We are living in a drug-saturated world. An estimated 185 million people, or 3.1 percent of the world's population, consume illicit drugs globally while the numbers consuming prescribed and over-the-counter drugs is growing apace.

The last century has witnessed the criminalisation of some drug production and this criminalisation has not been an arbitrary process. Racism, xenophobia and the fear of the other have underpinned the way in which decisions were made about which drugs were criminalised. War has been declared on illicit drugs and this war has become enmeshed with the war on terrorism. Such proscription has not, however, reduced the demand or the supply.

This book examines the factors that drive demand and consumption and concludes that both have much in common. There is enormous divergence between countries, societies and individuals as to how best to respond to this dramatic increase. This book examines many of these contesting perceptions and the political and ideological struggles that underpin them.

It concludes that, irrespective of one's own response and ideology, there is general recognition that the centuries-old desire for psychoactive substances, whether as an act of desperation or celebration, will always remain part of the human condition and all the military might in the world will not change that.