Judging Drugs : Key Issues in Law and Society

This book is essential reading for lawyers, criminologists, sociologists, critical theorists and drugs researchers who have an interest in how courts treat drugs and addiction. It will also interest activists, drug user groups and policymakers with an interest in social justice, human rights and knowledge-making about drugs and addiction.

Every day, judges determine vital questions about 'addiction', 'drugs', and the rights of those who use them. Despite the law's crucial role in handling drug 'problems', and in shaping drug practices, effects and outcomes, drug scholars have often overlooked case law. In a rapidly changing drug policy landscape, how is the law managing drug effects and harms, stigma, addiction, agency and responsibility? Why do we regulate drugs? Are drug offenders responsible for their actions? Is drug use a disability? Is drug treatment a human right? Do drugs cause harm? And might drug law itself be harmful? Authors in this volume take a variety of approaches to these questions and more. Drawing on critical theory, all consider new ways of thinking about 'drug problems'. This vital new collection enables a deeper, critical understanding of how the law 'works' to shape knowledge about, as well as 'judge', drug use and its effects.