Back cover blurb: How are drugs – as treatments and medicines; potential sources of dependence; and modes of disease transmission – governed by international agencies? What role did medical experts – such as a global network of pharmacology experts, public health specialists and clinical practitioners – play? From the 1961 Single Convention to the global AIDS crisis, Boundaries tells the story of the World Health Organization's efforts to globally govern substances between UN mandates for international health and drug control. Often described as a secondary technical expert, the book shows instead how central the organization has been throughout the years.

 

Boundaries applies a global health history perspective to uncover the complex politics bubbling under the surface of recent domestic and transnational crises, such as the rise in opioid overdose deaths and periodic resurgences of HIV through injecting drugs outbreaks. First, it shows that at the heart of the push and pull at UN drug organs between supply, demand and harm reduction approaches hinged upon a critical question: drugs and disease were not easy to define, govern and intervene upon. Second, the book highlights how the story of global drugs governance is truly global. From addiction to synthetic opioids in 1960 Japan to Edinburgh’s HIV through injecting drugs epidemic in 1983, WHO became a clearinghouse for the diverse spectrum of national response to addiction.

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Related Media

 

'Governing Drugs Globally: The World Health Organization and Public Health in International Drug Control,' The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 36: 1 (ahead of print, 2022)

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'Addiction Experts and Pharmacology Consultants: WHO and International Drug-Health Diplomacy in Thailand and India, 1961-1980,' British Journal for the History of Science: Special Issue on 'Asia in Histories of Science Diplomacy,' edited by Aya Homei and Gordon Barrett (minor revisions)

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'Scotland in WHO's Drugs and HIV Interventions: 1970s Dundee and Aberdeen as Global Models,' Scottish Centre for Global History Blog (in development)

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Brocher Foundation Researcher Interview: Reiko Kanazawa, Research Fellow, History of Medicine

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Points Interview: Dr Reiko Kanazawa, Points (5 May 2022)

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'Remembering Edinburgh's AIDS Experience During COVID-19', The Polyphony (5 July 2021)

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'Scotland in the Global: HIV thru Injecting Drugs and Beyond' Mini-workshop series (hosted by the University of Edinburgh): 7, 14, and 21 April 2021

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