Drugs: Policy and Politics

This text provides undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals with a highly accessible introduction to the links between drugs and social policy. Set within the context of current and recent policy and political response, it considers the ways in which policy has been formulated and implemented with reference to a range of substantive and theoretical areas. The aim of this text is to sensitise undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals to the little considered links between...
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This text provides undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals with a highly accessible introduction to the links between drugs and social policy. Set within the context of current and recent policy and political response, it considers the ways in which policy has been formulated and implemented with reference to a range of substantive and theoretical areas. The aim of this text is to sensitise undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals to the little considered links between social policy, drugs policy and the drugs field. In so doing, the text sketches the dynamic and shifting context of drug policy through lively discussions of broader policy arenas, as well as through groups who have come to be associated with particular patterns of drug use. The broader policy arenas are grounded in the fields of health, the criminal justice system and social exclusion. The drug using groups focused on in the text turn on gender, ethnicity and young people. The textâ¬"s innovation lies in its ability to contextualise the empirical development of drug policies over recent years with their theoretical and ideological contexts.