Drugs, law, people, place and the state: ongoing regulation, resistance and change

Abstract

We introduce this special issue firstly by tracing drugs from their traditional, cultural and religious uses through to their roles as commodities in colonial relations and now the global economy. We secondly explore the shifting nature of drugs and drug use in different places and times as shaped by politics, especially state regulation and the law. Thirdly, given the complexity as well as contingency of drugs, we survey a wide range of relevant theoretical approaches, but suggest that a critical analysis attend to their spatial framing and geography. Fourthly, and finally, we summarize the eight papers comprising this collection.

Keywords:

• drugs
• geography
• law

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Stewart Williams is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Environmental Planning at the University of Tasmania. His research on the geographies of risk, regulation and resilience examines housing and homelessness, climate change and disaster management, and drugs and drug use.

Barney Warf is Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas. His research in human geography combines contemporary political economy and social theory with traditional quantitative, empirical approaches for investigating the construction of space and place.