Drug War American Style: The Internationalization of Failed Policy and its Alternatives (Current Issues in Criminal Justice)

This collection of scholarly essays discusses the internationalization of American drug policy from a variety of perspectives and features articles on Hong Kong, Britain, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Latin America, the Netherlands and Switzerland. From the anti-opiate campaigns of the late 1800's to the DARE program of the 1990's, the United States has been at war with drugs throughout most of its history. Claiming that the drug war is for the good of the people, politicians use it as a campaign platform, the media sell it for higher ratings, and criminal justice administrators exploit it for expanded power and higher funding. Experts in criminology, the contributors to this volume closely examine the sociological impact of the global drug war, offering new insight to the debate. DRUG WAR, AMERICAN STYLE shows how the United States's war on drugs has spread throughout the world to Hong Kong and Australia, and affected policy in countries from Canada to Britain. The United States has waged periodic wars on drugs for most of its existence.