Substances like opium and cannabis have been taken in Europe for centuries. Over the decades, the introduction and widespread use of synthetic drugs, such as LSD and MDMA (ecstasy), has created new user groups and changed the patterns of use. Drugs, old or new, do not only have an impact on the individual in form of psychological disorders, but also on societys reaction to their users. They create an illegal market with all its criminal side effects, and they trigger researchers to understand the phenomenon of drug use, changing patterns and spread.
This book reflects on patterns of and changes in the use of old and new drugs; it challenges the gateway theory, critically discusses the concept of dealers, and examines strategies of harm reduction for imprisoned offenders. In addition, it offers new approaches to old problems by bridging the gap between quantitative and qualitative drug research.
Contents:
Dirk J. Korf:
Old and new: Persistence, revival and innovation in European drug issues
Alfred Uhl & Ludwig Kraus:
Reassessing the gateway theory and its implications for drug policy
Heino Stöver, Rick Lines & Katja Thane:
Harm reduction in European prisons: Looking for champions and ways to put evidence-based approaches into practice
Garfield (Gary) Potter:
Exploring retail-level drug distribution: Social supply, real dealers and the user/dealer interface
Susanna Prepeliczay:
Psychedelic generations: Similarities and differences of socio-cultural factors related to historic & contemporary use of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs
Patrick McCrystal:
Arriving at the party early? An exploration of the early onset use of ecstasy and cocaine in Northern Ireland
Alastair Roy:
New methods - old problems: A practical and philosophical analysis of participatory approaches to qualitative drugs research
Paula Mayock, Jennifer Cronly & Michael Clatts:
Researching new heroin users in Ireland: An ethno-epidemiological approach
2009, 152 pages, ISBN 978-3-89967-583-2, Price: 20,- Euro
