Description
Book SynopsisFor half a century the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 has dominated ill-conceived approaches to the prohibition of drugs and the criminalisation of many offenders. Wilful blindness to scientific facts has distorted the dispensation of justice, prevented lifesaving investigation, sidelined critics and thwarted advocates of politically inconvenient drugs law reform. This once in an epoch review by experts from a range of disciplines shows how lawmakers and the media have ignored the scientific evidence to sustain badly founded rhetoric in favour of blanket bans, punishment and the marginalisation of opponents. Countless individuals (including the vulnerable, deprived, addicted and mentally ill) have therefore suffered unnecessarily. This, the most comprehensive critique of the 1971 Act yet, rests on the combined learning of leading medical, scientific, psychiatric, academic, legal, drug safety and other specialists to provide sound reasons to re-think half a century of bad law.
Trade Review'It is time to see the MDA 1971 for what it is: a bad law that has the opposite effect to that intended. The so-called war on drugs is lost. It could never be won. Let us replace this knee-jerk law with something rational, something evidence-based, something more humane.'- From the Foreword.
Table of ContentsForeword by The Rt Hon Norman Baker; Introduction. PART I - The Impact Of Drugs: At the Frontiers of Psychiatry; A Forensic Science Perspective; Fifty Years of MDMA; Displacement, Adulteration and Innovation - How the MDA 1971 Failed to Control NPS; Cannabis: Past, Present and Future; Narratives of Drug-related Harm. PART II - Impact on the Medical, Pharmacy and Veterinary Professions: Chronic Pain; The Impact of the MDA 1971 on the Veterinary Profession; Enabling Access to Essential Medicines and Devices. PART III - Legacies of the Drug Laws: How States Have Adapted Their Drug Laws; The Sixties, Barbara Wootton and the Counterculture - Revisiting the Origins of the MDA 1971; The Ongoing Impact on the Racialised Policing of Black Communities. PART IV - Perspectives and Approaches: Challenging Stigma, Changing Minds; The MDA 1971: No Education; The Impact of Drug Legislation on Climate Change; Decision Conferencing and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis; The MDA 1971: Missteps and Misunderstandings. PART V - Changing Policy: Regulating the Legal: Lessons from Alcohol Policy and the Battle for Minimum Unit Pricing in Scotland; A Modest Proposal to Decriminalise the Simple Possession of Drugs; The Legal Regulation of Drugs in the UK. Index.
