Summary
Contents
How do we understand drug use? How are drugs related to our social worlds? How should drug use be understood, approached and dealt with? Insightful and illuminating, this book successfully discusses drugs in social contexts. In an elegant manner, the authors bring together their different theoretical and practical backgrounds, offering a comprehensive and interdisciplinary introduction that opens up a wide scientific understanding moving beyond cultural myths and presuppositions. Powerful and engaging, this book discusses main questions within the field of psychoactive drugs research, such as: Why do people take drugs? How do we understand moral panics? What is the relationship between drugs and violence? How do people's social positions influence their individual involvement in drug use? This is an invaluable reference source for students on criminology, sociology and social sciences programmes, as well as students and drug service practitioners in social work, social policy and nursing.
Drug Treatment and Quasi-compulsory Treatment
Drug Treatment and Quasi-compulsory Treatment
Drug treatment refers to various types of interventions that are provided to people who are addicted to or dependent on drugs. Quasi-compulsory treatment (QCT) refers to treatment interventions that are used under the guidance of the criminal justice system, in an effort to reduce substance misuse and criminal activity.
The availability of drug treatment and the way that treatment initiatives are implemented depend greatly on how drug use and addiction are interpreted by governments. Historically, either the criminal justice system or the medical profession gained control over ‘what should be done’ with individuals who use or are dependent on illicit drugs. In some countries, ‘addicts’ continue to be perceived as part of the ‘criminal class’ whose ...
