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Action on Addiction takes action to disarm addiction to see that people are free from addiction and its effects. Their approach to this mission is multi-dimensional and covers everything from prevention to recovery.

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Editorial BoardEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - October 5, 2009 Category: Addiction Source Type: journals

Editors’ introduction: Policy change and policy analysisEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This issue contains selection of papers from the 2nd Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), which was held in Lisbon, Portugal in March 2008. The goal of the ISSDP, as the name suggests, is to promote research related to policies on how societies respond to illegal drugs and to create an international community of scholars interested in this topic. Whilst papers on alcohol and tobacco are not excluded, policies towards those substances are used mainly as a foil for understanding those directed at cannabis, cocaine, heroin and other controlled drugs. The second conference attrac...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - June 28, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Henri Bergeron, Peter Reuter Source Type: journals

Regulating khat—Dilemmas and opportunities for the international drug control systemEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The empirical work from Africa provides a strong argument for promoting evidence-based approaches to khat regulation, harnessing the positive aspects of the khat economy to develop a control model that incorporates the voices and respects the needs of rural producers. Ultimately, the framework for khat may provide both a model and an opportunity for revising the international treaties governing the control of other plant psychoactive-based substances. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - June 16, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Axel Klein, Susan Beckerleg, Degol Hailu Source Type: journals

Drug testing in Australian schools: Policy implications and considerations of punitive, deterrence and/or prevention measuresEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: While this review did not support school drug testing, there are alternative evidence-based strategies that schools can implement to prevent drug-related problems among student populations. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - May 17, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Ann M. Roche, Petra Bywood, Ken Pidd, Toby Freeman, Tania Steenson Source Type: journals

The cocaine and heroin markets in the era of globalisation and drug reduction policiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Law enforcement measures increase the risk premia received by the lower and higher level traffickers. Consequently, trafficking intermediation margins tend to increase. However, globalisation has the opposite effect. It lowers intermediation margins and, then, pushes retail prices down, thereby stimulating consumption. In doing so, globalisation offsets the effects of supply containment policies. Finally, we discuss how the effectiveness of supply containment policies can be enhanced by combining them with demand reduction policies. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - May 17, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Cláudia Costa Storti, Paul De Grauwe Source Type: journals

Editorial BoardEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - May 11, 2009 Category: Addiction Source Type: journals

Drug policing, harm reduction and health: Directions for advocacyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We are long past the day when anyone doubts that drug laws and law enforcement policies can have a powerful, negative impact on the risks of infection, injury and death among drug users (). Police and corrections staff through their day-to-day interactions with drug users shape “the risk environment” by making it more or less feasible to obtain or carry sterile injection equipment, and to take the time to safely conduct an injection (). Law enforcement officials often have a considerable political say in whether harm reduction programs will be authorized, and police on the street have a practical say in whether program...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 28, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Scott Burris, Dave Burrows Tags: Editorial Source Type: journals

Theorizing “Big Events” as a potential risk environment for drug use, drug-related harm and HIV epidemic outbreaksEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: Political-economic transitions in the Soviet Union, Indonesia, and China, but not the Philippines, were followed by HIV epidemics among drug users. Wars also may sometimes increase HIV risk. Based on similarities in some of the causal pathways through which wars and transitions can affect HIV risk, we use the term “Big Events” to include both. We first critique several prior epidemiological models of Big Events as inadequately incorporating social agency and as somewhat imprecise and over-generalizing in their sociology. We then suggest a model using the following concepts: first, event-specific HIV transmiss...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Samuel R. Friedman, Diana Rossi, Naomi Braine Tags: Commentary Source Type: journals

Heroin in brown, black and white: Structural factors and medical consequences in the US heroin marketEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Source and type of heroin are structural factors in the risk environment of heroin users: source dictates distribution and type predicts practice. How specific types of heroin are used and with what risk is therefore distributed geographically. Continued flux in the heroin market and its effects on the risk environment for drug users deserves further attention. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Daniel Ciccarone Tags: Historical analysis Source Type: journals

Social and structural aspects of the overdose risk environment in St. Petersburg, RussiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Local social and structural elements influence risk environments for overdose. Interventions at the community and structural levels to prevent and respond to opioid overdoses are needed for and integral to reducing overdose mortality in St. Petersburg. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Traci C. Green, Lauretta E. Grau, Ksenia N. Blinnikova, Mikhail Torban, Evgeny Krupitsky, Ruslan Ilyuk, Andrei Kozlov, Robert Heimer Tags: Short report Source Type: journals

Mapping the experience of drug dealing risk environments: An ethnographic case studyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Drug dealers shape, and are shaped by, their risk environments. A ‘determinants’ approach to understanding the economic dimension to drug use risk environments needs to be refined. Community resilience policies such “neighbourhood renewal” need to take into account the embodied aspects of economic structures in the experience of drug use and drug dealing. The economic relations, the processes that disable the transformation of different forms of capital, the memories and the practices that make drug users, are embodied. Community resilience policies need to bring into focus the embodiment of the economi...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: John Lawrence Fitzgerald Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

The mutual extraction industry: Drug use and the normative structure of social capital in the Russian far northEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Social networks are central to young people’s management of the risk environment associated with post-Soviet economic transformation. However, such networks are culturally as well as structurally determined and may be sites not only of cooperation, support and trust but also of mutual exploitation, deceit and distrust. This does not imply these regions are devoid of social capital. Rather it suggests that the notion of social capital as a natural by-product of a self-regulating economy and its institutions needs to be reconsidered in the context of local configurations of capital and social relations as well...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Hilary Pilkington, El’vira Sharifullina Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Cannabis use and ‘safe’ identities in an inner-city school risk environmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Inner-city schools may both reflect and reproduce existing patterns of drug use. The concept of risk hierarchies may be important when designing and evaluating school-based drug-prevention strategies. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Adam Fletcher, Chris Bonell, Annik Sorhaindo, Tim Rhodes Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

The social context of initiation into injecting drugs in the slums of Makassar, IndonesiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: To be more effective, the existing harm reduction programmes in Makassar that focus on individualistic behavioural changes need to be complemented with community-based programmes that take into consideration the social and structural context of risk-taking practices amongst young people in the lorong. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Sudirman Nasir, Doreen Rosenthal Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Poverty as a smoking trapEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Interventions which do not specifically target smoking but which contribute to improving poor smokers’ living conditions, are necessary to promote smoking cessation. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Patrick Peretti-Watel, Valérie Seror, Jean Constance, François Beck Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Understanding the social determinants of behaviours: Can new methods help?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An individual's behaviour undoubtedly results from a set of complicated processes involving interactions between environmental factors, personal characteristics, and biology. Moreover it is clear that social processes, both through their influence on the social and physical environments in which people live and work, as well as through the transmission of norms and attitudes through social networks, play a key role in shaping behaviours. Understanding these social processes and the ways in which they affect behaviour is fundamental to the identification of the most effective interventions to improve health and reduce inequ...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Ana V. Diez Roux, Amy H. Auchincloss Tags: Methodological debate Source Type: journals

Geographic approaches to quantifying the risk environment: Drug-related law enforcement and access to syringe exchange programmesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: The concept of the “risk environment” – defined as the “space … [where] factors exogenous to the individual interact to increase the chances of HIV transmission” – draws together the disciplines of public health and geography. Researchers have increasingly turned to geographic methods to quantify dimensions of the risk environment that are both structural and spatial (e.g., local poverty rates). The scientific power of the intersection between public health and geography, however, has yet to be fully mined. In particular, research on the risk environment has rarely applied geographic methods to crea...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Hannah L.F. Cooper, Brian Bossak, Barbara Tempalski, Don C. Des Jarlais, Samuel R. Friedman Tags: Methodological debate Source Type: journals

Social epidemiology and complex system dynamic modelling as applied to health behaviour and drug use researchEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: A social epidemiologic perspective considers factors at multiple levels of influence (e.g., social networks, neighbourhoods, states) that may individually or jointly affect health and health behaviour. This provides a useful lens through which to understand the production of health behaviours in general, and drug use in particular. However, the analytic models that are commonly applied in population health sciences limit the inference we are able to draw about the determination of health behaviour by factors, likely interrelated, across levels of influence. Complex system dynamic modelling techniques may be usefu...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Sandro Galea, Chris Hall, George A. Kaplan Tags: Methodological debate Source Type: journals

The drifting city: The role of affect and repair in the development of “Enabling Environments”Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Greater attention to the array of assets and opportunities present in urban settings offers fresh insights into the nature of enabling environments and their role in reducing drug related harms and facilitating healthy growth and development. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Cameron Duff Tags: Commentary Source Type: journals

Risk environments and drug harms: A social science for harm reduction approachEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: A ‘risk environment’ framework promotes an understanding of harm, and harm reduction, as a matter of ‘contingent causation’. Harm is contingent upon social context, comprising interactions between individuals and environments. There is a momentum of interest in understanding how the relations between individuals and environments impact on the production and reduction of drug harms, and this is reflected by broader debates in the social epidemiology, political economy, and sociology of health. This essay maps some of these developments, and a number of challenges. These include: social epidemiological appr...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Tim Rhodes Tags: Editorial essay Source Type: journals

The adverse health effects of cannabis use: What are they, and what are their implications for policy?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Politically, evidence of adverse health effects favours the status quo in developed countries like Australia where cannabis policy has been framed by the media as a choice between two views: (1) either cannabis use is largely harmless to most users and so we should legalize, or at the very least decriminalize its use; or (2) it harms some of its users so we should continue to prohibit its use. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 12, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Wayne Hall Source Type: journals

Optimal timing of use reduction vs. harm reduction in a drug epidemic modelEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: To the extent that drug use patterns involve feedback effects, any shock to initiation – from harm reduction or any other source – can produce changes in use that are more than proportional, or less than proportional, to the shock. Hence, advocates in the use vs. harm reduction debate may wish to explain why their preferred policy is particularly appropriate at the current stage of a country's drug use trajectory, rather than arguing for universal applicability of their preferred programme. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 9, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Jonathan P. Caulkins, Gernot Tragler, Dagmar Wallner Source Type: journals

Methods for comparing drug policies—The utility of composite Drug Harm IndexesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: One of the challenges for drug policy research is being able to compare policy options and outcomes. The development of indexes, such as the UK Drug Harm Index or the UNODC Illicit Drug Index is a way to systematically enable such comparisons. An Index is a single common metric that represents the diverse outcomes or consequences of drug use.An Index may be used for performance monitoring within one country/region over time; to establish societal benefit of drug policies as expressed in social costs saved; to compare countries or regions; or for comparative policy analysis. Clarity of purpose is important in how ...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 8, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Alison Ritter Source Type: journals

Casting light on harm reduction: Introducing two instruments for analysing contradictions between harm reduction and ‘non-harm reduction’Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Harm reduction may in fact represent goals, methods, priorities and understandings which are to a considerable extent at odds with the opposite of harm reduction – here termed ‘non-harm reduction’. This insight may be overlooked if assuming complementarity. To describe and analyse harm reduction by way of juxtaposing opposites seems a feasible and illuminative approach. The instruments provided could perhaps facilitate better understanding of conflicts of vision and contribute towards illuminating policy barriers. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 5, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Michael Jourdan Source Type: journals

Low-threshold methadone treatment, heroin price, police activity and incidence of heroin use: The Zurich experienceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The introduction of low-threshold methadone treatment has not resulted in lower heroin prices and the increased police activity during the 90s has not led to higher heroin prices, even though the higher police activity in the late 90s may have contributed to the prevention of a re-establishment of open drug scenes. In conclusion, we did not find a close relationship between street prices of heroin, police activity, and incidence of problematic heroin use. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 5, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Carlos Nordt, Rudolf Stohler Source Type: journals

Convenient labour: The prevalence and nature of youth involvement in the cannabis cultivation industryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: These results emphasise the need to design policies that concern not just the prevention of drug use among youth, but also youth involvement in the supply of drugs. In addition, it underlines the difficulty of planning general interventions in what appears to be a very heterogeneous population of growers. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - April 2, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Martin Bouchard, Marc Alain, Holly Nguyen Source Type: journals

The legacy of ‘normalisation’: The role of classical and contemporary criminological theory in understanding young people's drug useEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: Since it began in the mid-1990s, the debate surrounding the normalisation of adolescent recreational drug use has attracted considerable attention and has tended to polarise opinion within the field. In this article two of the main protagonists in the debate come together to discuss its legacy. Focusing on the twin themes of continuity and change the authors begin by considering the relevance of early developments in the sociology of drug use, noting that this earlier work anticipated much that has recently been written on the subject, including the emphasis on hedonism and consumption in leisure lifestyles. From...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 23, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Fiona Measham, Michael Shiner Source Type: journals

Drug consumption facility as part of a primary health care centre for problem drug users—Which clients are attracted?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The majority of clients were chronic opiate users with high rates of risk behaviour. However, they did have recent contact with the drug treatment system. DCFs may be particularly important for opiate users after prison or treatment and/or for those with unstable accommodation. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - March 9, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Norbert Scherbaum, Michael Specka, Johannes Bombeck, Baerbel Marrziniak Tags: Short Report Source Type: journals

The post-opium scenario and rubber in northern Laos: Alternative Western and Chinese models of developmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: China's opium-replacement policy has contributed to a type of unregulated frontier capitalism with socio-economic and environmental effects that threaten the principles and goals of alternative development and even to marginalise the role international development organisations in northern Laos. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - February 24, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Paul T. Cohen Tags: Policy Analysis Source Type: journals

GHB in Sydney, Australia, 2000–2006: A case study of the EDRS as a strategic early warning systemEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The EDRS has effectively monitored the increase in GHB amongst REU over the past seven years in Sydney, Australia. This increase is unlikely to have been as readily identified by other surveillance systems. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - February 24, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Matthew Dunn, Libby Topp, Louisa Degenhardt Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Cross-border paid plasma donation among injection drug users in two Mexico–U.S. border citiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Although selling plasma appears uncommon among IDUs in these two Mexican border cities, the majority sold plasma in the U.S. and only one-third were deferred as high-risk donors. Paying donors for plasma should be a matter of public inquiry to encourage strict compliance with regulations. Plasma clinics should defer donors not only on behavioral risks, but should specifically inspect for injection stigmata. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - February 23, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Patricia Volkow, Kimberly C. Brouwer, Oralia Loza, Rebeca Ramos, Remedios Lozada, Richard S. Garfein, Carlos Magis-Rodriguez, Michelle Firestone-Cruz, Steffanie A. Strathdee Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Impact of South American heroin on the US heroin market 1993–2004Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: These analyses reveal trends to historically low-cost heroin in many US cities. These changes correspond to the entrance into and rapid domination of the US heroin market by Colombian-sourced heroin. The implications of these changes are discussed. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - February 9, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Daniel Ciccarone, George J. Unick, Allison Kraus Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Cold cook methods: An ethnographic exploration on the myths of methamphetamine production and policy implicationsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: We do not make any definitive conclusions on the legitimacy of the stories or myths discussed here but instead suggest that labelling drug stories as myths might lead to dismissing facts that hold partial truth. The subsequent dismissal of cold cook methods among policy and public health officials risks a range of unintended consequences among vulnerable populations. We present our case for more research attention on the myths of methamphetamine production. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - February 6, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Miriam W. Boeri, David Gibson, Liam Harbry Tags: Short Report Source Type: journals

Safety problems among heavy-drinking youth at a Bulgarian nightlife resortEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: Background: Vacations at international nightlife resorts represent an important but also risky element in the lives of youth in many countries. There is an urgent need for evaluating the role played by bars and nightclubs in producing and reducing risks; this task is important, especially at upcoming nightlife resorts with limited experience in managing young partygoers from other countries.Methods: Seven weeks of ethnographic fieldwork was conducted during the summer 2007 at the emerging Bulgarian nightlife resort, Sunny Beach. The research instrument “KAReN” was used as a guideline to evaluate the safety co...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - January 27, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Sébastien Tutenges Tags: Short Report Source Type: journals

‘Kiddie drugs’ and controlled pleasure: Recreational use of dexamphetamine in a social network of young AustraliansEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The findings of the paper have implications for harm reduction policy. In particular, dexamphetamine use facilitates heavy drinking and polydrug use amongst young adults, which may increase the harms associated with such use. Further, current interventions targeting young psychostimulant users, which emphasise their adulterated and illegal nature, may inadvertently contribute to the cultural construction of dexamphetamine as a relatively ‘safe’ drug. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - January 27, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Rachael Green, David Moore Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Capitalising upon political opportunities to reform drug policy: A case study into the development of the Australian “Tough on Drugs-Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative”Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: This paper concludes that contrary to popular opinion political venues and politicisation may offer valuable opportunities for drug policy reform. The challenge for researchers and policy advocates is to see how they can best utilise political venues to obtain pragmatic reform. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - January 22, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Caitlin Elizabeth Hughes Tags: Policy Analysis Source Type: journals

Understanding post 9/11 drug control policy and politics in Central AsiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: This paper exposes contemporary drug policy challenges in Central Asia by focusing on a single point in the history of drug control, in a single region of the global war against drugs and terrorism, and on one agency whose mission is to help make the world safer from crime, drugs and terrorism. By looking closely at the post 9/11 security-oriented donor priorities, I conclude that, in Central Asia, the rhetoric of the taking a more ‘balanced approach’ to drug policy is bankrupt. When enacted by the national law enforcement agencies in the Central Asian republics, the ‘Drug Free’ aspirational goal is drivi...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - January 5, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Alisher Latypov Tags: Commentary Source Type: journals

Moral regulation and the presumption of guilt in Health Canada's medical cannabis policy and practiceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: This paper is a sociological examination of policies and practices in Health Canada's Marihuana Medical Access Division (MMAD) that presume the illicit intentions and inherent “guilt” of medical cannabis users, hampering safe access to a medicine to which many are legally entitled, and raising doubts about this federal programme's overall effectiveness and constitutional legitimacy. Beginning with a brief historical overview of Canada's federal medical cannabis programme, this paper examines the failure of the MMAD to meet the needs of many sick and suffering Canadians through Hunt's [Hunt, A. (1999). Governi...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - January 5, 2009 Category: Addiction Authors: Philippe Lucas Tags: Commentary Source Type: journals

Making residential cannabis growing operations actionable: A critical policy analysisEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Construction of all cannabis cultivators as “dangerous” disavows other possibilities and shores up neo-liberal practices of government that draw on multi-partner initiatives to implement extraordinary methods of social control not necessarily subject to public accountability. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 29, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Connie Carter Tags: Policy Analysis Source Type: journals

Foucault on methadone: Beyond biopowerEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: This essay reviews four texts which critically analyse methadone maintenance therapy using Foucault as a key theoretical framework: [Friedman, J., & Alicea, M. (2001). Surviving heroin: Interviews with women in methadone clinics. Florida: University Press of Florida], [Bourgois, P. (2000). Disciplining addictions: The bio-politics of methadone and heroin in the United States. Culture Medicine and Psychiatry, 24, 165–195], [Bull, M. (2008). Governing the heroin trade: From treaties to treatment. Ashgate: Aldershot], and [Fraser, S., & valentine, k. (2008). Substance & substitution: Methadone subjects in liberal ...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 22, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Helen Keane Tags: Review Essay Source Type: journals

Advocacy for harm reduction in China: A new era dawnsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Discussion: Increased acceptance of harm reduction in China, particularly among public security, implies a new level of optimism towards addressing the HIV epidemic among drug users, and parallels an impressive expansion of harm reduction interventions. Nevertheless, scaling up a response to the ongoing dual epidemic of drug use and HIV remains an enormous challenge. With appropriate technical education and training, ongoing advocacy, and a cohesive, coordinated multi-sectoral effort, the capacity of the government and community to adopt, support and promote measures to reduce HIV and other drug related harm would be marke...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 22, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Gary Reid, Campbell Aitken Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Disabusing cocaine: Pervasive myths and enduring realities of a globalised commodityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: For more than 30 years Colombia has waged an internal War on Drugs with the support of the international community. During this time, the illegal economy has evolved toward integrating cultivation with processing and trafficking, making Colombia the largest grower of coca in the world. The environmental impact of coca production and processing is vast, accounting for large quantities of toxic chemicals directly dumped onto the soil and watersheds, as well as most deforestation since the 1990s. The policies pursued to stem the coca economy, however, are based on unfounded assumptions about the behaviour of coca gr...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 3, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Liliana M. Dávalos, Adriana C. Bejarano, H. Leonardo Correa Tags: Commentary Source Type: journals

A profile of adolescent cocaine use in Northern IrelandEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: These findings provide further evidence for the development of age appropriate school focused harm reduction initiatives and continued monitoring of contemporary trends of use of cocaine amongst school aged young people. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - November 17, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Patrick McCrystal, Andrew Percy Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Social injecting and other correlates of high-risk sexual activity among injecting drug users in northern VietnamEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: IDUs who inject socially and IDUs who share needles are likely to engage in high-risk sexual behaviours and may serve as an important bridge group for epidemic HIV transmission in Vietnam. In addition to messages regarding the dangers of sharing needles and other injection equipment, preventive interventions among newly initiated IDUs should also focus on reducing sexual risk. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - November 17, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Christina M. Schumacher, Vivian F. Go, Le Van Nam, Carl A. Latkin, Anna Bergenstrom, David D. Celentano, Vu Minh Quan Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Social construction of disability and substance abuse within public disability benefit systemsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Abstract: Federal legislation passed in 1996 in the United States changed the eligibility criteria for public disability benefit programmes. After 1996, persons with a primary diagnosis of substance abuse no longer qualified to receive disability benefits. Using a framework of social construction, a qualitative comparative analysis examines how the national disability systems of eight countries – Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the US – address issues of substance abuse. The US is the only country among the focal countries that does not currently allow d...
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - November 3, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Debra L. Brucker Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Boltushka: A homemade amphetamine-type stimulant and HIV risk in Odessa, UkraineEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Although Ukrainian government regulations have limited access to precursor chemicals, IDUs have continued to make and use boltushka. The actual extent and demographics of boltushka use are unknown. Besides risk of bloodborne disease, the health effects of injected homemade ATSs and their constituent chemicals are poorly documented. Interventions beyond available harm reduction efforts may be required. Education/treatment specific to boltushka users and screening for other physical harms are critical interventions. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - October 31, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Repsina Chintalova-Dallas, Patricia Case, Nataliya Kitsenko, Zita Lazzarini Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Exploring stakeholder perceptions of acceptability and feasibility of needle exchange programmes, syringe vending machines and safer injection facilities in Tijuana, MexicoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Increasing HIV infection rates among injection drug users in Tijuana have prompted interest in public health responses. Our results may assist policy strategists in implementing social-structural interventions that will help create enabling environments that facilitate the scale-up and implementation of harm reduction in Tijuana. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - October 29, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Morgan M. Philbin, Andrea Mantsios, Remedios Lozada, Patricia Case, Robin A. Pollini, Jorge Alvelais, Carl A. Latkin, Carlos Magis-Rodriguez, Steffanie A. Strathdee Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Correlates of methadone client retention: A prospective cohort study in Guizhou province, ChinaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Clients need to receive an adequate methadone dose to assure continued retention. Patients who expect to be treated for life have higher retention rates than patients who anticipate only short-term treatment. Key factors associated with successful clinics in China need to be elucidated. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - October 27, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Enwu Liu, Tao Liang, Limei Shen, Huan Zhong, Bing Wang, Zunyou Wu, Roger Detels Tags: Research papers Source Type: journals

Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Philip Cook’s book, Paying the Tab, is an excellent book for academics, policy analysts, and graduate students to use as a primary source on U.S. alcohol policy. He combines historical, political, and economic data into an easily-understood text. In the final chapter, Cook summarizes his research in such a way that it will assist them in developing comprehensive national, state, and local alcohol policies. (Source: International Journal of Drug Policy)
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - October 23, 2008 Category: Addiction Authors: Dwight Vick Tags: Book Review Source Type: journals