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.

Injecting drug use: Gendered risk
Research demonstrates gender related differences in drug-use practices and risk behaviours. Females ’ structural vulnerability stemming from traditional gender roles and gender-power relations may enhance their propensity to experience injecting related risk. In this paper we explore gender differences in injection practices at the initiation event, during the first year of injecting and in the most recent 12-month period, to inform more effective harm reduction strategies. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 31, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Renee Zahnow, Adam R. Winstock, Larissa J. Maier, Jay Levy, Jason Ferris Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

Experiences of police contact among young adult recreational drug users: A qualitative study
While young adults who engage in recreational drug use are at increased risk of contact with police, their experiences of police contact have been largely overlooked. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 30, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Ellen M. Leslie, Adrian Cherney, Andrew Smirnov, Robert Kemp, Jake M. Najman Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

The effect of Housing First on adherence to methadone maintenance treatment
Opioid overdose deaths have become a public health crisis in North America, and those who are homeless are particularly vulnerable. Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) may prevent overdose and death among homeless people with opioid dependence, but suboptimal medication adherence is a common limitation. Previous research found that Housing First (HF) increases antipsychotic medication adherence among formerly homeless people. However, no experimental trials have examined whether HF has a significant impact on MMT adherence. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 30, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Milad Parpouchi, Akm Moniruzzaman, Stefanie N. Rezansoff, Angela Russolillo, Julian M. Somers Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

Sexualised drug use among sexual minority young adults in the United States: The P18 cohort study
Substance use and condomless sexual behaviours are both well studied in sexual minority men, but few researchers have used event-level data collection to examine sexualised drug use in sexual and gender minority young adults. The aim of this study is to describe the co-occurrence of sex under the influence of substances and condomless sexual behaviours, using nuanced event-level data, in a racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample in New York City. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 30, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Annie Ristuccia, Caleb LoSchiavo, Perry N. Halkitis, Farzana Kapadia Source Type: research

Fatal and non-fatal overdose among opiate users in South Wales: A qualitative study of peer responses
This study applies Rhodes ’ concept of the ‘risk environment’ to examine how witnesses respond to opiate overdose. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 29, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Katy Holloway, Rhian Hills, Tom May Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research

The management of methamphetamine use in sexual settings among men who have sex with men in Malaysia
The intentional use of illicit drugs for sexual purposes (also known as ‘chemsex’) is well known within the MSM communities in Malaysia although research in this population is scarce primarily because both drug use and homosexuality are illegal and stigmatised in Malaysia. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 28, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Sin How Lim, Mohd Akbar, Jeffrey A. Wickersham, Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Frederick L. Altice Source Type: research

Call for papers: Problematizations in drug use policy, practice and research
(Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 27, 2018 Category: Addiction Source Type: research

Surveillance of sexualised drug use – the challenges and the opportunities
Sexualised drug use (SDU), the use of drugs in a sexual context, has emerged as a marker of high-risk sexual activity and poor sexual health among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, however, there are no robust estimates of the prevalence of SDU. The primary sources of surveillance data on SDU should include both sexual health and drug treatment services. The challenges to achieving comprehensive, timely and valid SDU surveillance include establishing case definitions, selecting appropriate surveillance settings, and normalising the monitoring of SDU at clinical services. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 27, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Isabelle Giraudon, Axel Jeremias Schmidt, Hamish Mohammed Source Type: research

A new empiricism for harm reduction
This commentary reflects on the key methodological innovations presented in Nicole Vitellone ’s recent book Social Science of the Syringe (Vitellone, 2017). Vitellone’s book offers a critical account of harm reduction steeped in the material practices of empirical inquiry. In Vitellone’s hands, harm reduction becomes a “matter of care”; a means of thinking, feeling and knowing the life-worlds of people who inject drugs, such that these worlds may be encountered differently. Vitellone couches this analysis in terms of a novel social science of the syringe. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 26, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Cameron Duff Tags: Commentary Source Type: research

The object in hand: Social science of the syringe
I was invited to write a commentary focusing on the theoretical and conceptual elements of the Social Science of the Syringe, as opposed to the methodological and empirical aspects of the work. This instruction did give me plenty to work with. The book is a stellar example of the productive analysis enabled by the theoretical concern with materiality and ontology recently developed in the sociology of drugs and alcohol (Duff, 2013; Fraser, Moore,& Keane, 2014). It would be possible to write at length about the concepts and theories innovatively employed in the book. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 26, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Helen Keane Tags: Commentary Source Type: research