Basic drug issues are introduced that concern drug abuse and dependence, drug control and the drug war, drug effects, and drug law enforcement. Six book sections focus on the general headings of drugs and the drug war in context, the link between drugs and crime, the drug industry, policing drugs, the courts and drugs, and the drug criminalization debate. Specific book chapters discuss opium, cocaine, and marijuana in American history; racism and the drug crisis; and the media and the construction of random drug violence. Additionally, book chapters cover drug-crime relationships, prostitutes on crack cocaine, the social structure of street drug dealing, proactive policing against drug trafficking, the military as drug police, drug courts, drug offenders, and drug legalization. References, notes, tables, and figures