Democratic politics and drug law reform

Abstract

Abstract In the second of two chapters examining the politics of the ‘drug question’, this chapter explores what a ‘better’ politics of drugs would look like and how we might achieve it. It examines different approaches to normative thinking (propositions about how the world should be) and reviews the debate on ‘public social science’. It then considers ways in which drug politics could be democratised, not only through creating more spaces for democratic deliberation but also by ‘thinking democratically’ in a broader sense. It goes on to argue for the necessity of developing a cosmopolitan vision of politics which moves beyond Western-centrism. It concludes by summarising what has been learned across this pair of chapters, suggesting the need to amplify the voices of those who most directly experience the punitive edge of prohibition especially in the Global South.