Drugs and Justice Seeking a Consistent, Coherent, Comprehensive View

by Battin, Margaret P.; Luna, Erik; Lipman, Arthur G.; Gahlinger, Paul M.; Rollins, Douglas E.; Roberts, Jeanette C.; Booher, Troy L.

• ISBN13: 9780195321012
• ISBN10: 0195321014
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-11-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This compact and innovative book tackles one of the central issues in drug policy: the lack of a coherent conceptual structure for thinking about drugs. Drugs generally fall into one of seven categories: prescription, over the counter, alternative medicine, common-use drugs like alcohol,tobacco and caffeine; religious-use, sports enhancement; and of course illegal street drugs like cocaine and marijuana. Our thinking and policies varies wildly from one to the other, with inconsistencies that derive more from cultural and social values than from medical or scientific facts.Penalties exist for steroid use, while herbal remedies or cold medication are legal. Native Americans may legally use peyote, but others may not. Penalties may vary for using different forms of the same drug, such as crack vs. powder cocaine. Herbal remedies are unregulated by the FDA; butmedical marijuana is illegal in most states. Battin and her contributors lay a foundation for a wiser drug policy by promoting consistency and coherency in the discussion of drug issues and by encouraging a unique dialogue across disciplines. The contributors are an interdisciplinary group of scholars mostly based at the University of Utah,and include a pharmacologist, a psychiatrist, a toxicologist, a trial court judge, a law professor, an attorney, a diatary specialist, a physician, a health expert on substance abuse, and Battin herself who is a philosopher. They consider questions like the historical development of current policyand the rationales for it; scientific views on how drugs actually cause harm; how to define the key notions of harm and addiction; and ways in which drug policy can be made more consistent. They conclude with an examination of the implications of a consistent policy for various disciplines andsociety generally. The book is written accessibly with little need for expert knowledge, and will appeal to a diverse audience of philosophers, bioethicists, clinicians, policy makers, law enforcement, legal scholars and practitioners, social workers, and general readers, as well as to students in areas likepharmacy, medicine, law, nursing, sociology, social work, psychology, and bioethics.

Author Biography

Margaret P. Battin is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah. Erik Luna is Hugh B. Brown Presidential Endowed Chair in Law and Professor of Law at the University of Utah. Arthur G. Lipman is Professor of Pharmacotherapy and Adjunct Professor Anesthesiology at the University of Utah. Paul M. Gahlinger is Adjunct Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Utah. Douglas E. Rollins is Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Utah. Jeanette C. Roberts is Dean of the School of Pharmacy and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Troy L. Booher is an attorney with Snell Wilmer L.L.P., and Adjunct Professor of Law and of Political Science at the University of Utah.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. v
Contributors	p. xxvii
Drugs " Across the Board"	p. 3
How Did It Come to Be This Way?	p. 29
Drug Regulatory Agencies and the Underlying Rationales for Drug Policy	p. 55
Core Conceptual Problems: Addiction	p. 90
Core Conceptual Problems: Harm (and Benefit)	p. 131
Dilemmas of Drug Management and Control	p. 175
Toward Justice in Drug Theory, Policy, and Practice	p. 226
Bibliography	p. 259
Index	p. 271
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