Contents:
List of tables List of figures 1. Introduction 2. An historical overview of the social construction of the British 'drug problem' 3. Measuring the 'problem': drug use in contemporary Britain 4. The British State's legal and medical responses to illicit drug use 5. Illicit drugs: growth and production 6. illicit drugs: markets and market forces 7. Illicit drugs: paying for the goods and assessing the costs 8. 'Forget the myth we're desperados standing on street corners. This is a demand led market' 9. 'Let's get real': contemporary directions in UK drug policy 10. British drug policy in a European context bibliography Index

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 title was first published in 2002: The rise of New Public Management and the fragmentation of agencies that resulted, created unprecedented new tensions and problems in multi-agency work. This book provides a fascinating insight into the workings of a large multi-agency committee, exploring the manner in which different agencies brought their own agendas, organizational structures and world-views to a multi-agency forum and expected working relationships to be relatively problem free. Charting the development of child protection in the UK, it explores the problems and prospects of both multi-agency working and new public management, under the auspices of joint working initiatives. It offers a unique insight into how members of an area child protection committee viewed working with others, drawing on detailed comments and quotes from those directly involved.

This title was first published in 2002: The rise of New Public Management and the fragmentation of agencies that resulted, created unprecedented new tensions and problems in multi-agency work. This book provides a fascinating insight into the workings of a large multi-agency committee, exploring the manner in which different agencies brought their own agendas, organizational structures and world-views to a multi-agency forum and expected working relationships to be relatively problem free. Charting the development of child protection in the UK, it explores the problems and prospects of both multi-agency working and new public management, under the auspices of joint working initiatives. It offers a unique insight into how members of an area child protection committee viewed working with others, drawing on detailed comments and quotes from those directly involved.

This book is about trust as a political and cultural phenomenon set in the UK during the New Labour administrations of 1997-2010. There is a temptation to see the period between 2007 and 2010 as post-New Labour and that New Labour neatly corresponds with the stewardship of Tony Blair. We are not working with this understanding, rather we see the whole period defined by 'New Labourism' for want of a better term. Having tried to be as clear as possible about our scope and intentions, we now turn to a brief overview of why trust became (and remains) so critical in our chosen time and place.