Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 3: Historical Perspectives of Drug Use in Asia
Chapter 4: Harm Reduction is Good Public Health
Chapter 5: Human Rights and Drug Policy
Chapter 6: Drug Users and Imprisonment
Chapter 7: Law Enforcement and Drug Policy in Southeast Asia
Chapter 8: Effective Development and Effective Drug Control are Interdependent: the example of Southeast Asia
Chapter 9: Illicit drug policy in Southeast Asia – The Users’ Perspective
Chapter 10: Harm Reduction: The Islamic Perspective
Chapter 11: HIV and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infection among People who Inject Drugs in East and Southeast Asia
Chapter 12: Unpacking Compulsory ‘Rehabilitation’ in Asia: Problems and Possible Solutions
Chapter 13: Responding to ATS use in East and Southeast Asia
Chapter 14: Case Study No. 1: Harm Reduction and Drug Policy in Thailand – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Chapter 15: Case Study No. 2: Drug Policy in Taiwan
Chapter 16: Case Study No. 3: Emerging from a Black Box: Drug Policymaking in Vietnam
Chapter 17: Case Study No. 4: Drug Policy in China
Chapter 18: Case Study No. 5: Compulsory Drug Rehabilitation in China
Chapter 19: Alternatives to Criminal Justice: Drug Courts, Drug Diversion, and Decriminalisation
Chapter 20: Capital Punishment for Drug Offences
Chapter 21: Drug Treatment Across Asia
Chapter 22: The Way Forward

About the Author

Fifa Rahman is policy manager at the Malaysian AIDS Council.

Nick Crofts is director of the Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health.

Reviews

Punitive drug policies have done enormous harm to drug users and their neighbors all over the world. These policies have been particularly vicious in some parts of East and Southeast Asia. This has resulted in massive HIV and hepatitis epidemics in many countries. Fifa Rahman and Nick Croft’s Drug Law Reform in East and Southeast Asia is a wonderfully insightful overview of these policies and their effects—as well as presenting alternative policies and evidence that these alternative policies do much less damage than punitive approaches. They do this by presenting a range of articles by leading professionals, a chapter on drug user activists’ perspectives on drug policy, and a chapter on Islamic approaches. All in all, this is a useful and lovely book.
*Sam Friedman, Institute of Infectious Disease Research*

This expansive volume successfully combines expert analysis with policy recommendations to provide a timely and much-needed overview of drug markets and policy responses in East and Southeast Asia. It is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the complexities of drug policy in a region where shifts in attitude have taken place but where further drug law reform remains overdue.
*David Bewley-Taylor, Swansea University*

A timely and comprehensive review of drug policy issues which moves beyond ideology and calls for a complete reexamination of existing practices in the Asia region. The authors provide clear guidance as to why existing policies have failed based on detailed case studies of key countries, and propose a new approach to drugs that is based on human rights within a framework of public health. Essential reading for anyone interested in drug policy issues and how best to respond.
*Desmond Cohen, Former Director of UNDP's HIV and Development Programme*