cases as a means to better implement coherent policies in respect to psychoactive substances, and also possibly policies that address other forms of addictive behaviour.