Dr Ian OLIVER has an unusually extensive knowledge about the global drug problem gained from 37 years as a police officer, over eight years as an independent consultant to the United Nations Drug Control Programme, extensive research and membership of international expert committees. He has travelled widely and has helped to establish Drug Control Agencies in the former Soviet Republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, reviewed drug policies in Asia and the Middle and Far East and has advised on diverse projects in numerous countries. He has also visited the major drug producing areas of Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Latin America and has taken time out to stay at a Therapeutic Community for drug dependent people in Brazil. Additionally he was the International Vice President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and was twice elected President of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland. He is a graduate in Law and holds a Masters degree in Law/Social Science from the University of Nottingham and has a doctorate in Public Administration from the University of Strathclyde. He has written extensively on the drug problem and how it affects everyone in ways that are not commonly realised.
His most recent book “Drug Affliction” is easily read and understood and gives the kind of information that everyone should know about the facts and mythology surrounding the most common drugs of abuse. It is both valuable and essential reading because it addresses some of the populist arguments that suggest that “the war on drugs has been lost and so all drugs should be legalised”; it gives the facts about so-called medical cannabis and it describes how the superficially attractive sounding policy of “harm reduction” has been hi-jacked in the most cynical way by those who seek to legalise drugs. It is not a text book in the classical sense but has been written for anyone, either the professionals who need knowledge about drugs in their daily work or the concerned private person who is worried about family members and the effects that drugs may have on their lives. This book reveals the mystery about drugs and enables all who read it to understand the issues and engage in informed discussions about a subject that has presented us with one of the most damaging and enduring social problems ever to confront the human race.
Author: Dr Ian Oliver
Publisher: The Robert Gordon University (1 Dec 2006)
ISBN: 1901085880
