Key concepts in drugs and society, by Ross Coomber, Karen McElrath, Fiona Measham, & Karenza Moore

This book in the SAGE Key Concepts series is aimed primarily at a student readership and, unlike more positivistic texts (such as Miller and Carroll, 2006) which purport to summarise empirical research findings and draw out explicit policy lessons from these accumulated findings, its intention is to introduce students to the conceptual complexity of this field. As is the wont of social scientists, the authors of the book under review are quite happy to acknowledge the essentially contested nature of the issues being discussed and to expose as fallacies many popular beliefs about drugs and drug users – without feeling any necessity to offer their readers definitive answers or prescriptive policy suggestions. While the book draws mainly on European and North American literature, it does attempt a more global coverage of drug-related issues and contains some discussion of cross-cultural and traditional drug use patterns. It should be pointed out that despite its title, the book also deals with licit drugs, including alcohol and tobacco.

The text consists of 41 topics or areas of interest which the authors have grouped under three main headings: 1) types of drugs and patterns of use; 2) drug effects; and 3) drug policy, treatment and perceptions of the drug problem. Academics who read and use the book are likely to spend some time wondering whether this is how they would have organised the text had they been the authors. This reviewer conceded quite quickly that he could not improve on the approach taken by Coomber and his colleagues! In general, the authors’ presentation of this vast amount of material is lucid, up-to-date and very student-friendly. The 41 topics vary somewhat in length, but each begins with a boxed summary and ends with a list of references; it is also helpful, given the inevitability of overlap between the themes presented, that there is a system of cross-referencing between topics. It would be impossible in a review such as this to comment on all the topics dealt with in the book; suffice it to say that between them they present a comprehensive account of the entire field of social science drug research. Old friends, such as moral panic and the gateway hypothesis, sit alongside more recent arrivals, such as the new recovery movement and drugs in sports; and perennial policy debates, such as those referring to global drug prohibition regimes and the possibility of radical reform of these regimes, are given a good airing.

Academics may disagree with some interpretations or conclusions in the coverage of certain topics, which is not surprising given the controversial nature of the book's subject matter. Similarly, they may cavil about the omission of favourite authors or texts: how, for instance, could Coomber and colleagues discuss the question of disinhibition as ‘time-out’ in the context of drug-related violence without referring to MacAndrew and Edgerton's (1969) classic Drunken Comportment? If they are honest, however, these same academics will acknowledge the value of this book and the fact that it introduces them to many new authors and texts, so it is not only undergraduate students who will benefit from dipping into it. There may still be academic purists who regard this Key Concepts text as unhelpful: a form of academic spoon-feeding which infantilises students and makes them disinclined to read the primary research referenced here. There may even be cynical academics who, by not ordering library copies or putting it on reading lists, hope to keep the book's existence a secret from students, while simultaneously drawing heavily on it for the purpose of planning their own teaching! In the opinion of this reviewer, Coomber and his colleagues have done well: this is an excellent text which should prove useful to third-level teachers and their students for years to come.

Shane Butler

School of Social Work & Social Policy

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Email: [email protected]