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| 2. |
- 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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| 3. |
- Edman, Johan, 1967-
(författare)
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An all-embracing problem description : The Swedish drug issue as a political catalyst 1982–2000
- 2013
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Ingår i: International journal of drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 24:6, s. 558-565
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: This article examines the political formulation and ideological solution of the Swedish drugproblem in 1982–2000. How was the drug problem described in the Swedish parliament at the time? Howserious was the problem and what solutions were proposed? What were the ideological implications ofthe problem description, and how was the general political and ideological solution formulated?Methods: The empirical basis for the textual analysis consists of parliamentary bills, government bills andparliamentary records discussing the drug issue during the years 1982–2000.Results: In the prevailing spirit of consensus in the Swedish parliament at the time, both left-wing andright-wing parties portrayed drugs as a threat to the nation, people and the welfare state. Still, as theideological dimension kept growing stronger, the drug question functioned even better as an arena forpolitical discussions and ideological positions than in the 1970s.Conclusion: Compared to previous decades, the problem description broadened during the 1980s and1990s, and the drug problem could be used to support arguments on almost any topic. The drug problembecame a highly politicized issue about whom or what to change when the individual and the societyclashed, but also about what the individual and/or society should be changed into.
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| 4. |
- Edman, Johan
(författare)
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An ambiguous monolith - The Swedish drug issue as a political battleground 1965-1981
- 2013
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Ingår i: International journal on drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 24:5, s. 464-470
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The drug problem has been a highly ideologized topic in the political debate in Sweden ever since the mid-1960s. The aim of the article is to investigate dominant conceptions of drugs, drug use, society and the individual in the political discussions on drug use in Sweden during the years 1965-1981. Methods: The empirical basis for the textual analysis consists of 146 parliamentary bills and 135 parliamentary protocols. Results: The unwanted drug appear as a sensitive litmus paper, an indication that something had gone wrong in society and as a suggestion of how the good society could be accomplished. The drug problem was connected to ideological core values such as class struggle, Christianity or criticism of urbanism and modernity. Conclusion: The analysis suggests that the drug problem was used as political ammunition, to pick holes in political opponents and to highlight one's own ideological stance. The hegemonic conversational order, the consensual spirit and the agreement that this was the most serious problem, did not hamper these political moves. Rather, the cross-party conception of the problem's severity and accelerating deterioration contributed to a common ground for political arguments and ideological visions. It also meant that the political discussions moved away from the more obvious drug policy issues.
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| 5. |
- Edman, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Conceptual carpentry as problem handling : The case of drugs and coercive treatment in social democratic welfare regimes
- 2014
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Ingår i: International journal on drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 25:2, s. 320-328
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The drug and alcohol fields are characterised by continuous contestations of key concepts and the competing uses of concepts by various actors, in different geographies and over time. This study investigates the political processes leading to legislation enabling coercive treatment of (non-psychotic) drug users in Finland and Sweden from the 1950s until the early 1980s. The drug treatment policies are analysed through conceptual changes and innovations. Methods: The article analyses conceptual discussions in public reports in Finland and Sweden, focusing on the work preceding the first legislations where both alcohol and drug treatment were included (in Finland 1961, in Sweden 1982). Theories from conceptual history are applied. Results: The Finnish and Swedish discussions carry arguments from two periods of the Nordic welfare state: in an early development stage and a fragile situation in Finland, and in a more mature and affluent time in Sweden. The paternalistic arguments vary over time and between countries. Still, in both countries and time periods, the view of the drug problem as a youth issue, as particularly enslaving and on society's obligation to protect drug using individuals from damaging their future give enough motivation for coercive treatment. The conceptual work included avoidance of certain terms but in other cases, a broadening of their meaning, to adopt them to the political goals. Conclusion: Close analyses of conceptual history can reveal new features of drug policy struggles and show how central concepts in drugs and alcohol field are continuously contested.
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| 6. |
- Johnson, Björn, et al.
(författare)
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Diversion of methadone and buprenorphine by patients in opioidsubstitution treatment in Sweden : prevalence estimates and risk factors
- 2014
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Ingår i: International journal of drug policy. - : Elsevier. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 26:2, s. 183-190
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Diversion—patients who sell or share their medication—is a hotly debated but rela-tively unresearched phenomenon. We have investigated the prevalence of self-reported diversion ofmethadone and buprenorphine at OST programs in Sweden. We have also examined if demographic,treatment, and social factors can be associated with an increased risk of diversion. Methods: Structured interviews were conducted with 411 patients from eleven OST programs. A standard-ized questionnaire with 106 close- and five open-ended questions were used. 280 interviews were doneon site, by the researchers, while 131 interviews were conducted by specially trained patients throughprivileged access interviewing. The data were analyzed through frequency- and averages-calculations,cross-tabulations, and logistic regression analysis. Results: In total, 24.1% (n = 99) of the patients reported diversion in the past month. 67.6% (n = 277) statedthat they had diverted at some point. The peer interviews showed significantly higher levels of diver-sion (37.4% past month) compared with the researcher interviews (17.2%). Neither demographic factors,dosages, nor collection routines were associated with diversion. The likelihood of diversion was higherfor patients on mono-buprenorphine (OR = 5.64) and buprenorphine–naloxone (OR = 2.10), than amongmethadone patients. Other factors which increased the likelihood of diversion were current illicit druguse (OR = 5.60), having had patients as a primary source of illicit methadone or buprenorphine prior totreatment (OR = 3.39), and mainly socializing with active drug users (OR = 2.12). Conclusion: Self-reported diversion was considerably higher than in previous studies. This is most likelydue to the new methodological strategy we used, but may also partly be explained by low availability ofOST in Sweden, leading to a high demand for the substances by heroin users outside treatment. Effortsto decrease diversion should primarily focus on psychosocial and lifestyle-changing interventions, andexpanded access to treatment, rather than on control measures.
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| 7. |
- Månsson, Josefin
(författare)
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A dawning demand for a new cannabis policy : A study of Swedish online drug discussions
- 2014
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Ingår i: International journal on drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 25:4, s. 673-681
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: This study examines how online discussions on drug policy are formulating an oppositional cannabis discourse in an otherwise prohibitionist country like Sweden. The focus of the paper is to identify demands for an alternative cannabis policy as well as analysing how these demands are linked to governance. Methods: The empirical material is 56 discussion-threads from the online message-board Flashback Forum that were active during the first eight months of 2012. Discourse theory was used to locate the discourse, and governmentality theory was used to locate the political belonging of the discourse. Results: On Flashback Forum demands for a new cannabis policy are articulated in opposition to Swedish prohibitionist discourse. The oppositional discourse is constructed around the nodal points cannabis, harm, state and freedom that fill legalisation/decriminalisation/liberalisation with meaning. The nodal points are surrounded by policy demands that get their meaning through the particular nodal. These demands originate from neo-liberal and welfarist political rationalities. Neo-liberal and welfarist demands are mixed, and participants are simultaneously asking for state and individual approaches to handle the cannabis issue. Conclusion: Swedish online discourse on cannabis widens the scope beyond the confines of drug policy to broader demands such as social justice, individual choice and increased welfare. These demands are not essentially linked together and many are politically contradictory. This is also significant for the discourse; it is not hegemonised by a political ideology. The discourse is negotiated between the neo-liberal version of an alternative policy demanding individual freedom, and the welfarist version demanding social responsibility. This implies the influence of the heritage from the social-democratic discourse, centred on state responsibility, which have been dominating Swedish politics in modern times. Consequently, this study refutes that the demand for a new cannabis policy is strictly neo-liberal.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Room, Robin
(författare)
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Reform by subtraction : The path of denunciation of international drug treaties and reaccession with reservations
- 2012
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Ingår i: International journal on drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 23:5, s. 401-406
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Almost all countries are parties to the international drug conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988. These strongly bind parties with respect to their domestic regulation of controlled substances, including requirements that possession, growing or use be a criminal offense and that any regulated market in the substances be limited to use only for medical or scientific purposes. Even where countries have argued they have wiggle room, reform within the bounds of the conventions has often resulted in net-widening which nullifies the intent of the reform. Among the options for effective reform, probably the most immediately viable is the route of denunciation and reaccession with reservations - the route which Bolivia has now taken in order to legalise a regulated domestic market in coca leaves for chewing. The paper considers the existing record of reservations (by more than 30 parties to each of the conventions). Also discussed are the options for response to the reservations by other parties, which vary between the treaties, and how pursuing the option of denunciation and reaccession with reservation might potentially play out.
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| 10. |
- Steppan, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Are cannabis prevalence estimates comparable across countries and regions? : a cross cultural validation using search engine query data
- 2013
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Ingår i: International journal of drug policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0955-3959 .- 1873-4758. ; 24:1, s. 23-29
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Prevalence estimation of cannabis use is usually based on self-report data. Although there is evidence on the reliability of this data source, its cross-cultural validity is still a major concern. External objective criteria are needed for this purpose. In this study, cannabis-related search engine query data are used as an external criterion. Methods: Data on cannabis use were taken from the 2007 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Provincial data came from three Italian nation-wide studies using the same methodology (2006-2008; ESPAD-Italia). Information on cannabis-related search engine query data was based on Google search volume indices (GSI). (1) Reliability analysis was conducted for GSI. (2) Latent measurement models of true cannabis prevalence were tested using perceived availability, web-based cannabis searches and self-reported prevalence as indicators. (3) Structure models were set up to test the influences of response tendencies and geographical position (latitude, longitude). In order to test the stability of the models, analyses were conducted on country level (Europe, US) and on provincial level in Italy. Results: Cannabis-related GSI were found to be highly reliable and constant over time. The overall measurement model was highly significant in both data sets. On country level, no significant effects of response bias indicators and geographical position on perceived availability, web-based cannabis searches and self-reported prevalence were found. On provincial level, latitude had a significant positive effect on availability indicating that perceived availability of cannabis in northern Italy was higher than expected from the other indicators. Conclusion: Although GSI showed weaker associations with cannabis use than perceived availability, the findings underline the external validity and usefulness of search engine query data as external criteria. The findings suggest an acceptable relative comparability of national (provincial) prevalence estimates of cannabis use that are based on a common survey methodology. Search engine query data are a too weak indicator to base prevalence estimations on this source only, but in combination with other sources (waste water analysis, sales of cigarette paper) they may provide satisfactory estimates.
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