The politics of drug control

Abstract

Abstract In the first of two chapters examining the politics of the ‘drug question’, this chapter explores how we can understand what exactly is at stake when drugs and drug control become matters of political contestation. Using concepts drawn from political science, it argues that rather than the politicisation of drugs being a barrier to drug law reform efforts, a serious engagement with politics and ideology is essential to finding better ways of regulating drugs. The drug question is ineluctably political. The chapter concludes by arguing that surfacing the politics of drug control in this way highlights the need to understand law and policy not simply as technical solutions to social problems but also as about competing visions of the ‘good society’.