The Geographies of Intoxicants: From Production and Consumption to Regulation, Treatment and Prevention

As social geographers of health, we wish to review the field of geography and intoxicants. By intoxicants, we mean substances that have psychoactive, consciousness-altering effects. This article defines the geography of intoxicants, and provides a selective review of geographically inclined research that has focused on (i) the consumption of intoxicants, especially its regulation within public spaces, (ii) intoxicants and public health, especially concerns over the spread of communicable diseases associated with drug use, and (iii) social geography issues such as the life experiences of addiction and users, and how treatment (and prevention) and place intersect. Part of our goal in this article is to bridge the gap between the more political and medical foci with more social and health perspectives that have thus far remained understated.