Books and eBooks

Writing Public Policy is a practical, concise guide to writing and communicating in public policy processes. Designed to help students understand and perform common types of communication used in solving public problems, this text explains the standards and functions of communicating in the public sector and teaches the use of selected public policy communication genres. Catherine F. Smith presents a general method for planning, producing, and assessing communications in a variety of real-life contexts and situations of public policy work.

This book is a comprehensive and clinically objective review of drug abuse and addiction in Australia. The book comprises a series of stories told through the eyes of drug addicts, their families, healthcare professionals, policy makers and legislators, law enforcement officials and researchers. It traces the history of drugs of dependence, community and government responses; the misuse of various prescriptions and other legally available pharmaceuticals and their impacts on society at large: including crime, societal dislocation, road and other trauma - Cost of law enforcement, criminal justice, healthcare and workforce productivity

Surveys administered to high school students, studies carried out on jail and prison inmates, and interviews conducted with substance abusers undergoing treatment all point to the same conclusion: drugs and crime are strongly connected. This book examines the entire drug-crime spectrum, starting with a review of drug and crime terminology, classification and theory, and ending with policy implications for prevention, harm reduction, and macro-level management of the drug-crime problem.

This book attempts to answer several questions raised in current drug policy debates. Developing cost-effective drug programs and policies require a sound knowledge of drug users and their characteristics and the relationship across drugs. Who are the drug users? Can demographic factors help towards predicting drug usage? What sub-population groups should be targeted for drug campaigns and educational programs? Can a drug policy aimed at discouraging the use of one drug likely affect the use of other drugs which are its economic substitutes or complements? What are the implications of drug use?

The Drug Effect: Health, Crime and Society offers new perspectives on critical debates in the field of alcohol and other drug use. Drawing together work by respected scholars in Australia, the US, the UK and Canada, it explores social and cultural meanings of drug use and analyses law enforcement and public health frameworks and objectives related to drug policy and service provision.

Drugs and Public Health combines the history of drug policy and practice in Australia with an overview of the current state of play. The book summarizes existing public health responses to drug-related harm, and identifies emerging innovations in policy and practice. Uniting ideas, evidence, experience, and innovative case studies with theory and practice, the book reframes and further develops the story of Australia's response to the use of psychoactive substances, and guides future policy and program developers in reviewing and challenging existing drug strategies.