Drugs: Policy and Practice in Health and Social Care

Depicting Scottish drugs policy and practice over a thirty year period to 2011 the authors use Scotland as a case study of how modern drugs policy evolved in a small country with liberal traditions and the highest rates of substance use problems in Europe. Scottish policy can been seen either as a failure, since illicit drugs have spread everywhere in Scotland despite the country's lack of natural illicit drug resources, or as a success, as anti-drug policies have become relatively humane and are oriented towards helping people with substance use problems, rather than merely trying to eradicate drug use.