Bin Liang

co-author of China's Drug Practices and Policies: Regulating Controlled Substances in a Global Context

November 4, 2015

Bin Liang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. He received his Ph.D. and J.D. from Arizona State University. He has published a number of articles on studies related to crime and the legal system in China. He is also the author of two new books, titled The Changing Chinese Legal System, 1978 - Present: Centralization of Power and Rationalization of the Legal System with Routledge (2008) and China's Drug Practices and Policies: Regulating Controlled Substances in a Global Context with Ashgate (2009). His current research interests include globalization and its impact on the Chinese legal system, crime and deviance in China, and the drug court in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

In the context of global efforts to control the production, distribution, and use of narcotic drugs, China's treatment of the problem provides an important means of understanding the social, political, and economic limits of national and international policies to regulate drug practices. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, China was known for its national addiction to opium, but its drug-eradication campaigns from the 1950s to the 1970s achieved unprecedented success that ultimately transformed China into a 'drug-free' society. Since the economic reforms and open-door policy of the late twentieth century, however, China is now facing a re-emergence of the production, use, and trafficking of narcotic drugs. Employing case studies and a comparative historical approach, and drawing on a variety of data sources including historical records, official crime data only recently made available, and news reports, China's Drug Practices and Policies is the first English-language publication to provide such a comprehensive documentation and analysis of the nature of China's legal regulation of controlled substances. The authors also offer theoretical approaches for studying drug regulation, aspects of drug consumption cultures, the socio-political treatment of drugs during various historical periods, and ongoing efforts to legislate drug trade, criminalize drug use, and manage the drug addict population within national and international contexts.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2010-honorees/bin-liang

Last Updated: 14 January 2021