Individual sections focus on the basic issues related to drug abuse, its socially problematic nature, the social policies suggested in the current debate on the drug problem in the United States, the current literature on crack cocaine use and distribution, crack distribution from an organizational perspective, and how the business of drug distribution can be seen as an emerging and evolutionary social phenomenon. Additional sections present a historical perspective on drug control policies, female drug offenders, the handling of female drug abusers in the criminal justice and health systems, and gender and ethnicity influences on narcotics use and criminal behavior during the addiction career. Further chapters describe drug treatment techniques, nontraditional theories of drug addiction and treatment, physicians' drug-related misconduct, the relationship between drug abuse and AIDS, and decriminalization. Figures, tables, and chapter notes and reference lists