Drugs and the World

"The use and misuse of psychoactive substances is one of the most widely discussed and yet least understood social processes. It is easy to condemn the use of illicit drugs, as well as alcohol and tobacco, as problems that require the services of professionals and the retribution of the state. Sight has been lost of the contributions that drugs have played in society and culture and the key role they play in ritual, religion and possibly human evolution. Drugs and the World restores the constructive aspect of drug use to the discussion, and reviews the policies and interventions that make up the contemporary web of drug controls."--BOOK JACKET.

Axel Klein is lecturer in the Study of Addictive Behavior at the Institute for Psychiatry at the Kent Institute of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Kent.