'It is a pleasure to write a foreword for a book which is both well educated and helpfully structured. It is a double pleasure to find it gives credence to Australian research and policy discussion in a field so often dominated by the American literature.

While intended primarily for students of the addictions, its straightforward presentation makes it accessible to the reading public interested, if not also involved, in this topical area.

As the authors themselves acknowledge, the treatment is not intended to be exhaustive; nonetheless the book addresses most of the controversial areas while dealing with five drugs in some detail. The use of an anecdote or scenario at the beginning of each chapter serves to draw the reader in and grounds the discussion in what is familiar.

The explanatory model adopted is one which accords importance to the properties of the drug, the characteristics of the user, and the environment in which use occurs. It follows from such a model that strategies emphasising the control of supply, demand reduction, and harm minimisation are all considered relevant and their complementary use encouraged.

The book's sub-title A Delicate Balance might have been rendered A Balanced Approach, since this is the book's central message – that drug use is a complex phenomenon requiring a complex and diverse response if harmful use is to be avoided'.

Foreword to the book, by David Hawks, Emeritus Professor of Addiction Studies, Curtin University.