| 1. |
- Soussan, Christophe, et al.
(författare)
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The users of Novel Psychoactive Substances: Online survey about their characteristics, attitudes and motivations
- 2016
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Ingår i: International journal on drug policy. - elsevier : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 32, s. 77-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The increasing number of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) constitutes a challenge for public health agencies and researchers worldwide. Scientific studies about NPS and their users are limited and there is a need to explore the general motivations for NPS use but also to examine if and how the motivations differ between substances from separate effect classes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics, including attitudes and motivations, of a self-selected sample of international NPS users.Methods: An online survey containing questions about drug use history, attitudes, motivations for use, and WHO-5 Wellbeing Index was promoted at the drug discussion forum bluelight.org. The data was analysed using SPSS. Results: The sample consisted of 619 international NPS users with overall good emotional well-being despite extensive experience of both traditional and novel drugs. The main incentive for use of NPS in general was pleasure and enjoyment. However, going beyond the general approach to NPS revealed significant variations between drug groups. For example, the use of hallucinogens was substantially motivated by self-exploration and spiritual attainment and showed very low levels of addiction potential while the use of opioids and especially GABA activating substances was mainly motivated by coping and showed much higher levels of addiction potential. Synthetic cannabinoids were the least appreciated and least likely to be used again, and were mainly motivated by circumstances such as availability and legality.Conclusion: Understanding the different motivations for NPS use in terms of drug groups could enable more effective prevention and consequently a reduction in harm.
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| 2. |
- Alawa, J., et al.
(författare)
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Medication for opioid use disorder in the Arab World: A systematic review
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Drug Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a global public health concern. The standard of care for OUD involves treatment using medications such as buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone. No known review exists to assess the contextual factors associated with medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in the Arab World. This systematic review serves as an implementation science study to address this research gap and improve the uptake of MOUD in the Arab World. Methods: Systematic searches of Medline, PsycINFO, and EMBASE, and a citation analysis, were used to identify peer-reviewed articles with original data on MOUD in the Arab World. Quality assessment was conducted using the CASP appraisal tools, and main findings were extracted and coded according to the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Results: 652 research articles were identified, and 10 met inclusion criteria for final review. Four studies considered health-systems aspects of MOUD administration, such as cost-effectiveness, the motivations for and impact of national MOUD policies, the types of social, political, and scientific advocacy that led to the adoption of MOUD in Arab countries, and the challenges limiting its wide-scale adoption in the Arab World. Six papers considered MOUD at individual and group patient levels by evaluating patient quality of life, addiction severity, patient satisfaction, and patient perspectives on opioid agonist therapy. Conclusion: Despite financial and geographic barriers that limit access to MOUD in the Arab World, this review found MOUD to be cost-effective and associated with positive health outcomes for OUD patients in the Arab World. MOUD can be successfully established and scaled to the national level in the Arab context, and strong coalitions of health practitioners can lobby to establish MOUD programs in Arab countries. Still, the relative novelty of MOUD in this context precludes an abundance of research to address its long-term delivery in the Arab World. © 2022
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| 3. |
- Amundsen, Ellen J., et al.
(författare)
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Estimating incidence of problem drug use using the Horwitz-Thompson estimator - A new approach applied to people who inject drugs in Oslo 1985-2008
- 2016
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Ingår i: International journal on drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 27, s. 36-42
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The trend in the number of new problem drug users per year (incidence) is the most important measure for studying the diffusion of problem drug use. Due to sparse data sources and complicated statistical models, estimation of incidence of problem drug use is challenging. The aim of this study is to widen the palette of available methods and data types for estimating incidence of problem drug use over time, and for identifying the trends. Methods: This study presents a new method of incidence estimation, applied to people who inject drugs (PWID) in Oslo. The method took into account the transition between different phases of drug use progression - active use, temporary cessation, and permanent cessation. The Horwitz-Thompson estimator was applied. Data included 16 cross-sectional samples of problem drug users who reported their onset of injecting drug use. We explored variation in results for selected probable scenarios of parameter variation for disease progression, as well as the stability of the results based on fewer years of cross-sectional samples. Results: The method yielded incidence estimates of problem drug use, over time. When applied to people in Oslo who inject drugs, we found a significant reduction of incidence of 63% from 1985 to 2008. This downward trend was also present when the estimates were based on fewer surveys (five) and in the results of sensitivity analysis for likely scenarios of disease progression. Conclusion: This new method, which incorporates temporarily inactive problem drug users, may become a useful tool for estimating the incidence of problem drug use over time. The method may be less data intensive than other methods based on first entry to treatment and may be generalized to other groups of substance users. Further studies on drug use progression would improve the validity of the results.
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| 4. |
- Azim, T, et al.
(författare)
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Women, drugs and HIV
- 2015
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Ingår i: The International journal on drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-4758 .- 0955-3959. ; 2626 Suppl 1, s. S16-S21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 5. |
- Barrett, Damon, et al.
(författare)
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Child-centred harm reduction
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Drug Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 109
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Harm reduction has become increasingly influential in drug policy and practice, but has developed primarily around adult drug use. Theoretical, practical, ethical and legal issues pertaining to children and adolescents under the age of majority – both relating to their own use and the effects of drug use among parents or within the family – are less clear. This commentary proposes a sub-field of drug policy at the intersection of harm reduction and childhood which we refer to as ‘child-centred harm reduction’. We provide a definition and conceptual model, as well as illustrative questions that emerge through a child-centred harm reduction lens. Many people in different countries are already working on these kinds of issues, whose work needs greater recognition, analysis and support. In beginning to name and define this sub-field we hope to improve this situation, and inspire further international debate, collaboration, and innovation.
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| 6. |
- Bogren, Alexandra, 1976-
(författare)
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‘I don't think there are great sex differences there’ : Processes of discursive bridging and othering in a discussion of gendered norms related to alcohol, sexual behaviour, and aggression
- 2020
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Ingår i: International journal of drug policy. - : Elsevier. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 81
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Existing research indicates that sexual behaviour and aggression are particularly important to the reproduction of gendered drinking norms, both in the media and in face-to-face interaction. However, research has yet to understand in more detail the discursive processes whereby actors negotiate gendered norms related to alcohol, sexual behaviour, and aggression. This article examines how actors make symbolic distinctions between themselves and others in discussing alcohol, aggression, and sexual desire, and analyses the similarities and differences within and across gender that they identify in this process. Methods: The study relies on individual qualitative interviews with 25 Swedish women and men. To elicit participants’ normative positions, we used a newspaper article as a probe during the interviews. Results: Findings show that participants highlight similarities between women and men, and variation and individual differences among men and among women in discussing alcohol's effects on sexual desire and ‘sexually active behaviour’. Differences, by contrast, are most salient when they discuss alcohol and aggression and seek to distance themselves from ‘shabby bar men’, rural men, and male football hooligans who drink and fight, outgroups that are marked as working-class in the participants’ narratives. Conclusion: Two general discursive patterns were identified: discursive bridging across gender and discursive othering across class. For the participants, drinking norms are not as much about general gender differences as they are about the ‘dysfunctional’ drinking of certain groups of working-class men. These findings contribute to a more specific understanding of the reconstitution of gender boundaries in relation to drinking norms.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Callina, Sarah, et al.
(författare)
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Harm, tangible or feared : Young Victorians' adverse experiences from others' drinking or drug use
- 2014
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Ingår i: International journal on drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 25:3, s. 401-406
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Harms from alcohol experienced by someone other than the drinker have received increasing attention of late, but have not been compared to harms from others' drug use. The aim of the current study is to compare the reported harms that are attributable to the alcohol use of others to those attributable to drugs, distinguishing between different types of harm in order to highlight how reported harms may be influenced by perception and social standing of use of the substance. Method: Respondents aged 16-24 from Victoria, Australia, completed the Victorian Youth Alcohol and Drug Survey (n = 5001), including questions on demographics, drug and alcohol consumption, on the types of harms they experienced attributable to drugs and alcohol, as well as harms they perpetrated after using drugs or alcohol. Results: For both drug and alcohol related harms, reports of harms loaded into two groups using multiple correspondence analysis: tangible harms such as assault, and amenity impacts such as being annoyed by people under the influence. Amenity impacts attributed to alcohol were more likely to be experienced by those who reported drug use and vice versa, while the tangible impacts were more likely to be reported by those who used both drugs and alcohol. Conclusions: Reports of amenity impacts from others appear to be influenced by the perception of the drug in question more than tangible impacts such as assault. Particularly for amenity impacts, the greater stigma attached to drug use may make respondents more likely to consider themselves harmed by drugs than they would when compared to alcohol, something that needs to be taken into account when assessing harms by either alcohol or drugs.
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| 9. |
- Crépault, Jean-François, et al.
(författare)
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Legalization as more effective control? Parallels between the end of alcohol prohibition (1927) and the legalization of cannabis (2018) in Ontario
- 2021
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Ingår i: International journal of drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 97
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: In the 1920s, eight of nine Canadian provinces legalized alcohol sales, ending prohibition in favor of government control. Much has been written about the rise and fall of Prohibition in North America, but there is little work examining these events in the light of current drug policy debates. This paper attempts to fill some of these gaps.Methods: The aims of this paper are primarily exploratory and descriptive. Following a literature review, it draws from secondary and some primary sources to explore the debate around ending alcohol prohibition (i.e. legalizing its distribution) in Ontario between 1920 and 1927. It then uses material drawn from a comprehensive search of the Canadian House of Commons debates on cannabis legalization between 2016 and 2018 to draw parallels with the debates around alcohol legalization in Ontario about 90 years earlier.Results: While alcohol and cannabis legalization occurred in very different social and political contexts, there are similarities in both the arguments in favor of ending prohibition (ineffectiveness at preventing consumption and collateral social harms) and post-legalization debates around regulation (most notably the optimal way to replace the illicit market).Conclusion: The Canadian cannabis legalization debates of the 2010s echo the alcohol legalization debates of the 1920s in remarkable and relevant ways. Ultimately the most striking parallel may be the extent to which the political leaders advocating for legalization emphasized that their policy was not liberalization, but more effective control.
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| 10. |
- Donoghoe, Martin C., et al.
(författare)
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Access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for injecting drug users in the WHO European Region 2002-2004
- 2007
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Ingår i: International Journal of Drug Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-4758 .- 0955-3959. ; 18:4, s. 271-280
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Providing equitable access to highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) to injecting drug users (IDUs) is both feasible and desirable. Given the evidence that IDUs can adhere to HAART as well as non-IDUs and the imperative to provide universal and equitable access to HlV/AlDS treatment for all who need it, here we examine whether IDUs in the 52 countries in the WHO European Region have equitable access to HAART and whether that access has changed over time between 2002 and 2004. We consider regional and Country differences in IDU HAART access; examine preliminary data regarding the injecting status of those initiating HAART and the use of opioid substitution therapy among HAART patients, and discuss how HAART might be better delivered to injecting drug users. Our data adds to the evidence that IDUs in Europe have poor and inequitable access to HAART, with only a relatively small improvement in access between 2002 and 2004. Regional and country comparisons reveal that inequities in IDU access to HAART are worst in eastern European countries. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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