30 research outputs found
Drug policy constellations: A Habermasian approach for understanding English drug policy
Background:
It is increasingly accepted that a view of policy as a rational process of fitting evidence-based means to rationally justified ends is inadequate for understanding the actual processes of drug policy making. We aim to provide a better description and explanation of recent English drug policy decisions.
Method:
We develop the policy constellation concept from the work of Habermas, in dialogue with data from two contemporary debates in English policy; on decriminalisation of drug possession and on recovery in drug treatment. We collect data on these debates through long-term participant observation, stakeholder interviews (n=15) and documentary analysis.
Results:
We show the importance of social asymmetries in power in enabling structurally advantaged groups to achieve the institutionalisation of their moral preferences as well as the reproduction of their social and economic power through the deployment of policies that reflect their material interests and normative beliefs. The most influential actors in English drug policy come together in a ‘medico-penal constellation’, in which the aims and practices of public health and social control overlap. Formal decriminalisation of possession has not occurred, despite the efforts of members of a challenging constellation which supports it. Recovery was put forward as the aim of drug treatment by members of a more powerfully connected constellation. It has been absorbed into the practice of ‘recovery-oriented’ drug treatment in a way that maintains the power of public health professionals to determine the form of treatment.
Conclusion:
Actors who share interests and norms come together in policy constellations. Strategic action within and between constellations creates policies that may not take the form that was intended by any individual actor. These policies do not result from purely rational deliberation, but are produced through ‘systematically distorted communication’. They enable the most structurally favoured actors to institutionalise their own normative preferences and structural positions
European drug laws The room for manoeuvre; the full report of a comparative legal research into national drug laws of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden and their relation to three international drug conventions
SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m01/40021 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
First steps in identifying young people's substance related needs
Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the InternetAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:m03/15033 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
Taking care with drugs Responding to substance use among looked after children
Includes bibliographical referencesAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:m03/30651 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
Vulnerable young people and drugs Opportunities to tackle inequalities
SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:7755.07769(2) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
Assessing local need Planning services for young people
SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m02/23494 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
Opportunities for drug and alcohol education in the school curriculum
Written for the Drug and Alcohol Education and Prevention TeamAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m01/27015 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
Alcohol Support and guidance for schools
Written for the Drug and Alcohol Education Prevention TeamAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m02/11891 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo