TY - JOUR
T1 - The regulation of nicotine in the United Kingdom: how nicotine gum came to be a medicine but not a drug
AU - Rooke, Catriona
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - This article explores the utility of actor-network theory (ANT) as a tool for socio-legal research. ANT is deployed in a study of the evolution of divided regulatory responsibility for tobacco and medicinal nicotine (MN) products in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on how the latter came to be regulated as a medicine. We examine the regulatory decisions taken in the United Kingdom in respect of the first MN product: a nicotine-containing gum developed in Sweden, which became available in the United Kingdom in 1980 as a prescription-only medicine under the Medicines Act 1968. We propose that utilizing ANT to explore the development of nicotine gum and the regulatory decisions taken about it places these decisions into the wider context of ideas about tobacco control and addiction, and helps us to understand better how different material actors acted in different networks, leading to very different systems of regulation.
AB - This article explores the utility of actor-network theory (ANT) as a tool for socio-legal research. ANT is deployed in a study of the evolution of divided regulatory responsibility for tobacco and medicinal nicotine (MN) products in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on how the latter came to be regulated as a medicine. We examine the regulatory decisions taken in the United Kingdom in respect of the first MN product: a nicotine-containing gum developed in Sweden, which became available in the United Kingdom in 1980 as a prescription-only medicine under the Medicines Act 1968. We propose that utilizing ANT to explore the development of nicotine gum and the regulatory decisions taken about it places these decisions into the wider context of ideas about tobacco control and addiction, and helps us to understand better how different material actors acted in different networks, leading to very different systems of regulation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857316440&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2012.00569.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2012.00569.x
M3 - Article
SN - 0263-323X
VL - 39
SP - 39
EP - 57
JO - Journal of Law and Society
JF - Journal of Law and Society
IS - 1
ER -