ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an innovative approach to the various subjects and adopts a holistic approach to the study of illegal and legal drugs in society. Drugs and alcohol are also health issues, yet criminology usually overlooks the significance of health as a factor in both influencing as well as reflecting the lives and behaviours of people. Drugs and alcohol have been the subjects of varying forms of control. Their histories diverge from the early twentieth century, with alcohol largely remaining legal while drugs such as cannabis and opium became illegal. Western nations have generally had similar histories of drug control policy, even if types and patterns of drug use may have varied. A counter-argument is that legal drugs are widely available, illegal drugs are not: the health, social and crime-related consequences of the widespread legal availability of drugs are therefore unknown.
