Given the apparent failure of the War on Drugs to eliminate or even substantially decrease the use, sale, and trafficking of drugs, and given the negative social consequences of a Prohibition-like enforcement strategy, scholars and policy makers have often wondered why the administration continues to follow its policy of criminalization and enforcement. In Power, Ideology, and the War on Drugs, criminologist Christina Jacqueline Johns demonstrates that while the War on Drugs has been a failure in some respects, it has been highly successful in others. The War on Drugs has, for example, --diverted attention from severe social problems in the United States; --made drugs appear to be a cause of social ills rather than a symptom of social failures; --helped to legitimate a virtual abandonment of the lower class; --diverted attention from dangerous legal drugs which have been culturally and economically integrated into the society; --masked the fact that even the well-off are so alienated that they rely on illegal or legal drugs for support; --legitimated a vast expansion of U.S. state power and a consequent erosion of civil liberties and constitutional guarantees; and --legitimated further projections of state power into the internal affairs of Latin America. Because there has been an almost unquestioning acceptance of drug war policy, the literature on the subject frequently fails to focus adequately on the ineffectiveness of the policy to accomplish its stated goal, the heightened social costs brought about by a war strategy, the socioeconomic context of drug use and drug trafficking, and the wider political implications of the policy. Johns discusses these issues at length, as well as the spurious argument that drug trafficking is a threat to democracy in Latin America. Research for Power, Ideology, and the War on Drugs is based on information collected from domestic and Latin American publications, government reports, current social science research, and the findings of the Latin American Critical Criminology group. This important new look at the War on Drugs will interest policy makers, scholars, and students in criminology, sociology, political science, and Latin American studies.

Exploring the illegal drug issue in international context, this book looks at why harmonization has not already taken place at the European level. It considers the desirability and viability of harmonization, examines the conflict between repressive and liberal drug policies and applies a multi-level governance lens to the issue.

Work on female drinking and female drug and alcohol abuse is proliferating because interest and productivity in alcohol research has expanded. In this work, the editors' primary focus is on the abuse of alcohol, its biological effects, behavioral effects, abuses, and problems. This book updates where this field is at the moment. The first five chapters deal with basic issues of biology, epidemology, and anthropology. The next five chapters deal with substance abuse including antecedents, consequences, comorbidity, fetal effects, special populations, and illicit drug use. Two chapters which follow are concerned with related disorders, that is, smoking and eating disorders. The final chapters cover treatment and prevention.

In the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, the government of the Islamic Republic initiated a stringent anti-drug campaign that included fining addicts, imprisonment, physical punishment, and even the death penalty. Despite these measures, drug use was, and is still, commonplace. Based on her most recent fieldwork, Janne Bjerre Christensen explores the mounting problems of drug use in Iran, how treatment became legalized in 1998, how local NGOs offer methadone treatment in Tehran and face continuous political challenges in doing so, and how drug use is critically discussed in Iranian media and cinema. "Drugs, Deviancy and Democracy in Iran" is thus a unique account of Iran's recent social and political history, drawing important conclusions about the complexity of state power, and the growing impact of civil society, vital for all those interested in Iran's history, politics, and society.

Illicit drug use is an issue that triggers a wealth of debate and concern. Drawing on well-respected authors in the field, this textbook is at the cutting edge of contemporary debates about illicit drug use. Comprehensive in its coverage, the book examines the major theoretical questions, themes and policy debates and presents them in a straightforward, lucid manner. Knitted together by a strong editorial framework and student-friendly features such as study exercises, Drugs in Britain is essential reading for students of sociology and criminology taking courses in this area.

According to the findings of this study, college women do not typically use drugs simply for the sake of taking drugs. Drug use was viewed as a part of relationships, and for some of these women, a very important part. Within their relationships, these women socially constructed drugs in traditional (i.e., using discourses of morality, legality, and health/personal safety) ways. They also tended to arrange drugs hierarchically--they created what the author labels an individualized drug acceptability ranking that helped them determine their drug using limits.

This study suggests that the decisions to use drugs are more complicated than previous literature has suggested. Studies attempting to find correlations between college student drug use, personality traits of drug abusers, gender differences, racial differences, parental influences and educational influences continue to dominate the literature on college student drug use. This book provides a starting point and an invitation to listen to more voices to determine other factors that influence one's drug using decisions.

The hatred of drugs, according to the author, is the axis of politics that has fundamentally shifted the nation's policy format--from the progressive orientation that dominated from from the time of Roosevelt to the Sixties, to the punitive orientation that emerged during the Nixon presidency and continues to this day. This triumph of the political use of drug hate is simultaneously a disaster in policy consequences as it corrupts the criminal justice system, exacerbates class inequality, drains public resources, and denies the public their Constitutional heritage. Sadofsky Baggins shows that the political success of the domestic war has overwhelmed the policy failure in the nation's deliberations. The War on Drugs is politically successful because it serves traditional racial antagonisms, media need for theater, religious needs for piety and denunciation of sinful pleasures, and maintains conservative coalition politics by emphasizing punishment over progress toward social justice. This book recognizes the need to reassess the War on Drugs as a necessary step toward national healing and future policy development. Recent popular movements and initiatives, as well as the failure of some politicians to benefit from deploying drug hate rhetoric, are considered as the opening of such an awakening.

Sadofsky Baggins treats the War on Drugs as the epic of politics and civilization in our time. This book continues his efforts to explain how well-meaning citizens and manipulative politicans and institutions construct laws that miserably fail in their intended purpose and harm the nation in significant unintended ways. This book is of interest to concerned citizens as well as scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with legal, drug, and political issues.

An advertising executive and sociologist who has studied alcoholism at length analyzes worldwide theoretical and empirical studies on the relationship between mass media and advertising and alcohol consumption and abuse. Dr. Fisher pulls together findings from content analyses, experiments, quasi-experiments, econometric studies, and evaluations of advertising restrictions and warning labels to determine how advertising works and affects human behavior.

Against the backdrop of U.S. drug policy and strategy, this important work, written by an experienced Intelligence and Special Operations Officer and Scholar, peels away the rhetoric to present an insider's view of cocaine trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. From the Huallaga and Chapare Valleys, through the cocaine transit countries to the U.S. border, this book compares and contrasts the enormous success of the traffickers to the monolithic U.S. drug policy that produces no end-game and conceals its failures behind a classified stamp. Drawing on his experience as the Counter Drug Intelligence Team Leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory and as a Black Hat Team member with the U.S. Southern Command, the author approaches drug trafficking from the narcotraficantes point of view to paint a picture that portrays the cocaine industry as it really is. Arguing that it is impossible to stop drugs at their source, the author builds a compelling case for shifting U.S. assets to the southern borders of the United States, through a strategy that causes the traffickers to pass through a series of obstacles designed to slow and impede their operations. Identifying drug trafficking as an examplar of the Gray Area Phenomena--the impact of non-state players and organizations on a post-colonial, multi-tribal world--the author brings a currency to his work using Open Source Intelligence as the vehicle by which the drug trafficking world may be assessed and analyzed. "Sharing the Secrets" offers an Intelligence for the new world disorder that enables decision-makers to recognize and define the new threats and suggests how realistic policy and strategy might be evaluated and re-cast. This work will be of particular interest to policy-makers, law enforcement and Intelligence professionals, and scholars as it opens the book to the right page and provides for the first time the stubborn facts that they may have been neglecting in the war on drugs. "Sharing the Secrets" is a body of descriptive, proscriptive, and prescriptive material that will enable serious public discusion to begin on national drug policy and strategy.

RESEARCH FINDINGS: Drugs in the Workplace: Extent and Impact of Alcohol and Drug Usage/Problems in the Workplace/Workforce (J. Martin). Predictors of Drug Use and Implications for the Workplace (M. Newcomb). Drug Testing Programs: Drug Testing Methods and Interpretation of Results (B. Kapur). The Impact and Effectiveness of Drug Testing Programs in the Workplace (S. Macdonald). Legal Issues: Some Legal Aspects of Drug Testing in the Canadian Workplace (M. Pinsonneault). Constitutional and Statuatory Treatment of Drug Testing in the United States (R.L. Lieberwitz). Other Workplace Programs: Behavioral Tests to Assess Performance (B. Butler). Alternatives to Drug Testing (M. Shain). PERSPECTIVES ON DRUG TESTING: Unions' Perspective on Workplace Drug Testing (S. Alvi). Drug Testing, the War on Drugs, Workers, and the Workplace (J. Blackwell). 5 additional articles. Index.

Since the 1950s, social scientists have devoted serious attention to the relationship between alcohol and the workplace. In recent years, awareness of the tremendous costs, both human and financial, associated with alcoholism has led to a dramatic increase in both scholarly and practical interest in the field. Although researchers working in this area are relatively few, they have sustained a lively interest in the alcohol/work nexus and have attracted others to the field through conferences where ideas and research strategies are exchanged. The larger part of "Alcohol Problem Intervention in the Workplace" provides an up-to-date thorough examination of the problem, the research, and the possible solutions.

This volume is directed toward both practitioners and researchers, providing a wide range of new data and new ideas that bear upon coping with alcohol problems in the workplace. Part I addresses issues regarding the distribution and correlates of alcohol problems and alcohol use among employees. Part II is centered on issues associated with Employee Assistance Programs. And Part III is a general conclusion and overview offering suggestions and implications for the practitioner in the workplace. Because this collection supplies the most current thinking and information on controlling alcohol problems in the workplace, it will be of particular interest to human resource management and to employee assistance specialists, who are now required to pass a certification examination.

A psychiatrist examines how the world's four most important mind-altering substances- alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, and opiates-have played a significant role throughout human history, and explains how these powerful drugs affect the brain and cause addiction. Alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, and opiates have spurred some of the greatest human pleasure and pain across time. Providing information that ranges as widely as from ancient Egypt to modern times, this book comprehensively addresses the good, the bad, and the very ugliest aspects of these substances, examining their history, their effects on the brain and body, and on civilization itself. Frances R. Frankenburg, MD, employs accessible, everyday language to explain the neurology of addiction and describe how these "brain-robbing" substances work to hijack the brain's pleasure systems to create powerful addictions. The author also provides perspective into the intertwined, inescapable, and often uneasy relationship between these substances and human culture, economics, and politics-for example, how individuals become physically or psychologically addicted to alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, and opiates, while governments become financially "addicted" to the revenue, such as taxes, that can be collected from the sale and use of these substances. Presents a historical review of four plant-derived drugs-alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, and opiates-and their effects throughout human civilization, as well as a fascinating exploration of the mystery and misery of addiction Provides comprehensive explanations of medical and psychiatric effects of these drugs Supplies stories of people who made discoveries about these drugs or who had their lives altered by them Describes the discovery of the way in which the brain works Includes illustrations of brain pathways and of the four plants of origin for these drugs, and maps showing drug trade triangles

Does the timely treatment of mental illness result in a drop in the cost of health care, and if so, what is the cost effectiveness? This study provides an overview, synthesis, and analysis of the medical offset effect. It demonstrates that a medical offset effect does exist and the size of the effect is significant. A behavioral model provides a precise method for ascertaining the dimensions of medical offset and an explanation of the underlying causal relationships. The offset effect for an important population group is analyzed through the use of Medicaid patient data from Georgia and Michigan. This clear, concise book will provide students, researchers, mental health professionals, insurance companies, and government agencies with an understanding of the current and potential future relationships between general medical care and mental health care services.

"The Medical Offset Effect" begins with the historical and structural evolution of the mental health industry since World War II. The book then reviews medical offset literature. The behavioral model is followed by an empirical analysis and the book concludes with a general analytical framework for the development of a national mental health policy in light off the medical offset effect.

This is a comprehensive examination of the contemporary movement against drunk driving. Written in an eminently readable style, the volume addresses all major substantive aspects of the anti-drunk driving effort including society's changing attitudes and response to the crime itself and the offenders, the role of grass roots groups such as MADD and RID, federal and state initiatives, actions and enabling legislation, and anti-drunk driving programs and projects. Gerald D. Robin takes a socio-legal approach throughout, emphasizing the rationales behind, controversies surrounding, and effectiveness of new strategies and developments to combat drunk driving. Following two introductory chapters, which outline the dimensions of and societal responses to the drunk driving problem, the chapters are arranged to reflect the chronological processing of suspects through the justice system from the point of stopping them on the road to the final disposition of cases in court. Thus, individual chapters treat issues such as sobriety checkpoints, administrative license suspension, prosecuting and defending drunk drivers, mandatory sentencing, third party liability, and deterring drunk driving. Numerous photographs and figures illustrate points discussed in the text. Ideal as a supplemental text for criminology courses, this book is also an important resource for professionals involved in treating drunk drivers and their victims.

Twelve Step Programs are significant features in the American landscape. Their popularity compels us to take them seriously. This book studies one such program, Al-Anon, which was founded in 1951 by wives of alcoholics who were struggling with the effects of alcoholism on themselves and their families. In the 1990s its scope was broadened to include husbands, grown children, lovers, friends, and anyone else affected by another's drinking or chemical use. This study used an ethnographic approach: it reveals that Al-Anon and similar groups act as sites of spiritual renewal and moral reconstruction for primarily white, middle-class, middle-aged, Protestant Americans who report experiencing a crisis of identity. Investigating Twelve Step Programs lends further insight into the cultural crisis affecting many Americans as well as the strategies some have found to make sense of their lives.

This book locates the rise of illicit drug use within the historical development of late industrial society and challenges the prevailing view. Highlighting key areas of continuity and the on-going value of classic criminological theory, it is argued that recent trends do not constitute the radical departure that is often supposed.

Illicit drugs and their use are now, more than ever, a dominant concern of British politicians, policy makers and the general public. Often, our understandings of the 'drug problem' tend to be uni-dimensional and based around particular areas of risk: risk of drug related crime, risk of dependency, risk of ill-health. This book moves beyond this single issue approach and locates illicit drug use in its wider context, with chapters on:
*the history of illicit drug use in British society *measuring the 'problem' *legal and medical responses to illicit drug use *the illicit drugs market *drugs, crime and trends in drug policy
Drawing information from wide-ranging sources, Adrian Barton illuminates the complex nature and broad impact illicit drug use carries in its wake and provides an overview of the contemporary state of the British drug 'scene'. This book will be essential reading for students and researchers working in the area of drugs and society.

This book analyzes heroin users and the drug subculture on the Shetland Islands, an area known for its geographical remoteness, rural character and relative wealth. It fills the scientific gap created by the conventional research in heroin research, which is usually conducted in urban areas and relies on treatment and prison populations. Based on qualitative, in-depth interviews with twenty-four heroin users, this book depicts and analyzes the nature and historical development of the local heroin scene. It illustrates the features and internal structures of the subculture, and it examines the manner in which both are influenced by the location-specific geographical, cultural and socio-economic conditions. It thus reveals complex causal associations that are hard to recognize in urban environments. Complete with a list of references used and recommendations for future research, this book is a vital tool for progressive and pragmatic approaches to policy, intervention and research in the field of illicit drug use.

This book provides the first comprehensive study of narco cinema, a cross-border exploitation cinema that, for over forty years, has been instrumental in shaping narco-culture in Mexico and the US borderlands. Identifying classics in its mammoth catalogue and analyzing select films at length, Rashotte outlines the genre's history and aesthetic criteria. He approaches its history as an alternative to mainstream representation of the drug war and considers how its vernacular aesthetic speaks to the anxieties and desires of Latina/o audiences by celebrating regional cultures while exploring the dynamics of global transition. Despite recent federal prohibitions, narco cinema endures as a popular folk art because it reflects distinctively the experiences of those uprooted by the forces of globalization and critiques those forces in ways mainstream cinema has failed.

This 'landmark' text by one of the most respected researchers in drug use considers the issues surrounding the gendering of drug use, and within this looks critically at two approaches - the classical and postmodern. Ettorre has previously argued for the need for a gender-sensitive approach to the drugs field and here she contends that this approach is still lacking. This book draws together theoretical and empirical studies on drug use, provides a comprehensive analysis of gendered bodies and drug use and examines the idea of a drug-using society and the implications this holds for social inequality and exclusion.

Drug and alcohol education in public schools may be important, but its authoritarian stance often invites skepticism among teachers and students alike. Yet this program has its roots not in modern bureaucracy or even Prohibition but in a social movement that flourished over a century ago.

Scientific Temperance Instruction was the most successful grassroots education program in American history, championed by an army of housewives in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union under the leadership of Mary Hanchett Hunt. As Hunt and her forces took their message across the country, they were opposed by many educators and other professionals who believed that ordinary citizens had no business interfering with educational matters. STI sparked heated conflict between expert and popular authority in the debate over alcohol education, but it was eventually mandated as part of public school curricula in all states.

The real issue surrounding STI, argues Jonathan Zimmerman, was not alcohol but the struggle to reconcile democracy and expertise. In this first book-length study of the crusade for STI, he shows Mary Hunt to be a wily and manipulative politician as he examines how citizens and experts used knowledge selectively to advance their own agendas. His work offers a microcosm for observing Progressive Era tensions between democracy and professionalism, localism and centralization, and social conservatism and liberalism.

"Distilling Democracy" points up a crucial and ongoing dilemma in our education system: educational directives handed down by experts deny citizens the right to transmit their values to their children, while populist educational values sometimes stifle classroom debate. By using history to demonstrate the public's participation in shaping public education, Zimmerman suggests that however unappealing the program, society needs to embrace such popular movements in order to uphold true democracy. His book offers fresh insight into an overlooked chapter in our history and will spark debate by raising fresh questions about lay influence on school curricula in modern America.

A unique answer to the perennial question--why do college students drink so much? Most American college campuses are home to a vibrant drinking scene where students frequently get wasted, train-wrecked, obliterated, hammered, destroyed, and decimated. The terms that university students most commonly use to describe severe alcohol intoxication share a common theme: destruction, and even after repeated embarrassing, physically unpleasant, and even violent drinking episodes, students continue to go out drinking together. In Getting Wasted, Thomas Vander Ven provides a unique answer to the perennial question of why college students drink. Vander Ven argues that college students rely on "drunk support:" contrary to most accounts of alcohol abuse as being a solitary problem of one person drinking to excess, the college drinking scene is very much a social one where students support one another through nights of drinking games, rituals and rites of passage. Drawing on over 400 student accounts, 25 intensive interviews, and one hundred hours of field research, Vander Ven sheds light on the extremely social nature of college drinking. Giving voice to college drinkers as they speak in graphic and revealing terms about the complexity of the drinking scene, Vander Ven argues that college students continue to drink heavily, even after experiencing repeated bad experiences, because of the social support that they give to one another and due to the creative ways in which they reframe and recast violent, embarrassing, and regretful drunken behaviors. Provocatively, Getting Wasted shows that college itself, closed and seemingly secure, encourages these drinking patterns and is one more example of the dark side of campus life.

“This is not a work of fiction. This is the raw reality of life, and a larger part of society. Nothing more, nothing less. Some statistics reveal that approximately 8000 children are abused in some way everyday, of which 5 will die globally. This equates to almost 3 million abuse cases a year and almost 2000 deaths a year. Whether or not the figures are lower or higher I’m obviously not sure but apparently child abuse has increased 134% since 1980 and is now classed as a worldwide epidemic. Having said that, I honestly believe that my testimony can be of some help to someone out there. This book is based on the foundation of how being sexually, mentally and physically abused has affected my life and how the desire for escaping the anguish and the reality of the situation, through drinking alcohol, has nearly killed me...numerous times to say the least. This will take you on a journey through my childhood years, my teenage nightmare, to the beginning of my adult life.” This is not just the unburdening of Nicky’s story. It is the start of something new; a sign of hope; a show of strength. Nicky refuses to take the hand that she has been dealt and become another statistic. She has hope for herself and her future and a strong focus on the new organisation she is developing.