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THE POLITICS OF NARCOTIC DRUGS: A Survey aims to explore the complexities of the drugs trade, and the political challenges and opportunities that exist for more effective approaches to the issues involved. The various sections of this volume provide the reader with an insight into the numerous debates, histories and experiences of drugs and the drugs trade and, most importantly, highlight the fact that the policy challenges currently faced by societies and governments do not configure in a simplistic way around a pro- or anti-legalization discourse.
Contents include:
Essay chapters, written by specialists in the field, which demonstrate the diversity, scale and nature of the drug `problem' and the importance of empirically informed, depoliticized responses. The first essays are international in focus, addressing the situation in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Colombia and Mexico before turning to the institutional anti-drugs context in the United Kingdom. Thereafter, the chapters are more theoretically oriented, with the authors exploring the prohibition model, the relationship between drugs and insurgency, and reflections on principles and approaches that might be considered when exploring alternatives to the status quo.
A comprehensive cross-referenced A - Z Glossary of terms, organizations and issues with regard to drugs. Entries include caffeine, cocaine, Drug Enforcement Administration, mule, opium, UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) and volatile substances.
Maps, charts and tables offering a wealth of information in graphic form. Maps include areas of cultivation of crops used for drugs, and statistics inform on production, seizures and prices of various narcotic drugs.
List of contents
Contents
ESSAYS
Levels of Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan, David Mansfield and Adam Pain
The Middle East and Illicit Drugs: A Forgotten Region? Philip Robins
The White Economy: Drugs, Poverty and Violent Conflict in Colombia, Jennifer Schirmer
A Tale of Two Countries: Drugs, Guns, Violence and the US-Mexico Border, Laurie Freeman
Understanding UK Drugs Policy: SOCA and the Enigma of Enforcement, Martin Elvins
The Politics of Drug Prohibition, Sue Pryce
Beyond `Narcoterrorism’: Illicit Drug Business and Terrorist Tactics in Armed Conflicts, Ekaterina Stepanova
The Principles for Rational Drug Policy Making, Steve Rolles
Drugs and Wellbeing: Prohibition’s Negative Impacts, Emily Crick
A – Z GLOSSARY
by Julia Buxton, including entries on issues, organizations, countries involved, and explanations of narcotic drugs
MAPS AND TABLES
including maps showing areas of cultivation, and tables showing production and trade in narcotic drugs
About the author
Julia Buxton
Summary
The Politics of Narcotic Drugs brings together leading experts on the drugs trade to provide an accessible yet detailed analysis of the multiple challenges that the contemporary trade in narcotic drugs and its prohibition pose, from the local to the international community.
