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This book is the outcome of the curiosity of several social drug researchers about how drug policies emerge and spread into many and often surprising areas of social life. In their effort to satisfy this curiosity, some of the researchers taking part have set up projects to do research on drug policy or included drug policy as an important topic in their ongoing research. How does international drug policy take local forms? What are the practical and ideological implications when national drug policies change? How should we approach the drug field as social scientists? How can we understand the processes that transform policies into social life? Questions like these have forced the authors to make choices as well as rethinking drug policy as a field of study. The aim of drug policy is usually perceived as the regulation of drugs, comprising drug control, treatment, prevention, and/or harm reduction. The authors show that studying these different elements as interrelated areas instead of separate areas leads to important insights into the drug research field in general.

All the authors but one are (or have been) employed at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Denmark, and have a professional background in anthropology, criminology, or sociology. All the empirical examples but one are also from Denmark. The last contribution is from the US. The opportunity to explore differences and compare research between a welfare society like Denmark and the US (which is the world’s leading drug policy maker) has been important to all the authors. We should like to thank the Faculty of Social Sciences, Aarhus University, for making it possible to discuss and exchange experiences across the Atlantic by supporting a seminar on drug policy held in Århus in April 2007.

The book has received financial support from Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond (the Aarhus University Research Fund) and Forsknings- og innovationsstyrelsen (the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation). We are thankful for this support, which made the book possible.

Finally, we thank all the peer reviewers who willingly took upon them to read and criticize the articles. Their comments and constructive advices have made them all better.

Århus, September 2008 Vibeke Asmussen Frank, Bagga Bjerge & Esben Houborg.