This is a study on narcotics control. The analysis focuses on public decision-making and legislative processes rather than on the patterns and characteristics of the non-medical drug consumption. As such, it evolved around the theoretical discussion about the relationship between the strategies adopted on narcotics control and the nature of the addiction problem, with specific emphasis upon an understanding of the generation of mechanisms and processes of social control.
The study suggests that intra-state variables are of little relevance in explaining the enactment and evolution of the Greek laws on cannabis and narcotics. Archival research has made it clear that domestic laws directed at regulating cannabis were a by-product of inter-state rivalries rather than intra-state conflicts. They did not originate as a response to an internal problem, but as a consequence of inter-state negotiations between Greece and Egypt with the profound involvement of British diplomats safeguarding British and Egyptian interests. On the other hand, legislation on narcotics was introduced, formulated and developed foremost in response to pressures eχercised by international organisations such as the League and the United Nations, and in compliance with decisions taken by international conferences or included in international conventions. Intra-state variables were implicated in shaping the content of domestic controls inasmuch as they did not breach international decisions or bilateral agreements. In eχplaining the content of Greek drug control policies in terms of inter-relationships between eχternal pressures and and/or treaty obligations and domestic interests, an analytical framework is provided which accounts for the specific development of narcotics controls by Greek rule-creating institutions in response to external factors rather than internal problems.
In view of recent developments and subsequent theorisations of the globalisation of interational law or, else, the renewed interest on the internalisation of supra-notional leal regimes and the role of the nation-state in the dawn of the 2st century, this study may contribute to an understanding of the dynamic, historically rooted, interplay of inter-state and intra-state mechanisms of social control, more generally.


Η θεματική του βιβλίου αναφέρεται στο "ζήτημα" των ναρκωτικών. Η ανάλυση επικεντρώνεται στη δημόσια διαδικασία λήψης αποφάσεων και τους νομοθετικούς μηχανισμούς ελέγχου, μάλλον, παρά σ' αυτά τα ίδια τα χαρακτηριστικά της μη-ιατρικά επιβεβλημένης χρήσης εξαρτησιογόνων ουσιών. Ως εκ τούτου, το βάρος της θεωρητικής διαπραγμάτευσης του θέματος αφορά την επιστημονική συζήτηση για τη σχέση ανάμεσα στις διεθνείς και εθνικές στρατηγικές αντιμετώπισης των "ναρκωτικών" και τη "φύση" του προβλήματος της εξάρτησης σε συγκεκριμένο κοινωνικοϊστορικό πλαίσιο με έμφαση στην κατανόηση των όρων δημιουργίας και ενεργοποίησης των νομοθετικών μηχανισμών και στρατηγικών ελέγχου του ζητήματος.