Human rights violations occurring as a consequence of drug control and enforcement are a growing concern, and raise questions of treaty interpretation and of the appropriate balancing of concomitant obligations within the drug control and human rights treaty regimes. Tracing the evolution of international drug control law since 1909, this book explores the tensions between the regime's self-described humanitarian aspirations and its suppression of a common human behaviour as a form of 'evil'. Drawing on domestic, regional and international examples and case law, it posits the development of a dynamic, human rights-based interpretative approach to resolve tensions and conflicts between the regimes in a manner that safeguards human rights. Highlighting an important and emerging area of human rights inquiry from an international legal perspective, this book is a key resource for those working and studying in this field.

As seen on the BBC Victoria Derbyshire Show As heard on The Jeremy Vine Show Think you've got a dysfunctional family? Meet mine. For 18 years, my family lived a normal life in a respectable suburb... Until one day, my dad gave up his successful career, and unexpectedly became Britain's most wanted crystal meth dealer. This is our story. At times shocking, often unbelievable, and all 100% true.

Over the past thirty years, a new form of conflict has ravaged Latin America's largest countries, with well-armed drug cartels fighting not only one another but the state itself. In Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil, leaders cracked down on cartels in hopes of restoring the rule of law and the state's monopoly on force. Instead, cartels fought back - with bullets and bribes - driving spirals of violence and corruption that make mockeries of leaders' state-building aims. Fortunately, some policy reforms quickly curtailed cartel-state conflict, but they proved tragically difficult to sustain. Why do cartels fight states, if not to topple or secede from them? Why do some state crackdowns trigger and exacerbate cartel-state conflict, while others curb it? This study argues that brute-force repression generates incentives for cartels to fight back, while policies that condition repression on cartel violence can effectively deter cartel-state conflict. The politics of drug war, however, make conditional policies all too fragile.

Over the past thirty years, a new form of conflict has ravaged Latin America's largest countries, with well-armed drug cartels fighting not only one another but the state itself. In Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil, leaders cracked down on cartels in hopes of restoring the rule of law and the state's monopoly on force. Instead, cartels fought back - with bullets and bribes - driving spirals of violence and corruption that make mockeries of leaders' state-building aims. Fortunately, some policy reforms quickly curtailed cartel-state conflict, but they proved tragically difficult to sustain. Why do cartels fight states, if not to topple or secede from them? Why do some state crackdowns trigger and exacerbate cartel-state conflict, while others curb it? This study argues that brute-force repression generates incentives for cartels to fight back, while policies that condition repression on cartel violence can effectively deter cartel-state conflict. The politics of drug war, however, make conditional policies all too fragile.

In this tragic and powerful story, the two Opium Wars of 1839??1842 and 1856??1860 between Britain and China are recounted for the first time through the eyes of the Chinese as well as the Imperial West. Opium entered China during the Middle Ages when Arab traders brought it into China for medicinal purposes. As it took hold as a recreational drug, opium wrought havoc on Chinese society. By the early nineteenth century, 90 percent of the Emperor's court and the majority of the army were opium addicts.
Britain was also a nation addicted-to tea, grown in China, and paid for with profits made from the opium trade. When China tried to ban the use of the drug and bar its Western smugglers from it gates, England decided to fight to keep open China's ports for its importation. England, the superpower of its time, managed to do so in two wars, resulting in a drug-induced devastation of the Chinese people that would last 150 years.
In this page-turning, dramatic and colorful history, The Opium Wars responds to past, biased Western accounts by representing the neglected Chinese version of the story and showing how the wars stand as one of the monumental clashes between the cultures of East and West.
"A fine popular account."-Publishers Weekly
"Their account of the causes, military campaigns and tragic effects of these wars is absorbing, frequently macabre and deeply unsettling."-Booklist

This is the extraordinary story of how Charlie Wilson - renowned as one of the leaders of the Great Train Robbery gang - turned his back on so-called traditional crime to become the underworld's original narco by helping to mastermind a multi-billion dollar drugs network in partnership with the original cocaine cowboy, Pablo Escobar. Wilson secretly helped turn cocaine into the Western world's number one recreational drug of choice. Secret Narco unravels the bullet riddled, never-before-told history of South Londoner Wilson's cocaine empire and his forays into the deadliest killing fields of all: South America. Bestselling author Wensley Clarkson's meticulously researched story features interviews with many of Wilson's friends, family members and enemies on both sides of the law enforcement divide, as well as associates of Pablo Escobar. Secret Narco also reveals the final, tragic circumstances behind Wilson and Escobar's bloody deaths, and how their twisted 'partnership' proved that gangsters never rest in peace.

From Boy Scout to assassin - the true confessions of a cartel hitman At the age of twelve Martin Corona started dealing drugs. After years in and out of prison, he rose through the ranks to become the leader of an elite killing squad for a notorious Tijuana drug cartel. Now haunted by his past deeds, he lives with the fact that he once pulled the trigger on a pregnant woman in front of her seven-year-old child, and accidentally shot a cardinal while hunting down El Chapo in an airport. Martin Corona has been convicted of multiple murders committed during his time as a cartel career hitman. These killings were brutal and cruelly efficient. Corona's gang would cross into the United States from their luxurious hideout in Mexico, eradicate whoever needed to be killed north of the border, and return home in the afternoon. In this book, Martin's shocking first-hand confessions illuminate his descent from teenage drug dealer to murderous member of the drug cartel run by the Arellano brothers that dominated the Southern California drug trade - and initiated much violent gang warfare - for decades. Martin's story illuminates how a young boy, who played Little League football and was a Boy Scout, became a vicious criminal. Both shocking and powerful, it asks us how someone can inflict so much evil and whether they can find forgiveness on the other side.

Contemporary philosophy still lacks a satisfying theory of punishment, one that adequately addresses our basic moral concerns. Yet, as the crisis of incarceration in the United States and elsewhere shows, the need for a deeper understanding of punishment's purpose has never been greater. In Punishment and the History of Political Philosophy, Arthur Shuster offers an insightful study of punishment in the works of Plato, Hobbes, Montesquieu, Beccaria, Kant, and Foucault. Through careful interpretation of their key texts, he argues that continuing tensions over retribution's role in punishment reflect the shift in political philosophy from classical republicanism to modern notions of individual natural rights and the social contract. This book will be vital reading for political theorists, philosophers, criminologists, and legal scholars looking for a new perspective on the moral challenges faced by the modern criminal justice system.

THE RIVETING TRUE STORY OF HOW THE FBI BROUGHT DOWN THE FEARSOME MIGUEL TREVINO, LEADER OF LOS ZETAS, MEXICO'S MOST VIOLENT DRUG CARTEL. Drugs, money, cartels: this is what FBI rookie Scott Lawson expected when he was sent to the border town of Laredo, but instead he's deskbound writing intelligence reports about the drug war. Then, one day, Lawson is asked to check out an anonymous tip: a horse was sold at an Oklahoma auction house for a record-topping price, and the buyer was Miguel Trevino, one of the leaders of the Zetas, Mexico's most brutal drug cartel. The source suggested that Trevino was laundering money through American quarter horse racing. If this was true, it offered a rookie like Lawson the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the cartel. Lawson teams up with a more experienced agent, Alma Perez, and, taking on impossible odds, sets out to take down one of the world's most fearsome drug lords. In Bloodlines, Emmy and National Magazine Award-winning journalist Melissa del Bosque follows Lawson and Perez's harrowing attempt to dismantle a cartel leader's American racing dynasty built on extortion and blood money. Throwing back the curtain on the inner workings of cartel kingpins and law enforcement agencies, del Bosque turns more than three years of research and her decades of reporting on Mexico and the border into a gripping narrative about greed and corruption. Bloodlines offers us an unprecedented look at the inner workings of the Zetas and US federal agencies, and opens a new vista onto the changing nature of the drug war and its global expansion.

Like the never-ending War on Terror, the drugs war is a multi-billion-dollar industry that won't go down without a fight. Pills, Powder, and Smoke explains why. The War on Drugs has been official American policy since the 1970s, with the UK, Europe, and much of the world following suit. It is at best a failed policy, according to bestselling author Antony Loewenstein. Its direct results have included mass incarceration in the US, extreme violence in different parts of the world, the backing of dictatorships, and surging drug addiction globally. And now the Trump administration is unleashing diplomatic and military forces against any softening of the conflict. Pills, Powder, and Smoke investigates the individuals, officials, activists, victims, DEA agents, and traffickers caught up in this deadly war. Travelling through the UK, the US, Australia, Honduras, the Philippines, and Guinea-Bissau, Loewenstein uncovers the secrets of the drug war, why it's so hard to end, and who is really profiting from it. In reporting on the frontlines across the globe - from the streets of London's King's Cross to the killing fields of Central America to major cocaine transit routes in West Africa - Loewenstein reveals how the War on Drugs has become the most deadly war in modern times.

This book, prepared by the foreign law specialists and analysts of the Law Library of Congress, provides a review of laws adopted in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and Uruguay with regard to legalisation, decriminalisation, or other forms of regulation of narcotics and other psychoactive substances. Individual country surveys included in this study demonstrate varied approaches to the problem of prosecuting drug use, possession, manufacturing, purchase, and sale. Furthermore, the book discusses medical and retail-selected legal issues of marijuana.

Drug-Crime Connections challenges the assumption that there is a widespread association between drug use and crime. Instead, it argues that there are many highly specific connections. The authors draw together in a single volume a wide range of findings from a study of nearly 5,000 arrestees interviewed as part of the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (NEW-ADAM) programme. It provides an in-depth study of the nature of drug-crime connections, as well as an investigation into drug use generally among criminals and the kinds of crimes that they commit. They explore topics that previously have fallen outside the drug-crime debate, such as gender and drugs, ethnicity and drugs, gangs, guns, drug markets, and treatment needs. The book provides both an up-to-date review of the literature and a concise summary of a major study on the connection between drug use and crime.

'The young bloods did not care whether they killed criminals or civilians . . .' The Cartel is Britain's biggest drugs gang, a global corporation employing thousands of criminals and flooding Britain with cocaine and heroin. Yet the established order is under threat: street gangs are overwhelming the old-school Cartel godfathers with a campaign of violence, intimidation and mayhem, heralding a series of events that has had devastating consequences for the whole of society. In Young Blood, the explosive follow-up to The Cartel, bestselling true-crime author Graham Johnson reveals how the brutal assassination of drug baron Colin 'King Cocaine' Smith in 2007 by a group of young bucks triggered the rise of the foot soldier, and exposes the bitter struggle that has spread throughout Europe as various factions battle to seize control of the most lucrative crime syndicate in British history.

Substance abuse takes a terrible toll on the public health, public safety and financial resources of the United States. The Administration's national drug control policy seeks to reduce Americans' drug use and its related health, social and criminal problems. To help meet this goal, the Administration has developed five demand reduction priority areas. The Administration is requesting $151.3 million in new funding across the Federal government to strengthen efforts to detect and prevent and treat illicit drug use in our communities and break the cycle of illicit drug use, crime, and incarceration. This book provides an overview of the National Drug Control Strategy for fiscal year 2011 and an examination of issues for consideration in reauthorising the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The global illegal drug trade represents a multi-dimensional challenge that has implications for U.S. national interests as well as the international community. According to the U.S. intelligence community, international drug trafficking can undermine political and regional stability and bolster the role and capabilities of organised crime in the drug trade. Key regions of concern include Latin American and Afghanistan, which are focal points in U.S. efforts to combat the production and transit of cocaine and heroin, respectively. Drug use and addiction have the potential to negatively affect the social fabric of communities, hinder economic development, and place an additional burden on national public health infrastructures. This book examines U.S. international drug control policy with a focus on the impact of drugs on society, drug trafficking organisations, and the global scope of the problem.

A drug policy most often refers to a government's attempt to combat the negative effects of drug addiction and misuse in its society. Governments try to combat drug addiction with policies which address both the demand and supply of drugs, as well as policies which can mitigate the harms of drug abuse. This book examines various drug policies, with a particular focus on drug trade and trafficking.

This book examines methamphetamines, which have risen to the top of the American drug-policy agenda. For most of its history, it was regarded in law and public opinion as a secondary or regional concern, different from and less damaging than the drugs -- heroin, cocaine, and marijuana -- that have defined the focus of national drug policy. More recently, however, as the production, trafficking, and use of methamphetamine have spread, a gathering consensus has come to regard it as one of the most dangerous substances available in illegal markets.

Fear is Just a Word begins on an international bridge between Mexico and the United States, as fifty-six-year-old Miriam Rodriguez stalks one of the men she believes was involved in the murder of her daughter Karen. He is her target number eleven, a member of the drug cartel that has terrorised and controlled what was once Miriam's quiet hometown of San Fernando, Mexico, almost one hundred miles from the US border. Having dyed her hair red as a disguise, Miriam watches, waits, and then orchestrates the arrest of this man, exacting her own revenge.

Woven into this deeply researched, moving account is the story of how cartels built their power in Mexico, escalated the use of violence, and kidnapped and murdered tens of thousands. Karen was just one of the many people who disappeared, and Miriam, a brilliant, strategic and fearless woman, begged for help from the authorities and paid ransom money she could not afford in hopes of saving her daughter. When that failed, she began a crusade to track down Karen's killers and help other victimised families.

What can a person do when their country and the town where they have grown up become unrecognisable, suddenly places of violence and fear? Azam Ahmed tells the mesmerising story of a brave and brilliant woman determined to find out what happened to her daughter, and to see that the criminals who murdered her were punished. Fear is Just a Word is an unforgettable and moving portrait of a woman, a town and a country, and of what can happen when violent forces drive people to seek justice on their own.

The President's National Drug Control Strategy describes the Administration's strategic approach for reducing illicit drug use in the United States. The Administration's Synthetic Drug Control Strategy is a companion to the National Strategy. It follows the main principles set out in the National Strategy: that supply and demand are the ultimate drivers in all illicit drug markets and that a balanced approach incorporating prevention, treatment, and market disruption initiatives (such as interdiction, arrests, prosecutions, and regulatory interventions) is the best way to reduce the supply of, and demand for, illicit drugs. The Synthetics Strategy also adheres to the format of the National Strategy by setting ambitious goals for reducing synthetic drug use at a rate approximating 5 percent each year. Specifically, the Synthetics Strategy outlines a strategy for reducing past month methamphetamine use by 15 percent over three years and past month prescription drug abuse2 by 15 percent over three years. Additionally, because the production of methamphetamine poses significant human and environmental risks, the Administration has also set a goal of reducing domestic methamphetamine Labouratories by 25 percent over three years. This and past administrations have traditionally avoided promulgating drug control strategies focused on a single drug or a single category of drugs. However, the unique nature of illicit markets for synthetic drugs warrants a targeted response, partly because those markets contain unique challenges and vulnerabilities. Unlike marijuana or cocaine, for example, either the final synthetic drug (as with prescription drugs) or its ingredients (as with methamphetamine) are designed for legal possession and use. Other reasons include the extreme health and environmental problems associated with the production of drugs such as methampheamine and the indisputably destructive nature of methamphetamine use itself. The Synthetics Strategy adheres to the following outline. Following this introduction, it describes the state of the illicit markets for methamphetamine and controlled substance prescription drugs, including progress made over the last several years. It then sets targets for reduced numbers in three principal categories: illicit methamphetamine use, domestic methamphetamine Labouratories, and the illicit use of controlled substance prescription drugs. This portion explains the fundamental principles and insights guiding the Synthetics Strategy and describes how performance goals will be measured. Next, the document describes the strategy itself, explaining how, given the current state of the illicit synthetic drug market, the Administration will meet targets for use and production by the end of 2008. Here, both supply reduction and demand reduction activities are addressed for both methamphetamine use and controlled substance prescription drug abuse. Finally, the end of the document addresses the problem of responding to the aftermath of methamphetamine production. Improving our knowledge about the health and environmental consequences of methamphetamine labs is critically important toward improving the safety and security of Americans, including the children who are found in or near toxic Labouratories.

The war on drugs is a kind of declared war against a set of often invisible foes which is often fought with toothless policies, uncoordinated campaigns, and resisted by criminal organisations determined to punch two new holes in the dam for every one which is closed. This book presents current issues relevant to an important but far from successful effort to thwart drug flow.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom - and almost got away with it. In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything - drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons - free of the government's watchful eye. While the federal government were undertaking an epic two-year manhunt for the site's elusive proprietor, the Silk Road quickly ballooned into a $1.2 billion enterprise. Ross embraced his new role as kingpin, taking drastic steps to protect himself - including ordering a hit on a former employee. As Ross made plans to disappear forever, the Feds raced against the clock to catch a man they weren't sure even existed, searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet. Drawing on exclusive access to key players and two billion digital words and images Ross left behind, New York Times bestselling author Nick Bilton offers a tale filled with twists and turns, lucky breaks and unbelievable close calls. It's a story of the boy next door's ambition gone criminal, spurred on by the clash between the new world of libertarian-leaning, anonymous, decentralised Web advocates and the old world of government control, order and the rule of law.

Drugs in Society: Causes, Concepts, and Control, Eighth Edition, focuses on the many critical areas of America's drug problem, providing a foundation for rational decision-making within this complex and multidisciplinary field. Lyman offers a comprehensive big-picture examination of the US drug problem, dealing with drugs, abusers, drug enforcement, and public policy. Organized in three sections: Understanding the Problem, Gangs and Drugs, and Fighting Back, topics covered include the business of drugs and the role of organized crime in the drug trade, drug legalization and decriminalization, legal and law enforcement strategies, an analysis of the socialization process of drug use and abuse, and a historical discussion of drug abuse that puts the contemporary drug problem into perspective. Suitable for upper-level undergraduates in Criminal Justice, Criminology, and related programs, Drugs in Society, Eighth Edition, uses logical organization and strong pedagogy (case studies, focused text boxes with related information, critical thinking tasks) to support learning objectives.

Reveals the inside story of the formulation and implementation of the US and UK's counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan Through interviews with key policy practitioners on both sides of the Atlantic, this study reveals the complex picture of counter narcotics strategy in Afghanistan. It highlights the key points of cooperation and contention, and details the often contradictory and competitive objectives of the overall war effort in Afghanistan. Western counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan failed dismally after opium poppy cultivation surged to unprecedented levels. The Anglo-American partnership at the centre of this battleground was divided by competing and opposing views of how to address the opium problem, which troubled the well-established Anglo-American relationship.

The Joy of Stats offers a reader-friendly introduction to applied statistics and quantitative analysis in the social sciences and public policy. Perfect as an undergraduate text or self-study manual, it emphasizes how to understand concepts, interpret algorithms and formulas, analyze data, and answer research questions. This brand new edition offers examples and visualizations using real-life data, a revised discussion of statistical inference, and introductory examples in R and SPSS. The third edition has been extensively reorganized with shorter chapters and closer links between concepts and formulas, while retaining useful pedagogical features including key terms, practice exercises, a math refresher, and playful inserts on "the mathematical imagination." The Joy of Stats also places a strong emphasis on learning how to write and speak clearly about data results. Supported by a companion website with data sets and additional resources, The Joy of Stats is a superb choice for introducing students to applied statistics and for refreshing and reviewing stats as a social scientist, public policy professional, or community activist.