From law to regulation: re-appraising the misuse of Drugs Act 1971
From law to regulation: re-appraising the misuse of Drugs Act 1971
Toby Seddon
Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-
The purpose of this paper is to re-appraise the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 in order to develop alternative and new ideas for drug law reform.
The approach is to analyse the Act from historical and socio-legal perspectives, drawing on the inter-disciplinary field of regulation studies.
The Act has its roots in radical counter-cultural reform activism in the 1960s. Its innovative legal structure has enabled a diverse range of policy approaches to be possible over the last 50 years. Future drug law reform efforts need to broaden out from a narrow focus on law and also to engage more seriously with the politics of drug law and policy.
Drawing on the inter-disciplinary field of regulation studies leads to novel insights about the politics and practice of drug law reform.
Source: Drugs and Alcohol Today - Category: Addiction Authors: Toby Seddon Source Type: research