What Is Drug Policy For? - (What Is It For?) by Julia Buxton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

There is general agreement about the need to criminalise the production, sale and possession of certain drugs, yet the costly international apparatus around this is failing. But why do we criminalise some substances and not others? Is the purpose misguided, or the methods, or both?

Julia Buxton looks at how our current drug control regime came about from the first US-driven international meeting on drug control in 1909 that became a war with the inbuilt moral self-righteousness of the colonial era.

She also charts the evolution of the contemporary drugs market, looking at where drugs are now produced and consumed, and by whom, giving voice to those who get caught up in this world as consumers and low-level producers and sellers. Ultimately she asks, if the current strategy is patently failing, how could it be done better?

About the Author

Julia Buxton is Professor of Justice at John Moores University in Liverpool and British Academy Global Professor. Her research, teaching and supervision focus on illicit drug markets and the impact of counter narcotics policies on development, gender equality and security. She has experience of applied and practice focused research in policy design and evaluation, including conflict, rights based and gender sensitive processes. She has geographical expertise on Latin America and is a specialist on Venezuela.

Julia was previously Professor of Comparative Politics, Associate Dean and Acting Dean at the School of Public Policy, Central European University in Budapest where she managed awards from Open Society Foundations Global Drug Policy Programme on drug policy analysis, drug policy enforcement, and an annual drug policy reform summer school. She previously held positions in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, Georgetown University and Kingston University.