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This book goes beyond the traditional approaches to drug use and discusses the issue from a societal perspective, integrating contributions from different disciplines such as psychology, public health, anthropology, law, public policies and sociology to address specifically the social aspects of the phenomenon. Given its complexity, drug use demands a multidisciplinary approach from many different perspectives, but despite the vast literature about the topic, the majority of the books are restricted either to a purely medical perspective (focused mainly on treatment techniques) or to a criminological perspective (focused mainly on drug trafficking and organized crime).
The social approach adopted in this volume challenges this dichotomy and analyzes both the social contexts to which drug use is related and the social and political consequences of the attitudes and policies adopted by governments and other social groups towards drug users, addressing topics such as:

Drugs and poverty
Drugs and gender
Drugs and race
Drugs and territory
Stigmatization of drug use
Prohibitionism
Given its broad and innovative approach, Drugs and Social Context - Social Perspectives on the Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs will be of interest for researchers, clinicians and other health professionals, since the study of the social aspects of drug use is central to everyone who deals with the issue.

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Section 1. Drugs and Society.- Chapter 1.The context of drug use in the consumer society.- Chapter 2. The stigmatization of drug use as mechanism of legitimation of exclusion.- Chapter 3. Social Effects of Prohibitionism in the Americas and New Drug Policies.- Section 2. Social Issues.- Chapter 4.Drugs and Poverty: interfaces of oppression in the capitalist world.- Chapter 5.Drugs and Gender.- Chapter 6. Drugs and Race.- Chapter 7. (Des)Occupation of urban and rural spaces, gentrification and drug use.

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Telmo Mota Ronzani is a professor of the Department of Psychology at the Federal University of Juiz Fora, Brazil. Dr. Ronzani holds a PhD in Sciences from the Federal University of SÆo Paulo and is an international expert in the area of alcohol and other drugs. He has published 6 books, 43 chapters and 101 scientific papers in the field, is an ad hoc advisor to the Brazilian government in the drug policy area and works as a collaborator and assessor of international organisms on drugs such as World Health Organization, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Inter-American Drug Control Commission (CICAD).

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