Drug Law Reform in East and Southeast Asia

By (author) Fifa Rahman, Nick Crofts Preface by Mike Trace Foreword by Marina Mahathir Contributions by Gary Reid, S.S. Lee, David Jacka, Joanne Csete, Kate Dolan, Ana Rodas, Geoff Monaghan, Steve James, Nicole Turner, Mohd Zaman Khan, Priya Mannava, Sasha Zegenhagen, Nick Thomson, Jimmy Dorabjee, Mohamad Firdaus Zakaria, Dean Lewis, Faisal Ibrahim, Don C. Des Jarlais, Jonathan Freelemyer, Heidi Bramson, Holly Hagan, Simon Baldwin, Nicholas Thomson, Rebecca McKetin, Jih-Heng Li, Karyn Kaplan, Pascal Tanguay, Susan Trevaskes, Marek Chawarski, Richard Schottenfeld, B. Vicknasingam, Alex Wodak, Thu Vuong, Nick Crofts, Fifa Rahman

Publication date:

15 August 2013

Length of book:

370 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

236x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739180372

Drug Law Reform in East and Southeast Asia is a multi-author look at drugs in East and Southeast Asia, on drug policy, patterns and trends, local problems, human rights abuses, treatment prospects, and potential reforms. From the history of drugs in Asia, the book examines recent trends in illicit drugs, especially the present enormous amphetamine problems. It addresses recent policy shifts, especially harm reduction responses to the devastating drug-associated HIV epidemics. It explores further necessary reform, especially in regard to the abysmally inhuman current emphasis on detention and the death penalty for drug offences, and present the most recent evidence on effective and humane approaches to drug treatments. As the first comprehensive collection on illicit drug and harm reduction in East and Southeast Asia, it will be a vital resource for health professionals, policymakers, and others working there—and elsewhere—on drug policy reform. As the first comprehensive collection on illicit drugs and harm reduction in East and Southeast Asia, it will be a vital resource for health professionals, policymakers, and others working on East and Southeast Asia—and elsewhere—on drug policy.

Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 3: Historical Perspectives of Drug Use in Asia
Chapter 4: Harm Reduction is Good Public Health
Chapter 5: Human Rights and Drug Policy
Chapter 6: Drug Users and Imprisonment
Chapter 7: Law Enforcement and Drug Policy in Southeast Asia
Chapter 8: Effective Development and Effective Drug Control are Interdependent: the example of Southeast Asia
Chapter 9: Illicit drug policy in Southeast Asia – The Users’ Perspective
Chapter 10: Harm Reduction: The Islamic Perspective
Chapter 11: HIV and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infection among People who Inject Drugs in East and Southeast Asia
Chapter 12: Unpacking Compulsory ‘Rehabilitation’ in Asia: Problems and Possible Solutions
Chapter 13: Responding to ATS use in East and Southeast Asia
Chapter 14: Case Study No. 1: Harm Reduction and Drug Policy in Thailand – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Chapter 15: Case Study No. 2: Drug Policy in Taiwan
Chapter 16: Case Study No. 3: Emerging from a Black Box: Drug Policymaking in Vietnam
Chapter 17: Case Study No. 4: Drug Policy in China
Chapter 18: Case Study No. 5: Compulsory Drug Rehabilitation in China
Chapter 19: Alternatives to Criminal Justice: Drug Courts, Drug Diversion, and Decriminalisation
Chapter 20: Capital Punishment for Drug Offences
Chapter 21: Drug Treatment Across Asia
Chapter 22: The Way Forward

Punitive drug policies have done enormous harm to drug users and their neighbors all over the world. These policies have been particularly vicious in some parts of East and Southeast Asia. This has resulted in massive HIV and hepatitis epidemics in many countries. Fifa Rahman and Nick Croft’s Drug Law Reform in East and Southeast Asia is a wonderfully insightful overview of these policies and their effects—as well as presenting alternative policies and evidence that these alternative policies do much less damage than punitive approaches. They do this by presenting a range of articles by leading professionals, a chapter on drug user activists’ perspectives on drug policy, and a chapter on Islamic approaches. All in all, this is a useful and lovely book.