International Journal of Drug Policy This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Making multiple ‘online counsellings’ through policy and practice: an evidence-making intervention approach
Online counselling services for a range of health conditions have proliferated in recent years. However, there is ambiguity and tension around their role and function. It is often unclear whether online counselling services are intended to provide only a brief intervention, the provision of information or referral, or constitute an alternative to face-to-face treatment. In line with recent analyses of alcohol and other drug (AOD) policy and interventions that draw on a critical social science perspective, we take an evidence-making intervention approach to examine how online counselling in the AOD field is made in policy a...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 27, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Michael Savic, Ella Dilkes-Frayne, Adrian Carter, Renata Kokanovic, Victoria Manning, Simone N. Rodda, Dan I. Lubman Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

The three betrayals of the medical cannabis growing activist: From multiple victimhood to reconstruction, redemption and activism
While cannabis has been widely used in the UK for over 50 years, it is only in recent decades that domestic cultivation has become established. Public concern, media reporting and policing policy has emphasised the role of profit motivated criminal organisations often working on a large scale and with coerced labour. However, increasingly, another population are growing for medical reasons, to help themselves and others treat or manage difficult, poorly understood, or incurable conditions.Our study sought to further understand the motives, techniques and interactions of cannabis cultivators through interviews with 48 growe...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 26, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Axel Klein, Gary R. Potter Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

Is recovery from cannabis use problems different from alcohol and other drugs? Results from a national probability-based sample of the United States adult population
The policy landscape regarding the legal status of cannabis (CAN) in the US and globally is changing rapidly. Research on CAN has lagged behind in many areas, none more so than in understanding how individuals suffering from the broad range of cannabis-related problems resolve those problems, and how their characteristics and problem resolution pathways are similar to or different from alcohol [ALC] or other drugs [OTH]. Greater knowledge could inform national policy debates as well as the nature and scope of any additional needed services as CAN population exposure increases. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 26, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: John F. Kelly, M. Claire Greene, Brandon G. Bergman Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

Spore forming bacteria infections and people who inject drugs: Implications for harm reduction
We examined the impact of the Botulism Postcard on cluster/outbreak awareness, healthcare seeking and HR behaviours among PWID; and their views on such clusters/out breaks. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 24, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Karen Dunleavy, Alison Munro, Kirsty Roy, Sharon Hutchinson, Norah Palmateer, Tony Knox, David Goldberg, Vivian Hope, John Campbell, Emma Hamilton, David Liddell, Gillian Penrice, Avril Taylor Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

The rush to risk when interrogating the relationship between methamphetamine use and sexual practice among gay and bisexual men
Much research concerning drug use in the context of sexual activity among gay and bisexual men derives from public health scholarship. In this paper, we critically examine how the relationship between methamphetamine use and sexual risk practice is treated and understood in this body of research. While public health has made important contributions to establishing the link between methamphetamine use and sexual risk-taking, the precise nature of the relationship is not well defined. This creates space for ungrounded assumptions about methamphetamine use to take hold. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 23, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Joanne Bryant, Max Hopwood, Gary W. Dowsett, Peter Aggleton, Martin Holt, Toby Lea, Kerryn Drysdale, Carla Treloar Source Type: research

Role of recovery residences in criminal justice reform
Over the past decade there has been a clear consensus among drug policy researchers that the practice of incarcerating persons for drug offenses has been counterproductive. As a result, U.S. criminal justice policy is increasingly emphasizing alternative dispositions to incarceration for drug related arrests. In addition, large numbers of persons currently incarcerated for drug related offenses are being released into communities. However, there are serious questions about where these individuals are going to live once released and how they will access needed services. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 23, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Douglas L. Polcin Tags: Policy Analysis Source Type: research

Using drugs in un/safe spaces: Impact of perceived illegality on an underground supervised injecting facility in the United States
Supervised injection facilities (SIFs) are spaces where people can consume pre-obtained drugs in hygienic circumstances with trained staff in attendance to provide emergency response in the event of an overdose or other medical emergency, and to provide counselling and referral to other social and health services. Over 100 facilities with formal legal sanction exist in ten countries, and extensive research has shown they reduce overdose deaths, increase drug treatment uptake, and reduce social nuisance. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 23, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Peter J. Davidson, Andrea M. Lopez, Alex H. Kral Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

Multiple injections per injection episode: High-risk injection practice among people who injected pills during the 2015 HIV outbreak in Indiana
We examined injection practices among persons who inject POA in a rural area that experienced a large HIV outbreak in 2015. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 23, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Dita Broz, Jon Zibbell, Carrie Foote, Jeremy C. Roseberry, Monita R. Patel, Caitlin Conrad, Erika Chapman, Philip J. Peters, Richard Needle, Cameron McAlister, Joan M. Duwve Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

Routes of administration for cannabis use – basic prevalence and related health outcomes: A scoping review and synthesis
Cannabis use is common, and associated with adverse health outcomes. ‘Routes of administration’ (ROAs) for cannabis use have increasingly diversified, in part influenced by developments towards legalization. This paper sought to review data on prevalence and health outcomes associated with different ROAs. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 22, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Cayley Russell, Sergio Rueda, Robin Room, Mark Tyndall, Benedikt Fischer Source Type: research

Ordering clinical realities: Controversy and multiplicity in alcohol and other drug treatment for young adults
Although young adults receiving treatment for alcohol and other drug (AOD) use often experience disadvantaged life circumstances, there has been little qualitative research into how treatment agencies understand and respond to intersections between these life circumstances and the AOD use of their clients. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 20, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Aaron Hart Source Type: research

“All the King’s horses and all the King’s men…”: What is broken should not always be put back together again
Miller, Chikritzha, Droste, Pennay& Tomsen (2017) raise multiple methodological questions regarding our recently published study into the night-time entertainment districts (NEDs) of Queensland, Australia (Devilly, Allen& Brown, 2017). They also raise wider ethical concerns regarding working with police and allowing research participants to enter their own data into questionnaires. As reported in an earlier issue of this journal (Devilly et al., 2017), we conducted a point of entry study into NEDs which found: a high prevalence of preloading (79%); little meaningful difference between the genders in this prevalence and bre...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 20, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Grant James Devilly Tags: Response Source Type: research

Transnational social movement theory and the waning war on drugs: Case studies from UNGASS 2016
The United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs 1988 ( “1988 Convention”) expresses a strong normative preference for criminalising drug possession. Historically, the United Nations offices responsible for overseeing the treaties have held that decriminalisation of drug possession is contrary to the treaties. Leading up to and during UNGASS 2016, ho wever, rather than emphasise criminalisation, the high-ranking officials from the drug control offices emphasised the treaties’ allowance of alternatives to punishment for drug possession offences. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 20, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Ben Mostyn, Helen Gibbon Tags: Research paper Source Type: research

The impact of OxyContin reformulation at the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre: Pros and cons
Increases in the prescription of pharmaceutical opioids have coincided with an epidemic of drug overdose in the US, with evidence of similar effects in other jurisdictions including Australia (Dart et al., 2015; Pilgrim, Yafistham, Gaya, Saar,& Drummer, 2015). Oxycodone is implicated in a large number of deaths (Blanch, Pearson,& Haber, 2014; Dhalla et al., 2009; Roxburgh, Bruno, Larance,& Burns, 2011), a significant proportion of which involve intravenous administration of preparations designed for oral administration (Blanch et al., 2014). (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 19, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Marianne Jauncey, Michael Livingston, Allison M. Salmon, Paul Dietze Tags: Short Report Source Type: research

“Now drugs in Libya are much cheaper than food”: A qualitative study on substance use among young Libyans in post-revolution Tripoli, Libya
Libya is facing a rapidly growing epidemic of illicit drug use and HIV. This situation is fueled by a complex array of factors, mainly the consequences of the political and military turmoil of the Arab Spring. Although it is extensively documented in other settings that young people are one of the most vulnerable groups to both HIV and illicit drug use, no study has explored this issue among young people in Libya. The current study addresses this research gap. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 19, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Fauzi Muftah Elamouri, Patou Masika Musumari, Teeranee Techasrivichien, Anwer Farjallah, Sufian Elfandi, Osama Fathi Alsharif, Hussein Benothman, S. Pilar Suguimoto, Masako Ono-Kihara, Masahiro Kihara Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research