Drug Policy and the Public Good
Thomas F. Babor, Jonathan P. Caulkins, Griffith Edwards, Benedikt Fischer, David R. Foxcroft, Keith Humphreys, Isidore S. Obot, Jürgen Rehm, Peter Reuter, Robin Room, Ingeborg Rossow, and John Strang
Abstract
Drug use represents a significant burden to public health, through disease, disability and social problems, and policy makers are becoming increasingly interested in how to develop evidence-based drug policy. It is therefore crucial to strengthen the links between addiction science and drug policy. Drug Policy and the Public Good is collaboratively written by an international group of career scientists, to provide an analytical basis on which to build relevant global drug policies, and to inform policy makers who have direct responsibility for public health and social welfare. Drug Policy and ... More
Drug use represents a significant burden to public health, through disease, disability and social problems, and policy makers are becoming increasingly interested in how to develop evidence-based drug policy. It is therefore crucial to strengthen the links between addiction science and drug policy. Drug Policy and the Public Good is collaboratively written by an international group of career scientists, to provide an analytical basis on which to build relevant global drug policies, and to inform policy makers who have direct responsibility for public health and social welfare. Drug Policy and the Public Good presents the accumulated scientific knowledge on illicit drugs that has direct relevance to the development of drug policy on local, national, and international levels. The authors describe the conceptual basis for a rational drug policy, and present new epidemiological data on the global dimensions of drug misuse. The core of the book is a critical review of the cumulative scientific evidence in five general areas of drug policy: primary prevention programs in schools and other settings; supply reduction approaches, including drug interdiction and legal enforcement; treatment interventions and harm reduction approaches; criminal sanctions and decriminalization; and control of the legal market through prescription drug regimes. The final chapters discuss the current state of drug policy in different parts of the world, and describe the need for a new approach to drug policy that is evidence-based, realistic, and coordinated.
Keywords:
drug policy,
public good,
drug use,
public health,
disease,
disability,
social problems,
policy makers,
addiction science,
primary prevention programs
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2009 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199557127 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557127.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Thomas F. Babor, author
Professor, Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Connecticut, USA
Jonathan P. Caulkins, author
Professor of Operations Research and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University Heinz School & Qatar Campus, USA
Griffith Edwards, author
Emeritus Professor of Addiction Behaviour, University of London, UK
Benedikt Fischer, author
Professor and CIHR/PHAC Chair in Applied Public Health, Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addictions (CARMHA), Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
David R. Foxcroft, author
Professor, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK
Keith Humphreys, author
Professor of Psychiatry, Veterans Affairs and Stanford University Medical Centers, Palo Alto, California, USA
Isidore S. Obot, author
Professor of Psychology, University of Uyo, Nigeria
Jürgen Rehm, author
Senior Scientist and Co-Head, Section Public Health and Regulatory Policies, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario; and Professor and Chair, Addiction Policy, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada
Peter Reuter, author
Professor of Public Policy and of Criminology, University of Maryland, USA
Robin Room, author
Professor, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, and Director, AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, Victoria, Australia
Ingeborg Rossow, author
Research director, Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, Norway
John Strang, author
Professor of the Addictions & Director, National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London
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