This handbook provides a comprehensive examination of the past and present roles of drugs in society with a focus on theory, research, policy, and practice.

• Includes 28 original chapters with multi-disciplinary and international perspectives by top social and behavioral scientists
• Reviews current knowledge in the field, including key research findings, theoretical developments, and methodological debates
• Identifies ongoing controversies in the field, emergent topics, and areas in need of further inquiry
• Discusses individual drugs as well as topics like physiological theories of drug use and abuse, public health implications of drugs, patterns of drugs and crime, international drug trade and trafficking, and designer drugs

Henry H. Brownstein is a Senior Fellow in the Substance Abuse, Mental Health, and Criminal Justice Studies Department at NORC- at the University of Chicago, USA and Professor and Director of the Center for Public Policy at the Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. He is the author of several books, including The Methamphetamine Industry in America: Transnational Cartels and Local Entrepreneurs (2014), Contemporary Drug Policy (2013), and The Social Reality of Violence and Violent Crime (2000).