Controversies in Drugs Policy and Practice
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Review
'It isn't often that one reads a book that one would have loved to have the ability, experience, knowledge, analytic ability, and, one has to say, 'bravery' to write. Without doubt, it is the best book on drug policy that I have ever read.' -Professor Jason Ditton, Scottish Centre for Criminology, UK
'...an excellent book...' - Peter Hitchens, DailyMail.co.uk
'...includes harrowing testimony from children growing up in families where drug abuse was prevalent...' - The Times
'McKeganey's book, Controversies in Drug Policy and Practice, is exactly that- controversial, but at the same integral to any reasoned debate about drugs and prohibition.' - Tammy Ayres, University of Leicester
'...an excellent book...' - Peter Hitchens, DailyMail.co.uk
'...includes harrowing testimony from children growing up in families where drug abuse was prevalent...' - The Times
'McKeganey's book, Controversies in Drug Policy and Practice, is exactly that- controversial, but at the same integral to any reasoned debate about drugs and prohibition.' - Tammy Ayres, University of Leicester
Product Description
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.
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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is estimated that at least 15 million people are directly or indirectly affected by problems caused by drugs (illegal and prescription), solvents and alcohol in the UK. The scale of the substance use problem is not diminishing: it is growing.
Policy decisions are important in society tries to address substance use problems. Theoretically, these policy decisions should benefit people affected by substance use problems, and wider society. Sometimes they do, often they don't. Policy should also influence and be beneficial to practice, e.g. treatment. Sometimes it is, often not. Policy should be influenced by research. Again, sometimes it is, more often it is not.
Writing about policy well and honestly is often difficult. It is an emotional area and people often present one-sided or very biased arguments in order to convince their audience of their beliefs. The area is also very complex and generally highly controversial.
Professor Neil McKeganey's new book "Controversies in Drugs Policy and Practice" is well-written, insightful and objective. It is interesting and very informative, a pleasure to read. It provides both sides of the argument (and often more) on a wide range of topics, including harm reduction, treatment, drug enforcement, drug legalization and drug classification. I'm not sure I've seen such a wide range of topics in a previously written drug policy book.
I know a fair amount about some of these topics, but I still learnt more. And the book made me think even about topics on which I thought I had committed opinions. In other areas, I am not so well-read so the book was very helpful - it brings together a wealth of information throughout. It really made me think about these other areas, in particular the chapter on `Meeting the Needs of the Children of Drug Addicted Parents'. This is some pretty controversial stuff in here, and as Neil rightly emphasises, the stakes are high.
I also enjoyed the chapter "The Politics of Drug Research', which also left me frustrated and sad to hear some of Professor McKeganey's experiences. Sometimes governments know what they want - even when it is not the best way forward - and views of scientists, practitioners and people affected by substance use are ignored. And sometimes people have to stand up and be counted in this situation. Professor McKeganey has never failed to stand up and be counted in this regard. His bravery is admirable. This means, of course, he has had to court much controversy, but hey, who said this field was easy! Controversy often leads to beneficial change - sit down and be quiet and nothing changes!
One disappointment with the book. It would have been good to see little more mention of the new Recovery Movement in the UK which is beginning to influence how we help people overcome substance use problems, and how we deliver treatment services. But there again, you can't have it all in one book.
Overall, I can highly recommend this text. It is seminal reading! For experts and lay people alike.
Policy decisions are important in society tries to address substance use problems. Theoretically, these policy decisions should benefit people affected by substance use problems, and wider society. Sometimes they do, often they don't. Policy should also influence and be beneficial to practice, e.g. treatment. Sometimes it is, often not. Policy should be influenced by research. Again, sometimes it is, more often it is not.
Writing about policy well and honestly is often difficult. It is an emotional area and people often present one-sided or very biased arguments in order to convince their audience of their beliefs. The area is also very complex and generally highly controversial.
Professor Neil McKeganey's new book "Controversies in Drugs Policy and Practice" is well-written, insightful and objective. It is interesting and very informative, a pleasure to read. It provides both sides of the argument (and often more) on a wide range of topics, including harm reduction, treatment, drug enforcement, drug legalization and drug classification. I'm not sure I've seen such a wide range of topics in a previously written drug policy book.
I know a fair amount about some of these topics, but I still learnt more. And the book made me think even about topics on which I thought I had committed opinions. In other areas, I am not so well-read so the book was very helpful - it brings together a wealth of information throughout. It really made me think about these other areas, in particular the chapter on `Meeting the Needs of the Children of Drug Addicted Parents'. This is some pretty controversial stuff in here, and as Neil rightly emphasises, the stakes are high.
I also enjoyed the chapter "The Politics of Drug Research', which also left me frustrated and sad to hear some of Professor McKeganey's experiences. Sometimes governments know what they want - even when it is not the best way forward - and views of scientists, practitioners and people affected by substance use are ignored. And sometimes people have to stand up and be counted in this situation. Professor McKeganey has never failed to stand up and be counted in this regard. His bravery is admirable. This means, of course, he has had to court much controversy, but hey, who said this field was easy! Controversy often leads to beneficial change - sit down and be quiet and nothing changes!
One disappointment with the book. It would have been good to see little more mention of the new Recovery Movement in the UK which is beginning to influence how we help people overcome substance use problems, and how we deliver treatment services. But there again, you can't have it all in one book.
Overall, I can highly recommend this text. It is seminal reading! For experts and lay people alike.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This chap hates the poor and the feckless and has a not so hidden agenda that connects back to those who advocated sterilisation and euthenasia in yesteryear. It is called having an absence of empathy. This book is the first step in his personal project. Many of these Little Casesar's clog up academia with their berating and castigation, their inner darkness is projected onto others. Think of Foucaults "Discipline and Punish," except this is a chap who appears in the book, rather than one who has the ability to write it.
The type of chap who appeals to the base thought patterns of the Daily Express/Mail/Telegraph reader. Sure "harm reduction" is a sham, drug treatment is awful, methadone is no cure but this "little fellow" like the bulk of his leprechaun army (apologies to the little people) appear as malevolent sprites with their projected autobiographies, now deemed scientific. He just hates druggies and this is clear under the academic hyperbole, the question is why?
This wounded non healer needs to seek therapeutic introspection rather than brimstone and fire projection. Effectively negating trauma, like an Old Testament thunderer, he proclaims his platitudes tedium after tedium, the voice of the non thinking man's anger. Trauma is the hidden magma within academia, no one dare peak at it, because they believe emotions are not scientific. Traumatised little Neil has now become the academic vigilante, proclaiming tough love.
Balanced, so as to ensure he does not appear be fully revealed the despot he really is, this book is a mask, the same strategy that David Irving produced, to create a cloud of vapour, upon which he built his will to power.
Not to be taken seriously, in particular. the stories of "drug addicts" children talking about their bruises as if they are the full panoply of evil....
25 years of undertaking psychopathological work, Neil, I can tell you about academics, policemen, judges, actors, aristocrats and clowns all sexually plundering, beating and deriding their children. Child abuse, Neil, knows no class, gender, race, religious or cultural boundaries, but pathological psychology knows a facade when it sees it.
Come on Neil, behind your mask built on a "will to power," what lies behind it?
A desolate childhood projected onto the marginalised perhaps? You would not be the first, but in an ideal future, you would be the last.
The type of chap who appeals to the base thought patterns of the Daily Express/Mail/Telegraph reader. Sure "harm reduction" is a sham, drug treatment is awful, methadone is no cure but this "little fellow" like the bulk of his leprechaun army (apologies to the little people) appear as malevolent sprites with their projected autobiographies, now deemed scientific. He just hates druggies and this is clear under the academic hyperbole, the question is why?
This wounded non healer needs to seek therapeutic introspection rather than brimstone and fire projection. Effectively negating trauma, like an Old Testament thunderer, he proclaims his platitudes tedium after tedium, the voice of the non thinking man's anger. Trauma is the hidden magma within academia, no one dare peak at it, because they believe emotions are not scientific. Traumatised little Neil has now become the academic vigilante, proclaiming tough love.
Balanced, so as to ensure he does not appear be fully revealed the despot he really is, this book is a mask, the same strategy that David Irving produced, to create a cloud of vapour, upon which he built his will to power.
Not to be taken seriously, in particular. the stories of "drug addicts" children talking about their bruises as if they are the full panoply of evil....
25 years of undertaking psychopathological work, Neil, I can tell you about academics, policemen, judges, actors, aristocrats and clowns all sexually plundering, beating and deriding their children. Child abuse, Neil, knows no class, gender, race, religious or cultural boundaries, but pathological psychology knows a facade when it sees it.
Come on Neil, behind your mask built on a "will to power," what lies behind it?
A desolate childhood projected onto the marginalised perhaps? You would not be the first, but in an ideal future, you would be the last.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an amazing book, a must, to be bought and read by anyone concerned with drug policies including psychologists, psychiatrists, researchers and the rest.
If you are searching for some honest answers on drugs, I strongly recommend this book. It answers all your questions with clarity and down to earth honesty.
If you are searching for some honest answers on drugs, I strongly recommend this book. It answers all your questions with clarity and down to earth honesty.
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