What drives British drug policies?

This paper identifies four broad types of influence which have contributed to the dynamics of British drug policy development over many decades: international influences, varieties of fear, professional entrepreneurship, and the perceived tension between treatment and control. A follow-through of these same themes to current policy concerns is traced. The need to develop a comparative and international framework for policy analysis is stressed. Policy research, it is argued, deserves to be given greater attention as the necessary means toward a more informed sense of feasibilities and policy options.