The political economy of narcotics : production, consumption and global markets / Julia Buxton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buxton, Julia, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Drug control--History.

Drug control.

Drug abuse--Government policy.

Drug abuse.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 p.)

Distribution:

[London, England] : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021

Place of Publication:

London, England : Zed Books, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This scholarly examination of the worldwide web of narcotics today provides students, social workers, health providers, law enforcement officers and policy makers with an up-to-date, overall exploration of the world of drugs. Vast resources are pumped into the 'war on drugs'. But in practice, prohibition has failed. Narcotics use continues to rise, while technology and globalisation have made a whole new range of drugs available to a vast consumer market. Where wealth and demand exist, supply continues to follow. Prohibition has failed to stem consumption and production, criminalised social groups, impeded research into alternative medicine and disease, promoted violence and gang warfare, and impacted negatively on the environment. The alternative is a humane policy framework that recognizes the incentives to produce, traffic and consume narcotics.

Contents:

1. Intoxicating substances in historical perspective

The role of drugs in global society

Opium and empire

The Chinese opium market

2. The drift to regulation and the idea of prohibition

Drug consumption in the Western market

The advent of control : Britain and America contrasted

The US modernization experience : tension and protest

The alcohol prohibition movement and experience

3. From regulation to control : the internationalization of drug prohibition

The anti-opium campaign in Britain

Enter America : the anti-opium campaign of the US government

The Shanghai Conference of 1909 and its impact

4. The beginnings of international drug control

From principle to policy

Evaluating the early drug control system

Domestic drug control

5. The post-war international drug control regime

The United Nations and drug control

The post-war model : prohibition victory?

Rebellion and division within the drug control system

6. Trends in drug consumption

The knowledge gap

Patterns of controlled drug use

Consumption dynamics in the 2000s.

7. Trends in cultivation and production

Supply controls phase 1 : opiates, supply reduction and the rise of the Golden Triangle

Supply controls phase 2 : supply expansion and the Golden Crescent

Coca and cocaine

The manufacture and supply of other controlled drugs

The traffic in and traffickers of controlled drugs

8. Accounting for failure : the problem of prohibition

The limits of prohibition

The economics of the drug trade

9. Accounting for failure 2 : institutions and policy

Alternative development

Research : a hostile environment

Demand-side neglect

By way of a conclusion : institutional crisis and decline

10. The political impact of drugs and drug control

The importance of state presence

Anti-drug responses : more harm than good?

United States : the heart of the problem

Full circle : more harm than good?

11. HIV/AIDS and intravenous drug use

The epidemiology of HIV/AIDS

The rise of the post-Soviet drug problem

IDU-related sub-epidemics : the global picture

From IDUs to broader infection

Conclusion

12. International drug control and HIV/AIDS

Harm reduction and injecting drug use

Injecting drug use and prisons

Opposition to harm reduction

A problem caused by drug control?

Conclusion.

13. Cultivation and drug production : the environmental costs

The greening of the drugs issue

The environmental costs of narcotic plant cultivation

Drug production and the environment

Drugs and the environment : a credible debate?

14. Anti-drug policies and the environment : the role of chemical fumigation

US fumigation strategies in historical context : the Mexican experience

Contemporary fumigation strategies : Plan Colombia

The impact of chemical fumigation with Glyphosate

The politics of fumigation

By way of a conclusion

15. The new magic bullet : bio-control solutions

The evolution of the mycoherbicide strategy

The Fusarium debate

The direction of mycoherbicide research

The politics of mycoherbicides

The challenge of US unilateralism

16. A note on hemp

A brief history of hemp

The economic causes of hemp's decline

The political causes of hemp's decline

The contemporary hemp revolution

By way of a conclusion.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-234) and index.

Print version record.

ISBN:

9786611216115

9781350223400

1350223409

9781848137523

1848137524

9781780328508

1780328508

9781281216113

1281216119

9781848131613

1848131615

OCLC:

654629530