This book contains nine essays written by distinguished scholars from North America. Europe, and Asia, and provides an in-depth examination of the socio-legal developments of drug control in different countries. Important rational approaches to the formulation of drug policy are discussed. A must-read for anyone interested in the highly topical, worldwide drug problem.

While there have always been norms and customs around the use of drugs, explicit public policies--regulations, taxes, and prohibitions--designed to control drug abuse are a more recent phenomenon. Those policies sometimes have terrible side-effects: most prominently the development of criminal enterprises dealing in forbidden (or untaxed) drugs and the use of the profits of drug-dealing to finance insurgency and terrorism. Neither a drug-free world nor a world of free drugs seems to be on offer, leaving citizens and officials to face the age-old problem: What are we going to do about drugs? In Drugs and Drug Policy, three noted authorities survey the subject with exceptional clarity, in this addition to the acclaimed series, What Everyone Needs to Know®. They begin, by defining "drugs," examining how they work in the brain, discussing the nature of addiction, and exploring the damage they do to users. The book moves on to policy, answering questions about legalization, the role of criminal prohibitions, and the relative legal tolerance for alcohol and tobacco. The authors then dissect the illicit trade, from street dealers to the flow of money to the effect of catching kingpins, and show the precise nature of the relationship between drugs and crime. They examine treatment, both its effectiveness and the role of public policy, and discuss the beneficial effects of some abusable substances. Finally they move outward to look at the role of drugs in our foreign policy, their relationship to terrorism, and the ugly politics that surround the issue. Crisp, clear, and comprehensive, this is a handy and up-to-date overview of one of the most pressing topics in today's world. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

Offers new and cutting-edge research on the role of drugs in Iranian society and government. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Drug addiction and the illegal drug trade are recognized today as major international problems. Efforts to control trafficking and coordinate enforcement policy have until now met with only limited success. Although world opinion, led by the United States, has generally favored hard-line measures, some countries, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, strenuously resist them, while others, primarily poor Asian and South American countries, remain economically dependent on the demand for illicit drugs. Drugs, Law, and the State focuses on the conflicting cultural values and historical traditions that continue to thwart combined attempts among nations to impeded the flow of drugs. This volume is built around the idea that drug control policy largely reflects the society in which it is found. The authors analyze contrasting national policies through theories that emphasize the role of ideology, legitimacy, and history. This cultural orientation opens up new areas of research not often addressed by conventional criminology. Instead of asking why some people use illegal drugs while others do not, several chapters ask why and in what societies drug use is defined as a crime. Drugs, Law, and the State is composed of three sections. The first, “Drug Control Policy and the State,” uses the examples of Denmark, Spain, and Finland to analyze drug control policy in relation to the state as a defined interest group. Part Two, “The Political Economy of Drugs,” considers the political-economic nexus of the drug trade primarily in Asia, and surveys the role of organized crime from an international perspective. The concluding section, “Future Directions,” examines the current status of drug control policy in the United States and provides a set of alternative proposals in the direction of decriminalization. Drugs, Law, and the State offers original thinking and practical approaches to a multidimensional world problem. It will be of interest to policymakers, political scientists, sociologists, and law enforcement officials.

Treating Drug Problems, Volume 2 presents a wealth of incisive and accessible information on the issue of drug abuse and treatment in America. Several papers lay bare the relationship between drug treatment and other aspects of drug policy, including a powerful overview of twentieth century narcotics use in America and a unique account of how the federal government has built and managed the drug treatment system from the 1960s to the present. Two papers focus on the criminal justice system. The remaining papers focus on Employer policies and practices toward illegal drugs. Patterns and cycles of cocaine use in subcultures and the popular culture. Drug treatment from a marketing, supply-and-demand perspective, including an analysis of policy options. Treating Drug Problems, Volume 2 provides important information to policy makers and administrators, drug treatment specialists, and researchers.

In Our Right to Drugs, Szasz shows how the present drug war started at the beginning of this century, when the US government first assumed the task of protecting people from patent medicines. By the end of World War I the free market in drugs was but a dim memory. Instead of dwelling on the familiar impracticality and unfairness of drug laws, Szasz demonstrates the deleterious effects of prescription laws, which place people under lifelong medical supervision. The result is that most Americans today prefer a coercive and corrupt command drug economy to a free market in drugs.

FDLI's popular reference book, A Practical Guide to FDA's Food and Drug Law and Regulation, Seventh Edition, provides an introduction to the laws and regulations governing development, marketing, and sale of FDA-regulated products, including topics on food, drugs, medical devices, biologics, dietary supplements, cosmetics, new animal drugs, cannabis, and tobacco and nicotine products. Structured to serve as a reference and as a teaching tool, the book offers practical legal and regulatory fundamentals, and each chapter builds sequentially from the last to provide an accessible overview of the key topics relevant to practitioners of food and drug law and regulation. This book is a standard legal text in law schools and graduate regulatory programs and has been cited as a reference in judicial opinions (including the U.S. Supreme Court). This Seventh Edition includes new sections on controlled substances, compounded drugs, and cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds. It also incorporates the latest amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as well as FDA regulations and guidances.