Drugs In Africa

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Description

Africa has very recently emerged as a focal point of the global War on Drugs, as international drug control agencies warn of the continent's growing role as a distribution hub for cocaine and heroin, while also lamenting the prevalence of cannabis and alcohol commerce and use, especially among African youths.

Both illegal drugs and legal substances such as alcohol are increasingly tied to broader economic and public health issues including unemployment, criminality, family disintegration, and HIV infection. Notwithstanding this growing alarm, there is relatively little serious scholarship addressing the issue of drugs in Africa.

This cutting-edge volume is the first to address the burgeoning interest in drugs and Africa among scholars, policymakers, and the general public: no other book offers an Africa-wide analysis of the subject. It brings together an interdisciplinary group of leading academics and practitioners to explore the use, trade, production, and control of mind-altering substances on the continent, from heroin and cannabis to alcohol and khat.

In particular, it examines the tension between integrative social practices and socially disruptive vices, revealing these categories to be largely arbitrary and tools of social control. Review: Research on psychoactive substance use in Africa is a fast developing field and this volume has ably redressed the oft-expressed concern about the lack of information on the subject.

Thanks to Klantschnig, Carrier, and Ambler and a group of highly experienced contributors, scholars on Africa, the general reader and policy makers now have a ready reference to the literature on the impact of drugs and alcohol use in Africa. - Isidore S. Obot, Professor of Psychology, University of Uyo, Nigeria, and Director, Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA) Drugs in Africa traces Africans' shifting, often surprising, uses of alcohol, cannabis, khat, heroin, and pharmaceutical drugs, commonly acquired through clandestine markets.

Though always sensitive to local context and culture, the contributors--expert on history, anthropology, politics, and public health--tackle two global issues: the social dimension of drug abuse and addiction and the fraught relationship between governments and drug entrepreneurs. The world's drug policy dilemmas are increasingly Africa's dilemmas, and they are depicted here in sharp relief. - David T.

Courtwright, Presidential Professor of History, University of North Florida, USA, and author of Forces of Habit (2002)