New Approaches to Drug Policies A Time For Change

by Rosen, Jonathan D.; Brienen, Marten W.

• ISBN13: 9781137450982
• ISBN10: 1137450983
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-08-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The U.S.-led war on drugs has failed: drugs remain purer, cheaper and more readily available than when the war on drugs began in 1971. The drug war also has resulted in extreme levels of violence as drug traffickers and organized criminals compete for control of territory. Prohibitionist policies have destroyed the lives of millions of people as prisons warehouse drug offenders.
This important volume represents an effort to map new approaches to drug policies. The contributors write from various disciplinary backgrounds and provide crucial insights on a wide-range of topics, including the gang-drug nexus, delinquency, legalization, trafficking, decriminalization, intervention programs and prison reform. This volume also provides a number of policy solutions and alternatives to the current drug strategies.
Includes contributions from: Marten W. Brienen, Ted Galen Carpenter, Roger G. Dunham, Gregory Fulkerson, Betty Horwitz, Caitlin Elizabeth Hughes, Hanna Samir Kassab, Ana Maria Lobos, Bradford R. McGuinn, Fida Mohammad, Keri O'Neal, J. Bryan Page, Susan A. Phillips, Vanessa Rayan, Jonathan D. Rosen, Alex Stevens, Steven L. West, and Marcelo Rocha e Silva Zorovich.

Author Biography

Jonathan D. Rosen is Professor in the Institute of International Studies at the Universidad del Mar, Mexico.
 
Marten W. Brienen is Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Oklahoma State University, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Marten W. Brienen and Jonathan D. Rosen

PART I: CASE STUDIES
1. The Drug War's Damaging Impact on Mexico and Its Neighbors; Ted Galen Carpenter
2. Trends in Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime in Brazil; Marcelo Rocha e Silva Zorovich
3. The War on Drugs in Colombia: A History of Failure; Jonathan D. Rosen
4. Understated Yet Turbulent: Narcotics Trafficking and the Criminalization of Guinea-Bissau; Bradford R. McGuinn

PART II: THEMES
5. Drug Trafficking and the Street: An Anthropological View; J. Byran Page
6. Delinquency and Drug Use in the U.S.; Roger G. Dunham and Ana Maria Lobos
7. The Gang-Drug Nexus: Violence, Rhetoric, and Suppression in an FBI Safe Streets Task Force; Susan A. Phillips
8. A Resounding Success or a Disastrous Failure: Re-examining the Interpretation of Evidence on the Portuguese Decriminalisation of Illicit Drugs; Caitlin Elizabeth Hughes and Alex Stevens

PART III: POLICY SOLUTIONS
9. Drug Use Among American Adolescents: An Examination of Prevention and Intervention Programs; Keri O'Neal and Steven L. West
10. The Legalization Debate: Mapping Change and Trends in the United States; Hanna Samir Kassab
11. A Change in the Approach to the Drug Problem in the Americas; Betty Horwitz
12. Enough is Enough: The Need for Prison Reform in the U.S.; Jonathan D. Rosen and Vanessa Rayan
13. The "War on Drugs": A Failed Paradigm; Fida Mohammad and Gregory Fulkerson