From marijuana and jazz, to amphetamines and punk, drugs and popular music have been inextricably tied together. Today the music is electronic and ecstasy and party drugs are the drugs of choice. In Ecstasy and Raves, Hunt, an anthropologist, and Evans, a sociologist, explore the attraction of the scene and the drugs to young people today. Using information from over 300 in-depth interviews with ravers, DJ's and promoters, the authors examine the social and ethnic background of the ravers and clubbers, their initial involvement with the scene, their experiences of the drugs and their changing tastes in music. They show how the scene is made up of many different social groupings based not just on social class, gender or ethnicity, but also length of time in the scene, choice of drugs, styles of dancing and types of music. Hunt and Evans discover that although ravers share many commonalities they are not identical and do not speak with a single voice. Through them, we learn of candy ravers, jaded ravers, newbies, old school ravers, veterans, house heads and trance heads. In contrast to the often stereotypical views of about young drug users as naive and poorly informed, the authors explore the sources of information used by ravers, the precautions they take both prior and after using and the controls they impose on each others' use. We learn about their frustrations with recent legislation controlling raves and clubs, their anger at the increasing commercialization of the scene, and their general skepticism about official pronouncements on the dangers of ecstasy and other drugs.

Current approaches to drugs tend to be determined by medical and criminal visions that emerged over a century ago; the concepts of addiction, on the one hand, and drug control on the other, having imposed themselves as the unquestionable central notions surrounding drug issues and discourses. Pathologization and criminalization are the dominant perspectives on psychoactive drugs, and it is difficult to describe drug consumption in any terms other than those of medicine, or to conceive of regulation except in terms of control and eradication. Drugs and Culture presents other voices and understandings of drug issues, highlighting the socio-cultural features of drug use and regulation in modern societies. It examines the cultural dimensions of drugs and their regulation, with special attention to questions of how consumption of specific psychoactive substances becomes associated with particular social groups; the social dynamics involved in our coming to think of these phenomena as we do; and the factors that determine the political and policy responses to drug use. Adopting approaches from anthropology, sociology, history, political science and geopolitics to challenge the prevailing pathologization and criminalization of drug use, this book provides international and comparative perspectives on drug research, based on the latest research in Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

-Nanotechnology is the new genetic modification, with $5 billion in funding, involving thousands of companies and universities-This is the first book to take stock of the risks and benefits of nanotechnology, and the complex ethical and legal questions facing governments, the public, investors, and businesses worldwide-An accessible popular science book for all interested in the fascinating and unpredictable science, law, policy and regulation of nanotechNanotechnology-technology at the molecular level-has the potential, according to its supporters, to create a trillion dollar economy and provide solutions from curing cancer to reprocessing waste into products and building super-fast computers. Yet, as with genetically modified organisms, many view nanotech as a high-risk genie in a bottle that once uncorked has the potential to cause unpredictable, and perhaps irreversible, environmental and public health disasters.With the race to bring products to market, there is pressing need to take stock of the situation and to have a full public debate about this new technological frontier. Including contributions by renowned figures such as Roland Clift, K. Eric Drexler, and Arpad Pusztai, this is the first global overview of the state of nanotech and society in US, Europe, Japan, and Canada, examining the ethics, the environmental, and public health risks, and the governance and regulation of this most promising, and potentially most dangerous, of all technologies.

Nanotechnology - technology at the molecular level - is held out by many as the Holy Grail for creating a trillion dollar economy and solving problems from curing cancer to reprocessing waste into products and building superfast computers. Yet, as with GMOs, many view nanotech as a high risk genie in a bottle that once uncorked has the potential to cause unpredictable, perhaps irreversible, environmental and public health disasters. With the race to bring products to market, there is pressing need to take stock of the situation and to have a full public debate about this new technological frontier. Including contributions by renowned figures such as Roland Clift, K. Eric Drexler and Arpad Pusztai, this is the first global overview of the state of nanotech and society in Europe, the USA, Japan and Canada, examining the ethics, the environmental and public health risks, and the governance and regulation of this most promising, and potentially most dangerous, of all technologies.

The first volume to provide access to information on drug treatment systems from a wide cross-section of 20 countries, Drug Treatment Systems in an International Perspective examines the ways in which other counties from around the world have chosen to cope with the spread of illicit drugs. Now health planners and administrators, treatment professionals, researchers, and students can place the development of their own treatment systems in a wider context and can examine the extent to which that development shares common structural features with those of other countries and cultures. Following a comparative discussion of the various countries, the volume addresses four key issues: gender specific treatment, the politics of financing and evaluation, the private sector and state control, and exporting drug treatment ideologies. It provides a comparative and cross-cultural perspective on drug treatment approaches today and examines the influence of social, political, and economic forces on the treatment of drug addicts. In addition, the editors have included a handy glossary, which explains key terms unfamiliar to readers outside the particular country. Providing and interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective to drug treatment, Drug Treatment Systems in an International Perspective will be of interest academics, students, and professionals in psychology, especially those focusing on clinical psychology, addiction, dependency, and treatment. It will also be of great interest to public health planners and administrators.

This book examines major ethical issues in nursing practice. It eschews the abstract approaches of bioethics and medical ethics, and takes as its point of departure the difficulties nurses experience practising within the confines of a biomedical model and a hierarchical health care system. It breaks out of the rigid categories of mainstream health care ethics (autonomy, beneficence, quality of life, utilitarianism) and provides case studies, experiences and challenging lines of thought for the new professional nurse. The contributors examine the role of the nurse in relation to themes such as informed consent, privacy and dignity, and confidentiality. Nursing accountability is also considered in relation to the contemporary Western health care system as a whole. New and critical essays examine the nature of professional codes, care, medical judgement, nursing research and the law. Controversial issues, such as feeding those who cannot or will not eat, the epidemiology of HIV and dilemmas of choice and risk in the care of the elderly are tackled honestly and openly.

This is the first book to take nursing ethics beyond stock 'moral concepts' to a critical examination of the fundamental assumptions underlying the very nature of nursing. It takes as its point of departure the difficulties nurses experience practising within the confines of a bioethical model of health and illness and a hierarchical, technocratic health care system. The contributors go on to deal openly and honestly with controversial issues faced by nurses, such as euthanasia and HIV.

Current approaches to drugs tend to be determined by medical and criminal visions that emerged over a century ago; the concepts of addiction, on the one hand, and drug control on the other, having imposed themselves as the unquestionable central notions surrounding drug issues and discourses. Pathologization and criminalization are the dominant perspectives on psychoactive drugs, and it is difficult to describe drug consumption in any terms other than those of medicine, or to conceive of regulation except in terms of control and eradication. Drugs and Culture presents other voices and understandings of drug issues, highlighting the socio-cultural features of drug use and regulation in modern societies. It examines the cultural dimensions of drugs and their regulation, with special attention to questions of how consumption of specific psychoactive substances becomes associated with particular social groups; the social dynamics involved in our coming to think of these phenomena as we do; and the factors that determine the political and policy responses to drug use. Adopting approaches from anthropology, sociology, history, political science and geopolitics to challenge the prevailing pathologization and criminalization of drug use, this book provides international and comparative perspectives on drug research, based on the latest research in Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

In this book the core of the Buddha's teaching is comprehensively cast in modern models of thought - borrowed from science and philosophy - and informed by contemporary concerns. It sets out the basic instructions for the life-changing way of the Buddha (the so-called 'Noble Eightfold Path') wholly in the context of contemporary and everyday life, personal experience, human relationships, work, environmental concern and the human wish for peace. The reader, who may be completely new to Buddhism, is accompanied along the Path with practical exercises that are fully explained. The Path begins with an introductory overview and then proceeds through Right Speech, Right Acting, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration, Right Mindfulness, Right Understanding and Right Resolve, and concludes with a short chapter on the relevance of the Path to the current global crisis. The reader is mentored throughout by practical meditational and contemplative exercises, with tables, diagrams, analogies and stories. Gradually the reader who has followed this handbook with commitment will feel the benefits of growing peacefulness, wisdom and compassion.

Bringing together scholars from different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, this multidisciplinary Handbook offers a comprehensive critical overview of intoxicants and intoxication. The Handbook is divided into 34 chapters across eight thematic sections covering a wide range of issues, including the meanings of intoxicants; the social life of intoxicants; intoxication settings; intoxication practices; alternative approaches to the study of intoxication; scapegoated intoxicants; discourses shaping intoxication; and changing notions of excess. It explores a range of different intoxicants, including alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, and legal and illicit drugs, including amphetamine, cannabis, ecstasy, khat, methadone, and opiates. Chapter length case studies explore these intoxicants in a variety of countries, including the USA, the UK, Australia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Singapore, and Sweden, across a broad timespan covering the nineteenth century to the present day. This wide-ranging Handbook will be of great interest to researchers, students, and instructors within the humanities and social sciences with an interest in a wide range of different intoxicants and different intoxication practices.

From marijuana and jazz, to amphetamines and punk, drugs and popular music have been inextricably tied together. Today the music is electronic and ecstasy and party drugs are the drugs of choice. In Ecstasy and Raves, Hunt, an anthropologist, and Evans, a sociologist, explore the attraction of the scene and the drugs to young people today. Using information from over 300 in-depth interviews with ravers, DJ's and promoters, the authors examine the social and ethnic background of the ravers and clubbers, their initial involvement with the scene, their experiences of the drugs and their changing tastes in music. They show how the scene is made up of many different social groupings based not just on social class, gender or ethnicity, but also length of time in the scene, choice of drugs, styles of dancing and types of music. Hunt and Evans discover that although ravers share many commonalities they are not identical and do not speak with a single voice. Through them, we learn of candy ravers, jaded ravers, newbies, old school ravers, veterans, house heads and trance heads. In contrast to the often stereotypical views of about young drug users as naive and poorly informed, the authors explore the sources of information used by ravers, the precautions they take both prior and after using and the controls they impose on each others' use. We learn about their frustrations with recent legislation controlling raves and clubs, their anger at the increasing commercialization of the scene, and their general skepticism about official pronouncements on the dangers of ecstasy and other drugs.

In this book the core of the Buddha's teaching is comprehensively cast in modern models of thought - borrowed from science and philosophy - and informed by contemporary concerns. It sets out the basic instructions for the life-changing way of the Buddha (the so-called 'Noble Eightfold Path') wholly in the context of contemporary and everyday life, personal experience, human relationships, work, environmental concern and the human wish for peace. The reader, who may be completely new to Buddhism, is accompanied along the Path with practical exercises that are fully explained. The Path begins with an introductory overview and then proceeds through Right Speech, Right Acting, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration, Right Mindfulness, Right Understanding and Right Resolve, and concludes with a short chapter on the relevance of the Path to the current global crisis. The reader is mentored throughout by practical meditational and contemplative exercises, with tables, diagrams, analogies and stories. Gradually the reader who has followed this handbook with commitment will feel the benefits of growing peacefulness, wisdom and compassion.

The first volume to provide access to information on drug treatment systems from a wide cross-section of 20 countries, Drug Treatment Systems in an International Perspective examines the ways in which other counties from around the world have chosen to cope with the spread of illicit drugs. Now health planners and administrators, treatment professionals, researchers, and students can place the development of their own treatment systems in a wider context and can examine the extent to which that development shares common structural features with those of other countries and cultures. Following a comparative discussion of the various countries, the volume addresses four key issues: gender specific treatment, the politics of financing and evaluation, the private sector and state control, and exporting drug treatment ideologies. It provides a comparative and cross-cultural perspective on drug treatment approaches today and examines the influence of social, political, and economic forces on the treatment of drug addicts. In addition, the editors have included a handy glossary, which explains key terms unfamiliar to readers outside the particular country. Providing and interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective to drug treatment, Drug Treatment Systems in an International Perspective will be of interest academics, students, and professionals in psychology, especially those focusing on clinical psychology, addiction, dependency, and treatment. It will also be of great interest to public health planners and administrators.

With contributions from leading international academics across the social sciences, this accessible handbook takes a critical look at the key theories, disciplinary approaches, contemporary issues and debates in the field. * Part I Central Social Science Theories Drug and Alcohol Studies * Part II Pillars in Social Science Drug and Alcohol Studies * Part III Controversies and New Approaches in Social Science Drug and Alcohol Studies This Handbook is an excellent reference text for the growing number of academics, students, scientists and practitioners in the drug and alcohol studies community.