Hi,

thought this was worth passing on, looks very interesting!

S

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From:   Celeste Wincapaw[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]


University and Toronto Press and Women in Print Bookstore are hosting a
book launch to celebrate the publication of _Mothers and Illicit Drugs:
Transcending the Myths_, by Susan Boyd. It will be held on Tuesday, April
13th, 7 p.m., at Women in Print, 3566 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC.

_Mothers and Illicit Drugs_ is the first in-depth study in Canada to look at
how mothers who use illicit drugs regard the laws, medical practices, and
social services that intervene in their lives.

Focusing on practices in western Canada, Susan C. Boyd argues that licit
and illicit drug categories are artificial and dangerous and that the
evidence for neonatal syndrome (NAS) is suspect and ideologically driven.
She shows that women of colour and poor women are treated much more harshly
by authorities, that current regulations erode women's civil liberties, and
that social control is the aim of drug policy and law. The study highlights
mothers' views of the NAS program at Sunny Hill Hospital for Children in
Vancouver.

Writing from a critical feminist perspective, Boyd exposes some surprising
social fictions - those that separate 'good' and 'bad' drugs, as they do
'good' and 'bad' mothers.

SUSAN C. BOYD is Assistant Professor, School of Criminology,
Simon Fraser University.

For further information, please call (604) 732-4128
or (416) 978-2239 ext. 248.