Neil McKeganey

The rapid deepening of the global drug problem has spurred increasingly heated debate over the best solutions. For example, should drug use be an issue for healthcare services or a matter of criminal justice? Is universal abstinence both unrealistic and undesirable? Does drug legalization offer a viable answer? This book provides a lively and thought-provoking account of some of the most pressing issues for policy makers and practitioners in the debate about drugs. Designed as a platform for further discussion, it presents the full spectrum of perspectives on chronic and contemporary challenges to drug policy and explores the reality for drug users, dealers, suppliers and producers. Drawing on an international evidence base, the author considers: ■ Drug enforcement measures: do they work and are they always ethical? ■ Addiction treatment: its purpose, cost and limitations; ■ Drug research: the strength of its impact on policy and practice; ■ Possible solutions: from classic criminalization to radical harm reduction. Both engaging and timely, Controversies in Drugs Policy and Practice is an essential read for all social science students taking modules related to drug use, addiction and treatment. It also makes illuminating reading for academics and practitioners working within the field.

Controversies in Drugs Policy and Practice

If you are looking for an incisive and highly readable account of current research and debates in the field of drugs and substance misuse, then this is the book for you. Written by a leading researcher and commentator, the A-Z of Substance Misuse and Drug Addiction succinctly encapsulates the key ideas in policy and practice which dominate the addictions field. Expertly organised into just over 70 entries, the book offers numerous cross-references to help you steer a path between connecting ideas. An impressive range of contemporary references accompany the entries, enabling you to dig deeper into the extensive multidisciplinary literature. International in scope and covering legal and illegal drugs, this is an ideal gateway text and companion for students, trainees, practitioners and researchers studying or working in the substance misuse and addictions fields.

A-Z of Substance Misuse and Drug Addiction

Michael Bloor

Dick Fonkert

A comparative sociological account of eight different therapeutic communities, One Foot in Eden, originally published in 1988, was the first study in this area to compare observational material from such a large number of settings. The communities chosen represent the wide variety of therapeutic community practice at the time: a residential Rudolf Steiner school for mentally handicapped children; two contrasting residential psychiatric units; a community for the treatment of addiction; a communally organised community for mentally handicapped and disturbed young people; a psychiatric day hospital; and two contrasting halfway houses for disturbed adolescents. All these places are recognised therapeutic communities seeking to mobilise the social life of the community as an instrument of therapy, yet, as this study shows, they follow different (and sometimes antithetical) treatment practices. The book also directs new light on other areas, of particular concern to sociologists, such as the general properties of therapeutic work and the socialisation process as it is experienced by new community residents. It will be of special interest to therapeutic community staff, to sociologists of medicine and occupations, and to others involved in the care of disturbed and handicapped people.

Neil McKeganey

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