Drug policy: what impact does it have on children and youth?

This article reviews the national and international literature on drug policy, focusing on harm reduction strategies and their impact on the development of children and youth in Brazil. Without using statistical criteria, this paper develops an overview of the current context and discusses the trends in the literature through an exploratory analysis of production and a non-exhaustive bibliography. The results showed that state investment in public policies for the treatment and prevention of drug abuse is recent. In addition, harm reduction is still a little known and controversial strategy, especially among children and adolescents.

Download Full-text

A Glass Half Full? Harm Reduction among Pregnant Women Who Use Cocaine

Journal of Drug Issues ◽

10.1177/002204260203200315 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 973-998 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jeanne Flavin

Keyword(s):

Drug Abuse ◽

Drug Use ◽

Harm Reduction ◽

Pregnant Women ◽

Healthy Pregnancy ◽

Research Challenges ◽

Physical Position ◽

Maternal Drug Use ◽

Reduction Strategies ◽

Women Who Use Drugs

The current research challenges the popular assumption that pregnant women who use drugs are either unable or unwilling to take steps to promote a healthy pregnancy. Many qualitative studies have found that pregnant women who use drugs may engage in harm reduction strategies. These findings were confirmed in the present study, which uses data collected as part of the 1992 National Institute on Drug Abuse survey of women who delivered live-born infants in DC hospitals. These data also highlight the disadvantaged socioeconomic, emotional, and physical position of women who use cocaine relative to other women. The findings suggest a need for policies and responses to maternal drug use that recognize many women's desire to promote a healthy pregnancy as well as their diminished social and physical circumstances.

Download Full-text

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to predict implementation of harm reduction strategies among MDMA/ecstasy users.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors ◽

10.1037/adb0000167 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 500-508 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Alan K. Davis ◽

Harold Rosenberg

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Planned Behavior ◽

Harm Reduction ◽

Planned Behavior ◽

Reduction Strategies

Download Full-text

White House Drug Policy Office and National Institute on Drug Abuse Unveil New Training Materials to Combat National Prescription Drug Abuse Epidemic

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e686182012-001 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Keyword(s):

Drug Abuse ◽

Prescription Drug ◽

Drug Policy ◽

Prescription Drug Abuse ◽

White House ◽

Training Materials

Download Full-text

Missing Data, Moral Eyesores, and Marginalized People: Opposition to Needle Exchange and Harm Reduction in Drug Policy

10.3390/wsf-4-i002 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Kyle Bridge

Keyword(s):

Missing Data ◽

Harm Reduction ◽

Drug Policy ◽

Needle Exchange

Download Full-text

Hoots and harm reduction: a qualitative study identifying gaps in overdose prevention among women who smoke drugs

Harm Reduction Journal ◽

10.1186/s12954-021-00479-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Geoff Bardwell ◽

Tamar Austin ◽

Lisa Maher ◽

Jade Boyd

Keyword(s):

Harm Reduction ◽

Illicit Drugs ◽

Structural Violence ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Overdose Prevention ◽

Polysubstance Use ◽

Reduction Strategies ◽

Prevention Interventions ◽

Negative Health Outcomes ◽

Mixed Gender

Abstract Background Smoking or inhaling illicit drugs can lead to a variety of negative health outcomes, including overdose. However, most overdose prevention interventions, such as supervised consumption services (SCS), prohibit inhalation. In addition, women are underrepresented at SCS and are disproportionately impacted by socio-structural violence. This study examines women’s experiences smoking illicit drugs during an overdose epidemic, including their utilization of a women-only supervised inhalation site. Methods Qualitative research methods included on-site ethnographic observation and semi-structured interviews with 32 participants purposively recruited from the women-only site. Data were coded and analyzed using NVivo 12 and thematic analysis was informed by gendered and socio-structural understandings of violence. Results Participants had preferences for smoking drugs and these were shaped by their limited income, inability to inject, and perceptions of overdose risk. Participants expressed the need for services that attend to women’s specific experiences of gendered, race-based, and structural violence faced within and outside mixed-gender social service settings. Results indicate a need for sanctioned spaces that recognize polysubstance use and drug smoking, accommodated by the women-only SCS. The smoking environment further fostered a sociability where participants could engage in perceived harm reduction through sharing drugs with other women/those in need and were able to respond in the event of an overdose. Conclusions Findings demonstrate the ways in which gendered social and structural environments shape women’s daily experiences using drugs and the need for culturally appropriate interventions that recognize diverse modes of consumption while attending to overdose and violence. Women-only smoking spaces can provide temporary reprieve from some socio-structural harms and build collective capacity to practice harm reduction strategies, including overdose prevention. Women-specific SCS with attention to polysubstance use are needed as well as continued efforts to address the socio-structural harms experienced by women who smoke illicit drugs.

Download Full-text

Harm Reduction Strategies and Drug-Related Negative Consequences in the Dance Music Scene: The Moderating Role of Polysubstance Use

Substance Use & Misuse ◽

10.1080/10826084.2021.1892144 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 56 (6) ◽

pp. 777-781

Author(s):

Belén del Valle Vera ◽

José Carmona-Marquez ◽

Claudio Vidal-Giné ◽

Fermín Fernández-Calderón

Keyword(s):

Harm Reduction ◽

Dance Music ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Polysubstance Use ◽

Music Scene ◽

Reduction Strategies ◽

Moderating Role

Download Full-text

Civil society involvement in harm reduction drug policy: reflections on the past, expectations for the future

Harm Reduction Journal ◽

10.1186/s12954-020-00426-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Aileen O’Gorman ◽

Eberhard Schatz

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Harm Reduction ◽

Lived Experience ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Drug Policy ◽

Policy Development ◽

Policy Decision ◽

People Who Use Drugs ◽

Annual Conference ◽

Health Crisis

Abstract Background A range of civil society organisations (CSOs) such as drug user groups, non-governmental/third sector organisations and networks of existing organisations, seek to shape the development of drugs policy at national and international levels. However, their capacity to do so is shaped by the contexts in which they operate nationally and internationally. The aim of this paper is to explore the lived experience of civil society participation in these contexts, both from the perspective of CSOs engaged in harm reduction advocacy, and the institutions they engage with, in order to inform future policy development. Methods This paper is based on the presentations and discussions from a workshop on ‘Civil Society Involvement in Drug Policy hosted by the Correlation - European Harm Reduction Network at the International Society for the Study of Drugs Policy (ISSDP) annual conference in Paris, 2019. In the aftermath of the workshop, the authors analysed the papers and discussions and identified the key themes arising to inform CSI in developing future harm reduction policy and practice. Results Civil society involvement (CSI) in policy decision-making and implementation is acknowledged as an important benefit to representative democracy. Yet, the accounts of CSOs demonstrate the challenges they experience in seeking to shape the contested field of drug policy. Negotiating the complex workings of political institutions, often in adversarial and heavily bureaucratic environments, proved difficult. Nonetheless, an increase in structures which formalised and resourced CSI enabled more meaningful participation at different levels and at different stages of policy making. Conclusions Civil society spaces are colonised by a broad range of civil society actors lobbying from different ideological standpoints including those advocating for a ‘drug free world’ and those advocating for harm reduction. In these competitive arena, it may be difficult for harm reduction orientated CSOs to influence the policy process. However, the current COVID-19 public health crisis clearly demonstrates the benefits of partnership between CSOs and political institutions to address the harm reduction needs of people who use drugs. The lessons drawn from our workshop serve to inform all partners on this pathway.

Download Full-text

Could 30 years of political controversy on needle exchange programmes in Sweden contribute to scaling-up harm reduction services in the world?

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs ◽

10.1177/1455072520965013 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 145507252096501

Author(s):

Niklas Karlsson ◽

Torsten Berglund ◽

Anna Mia Ekström ◽

Anders Hammarberg ◽

Tuukka Tammi

Keyword(s):

Harm Reduction ◽

Drug Policy ◽

Grey Literature ◽

Scale Up ◽

Valuable Insight ◽

Control Drug ◽

Policy Domain ◽

The World ◽

Key Events ◽

Exchange Programmes

Aims: To end the hepatitis and AIDS epidemics in the world by 2030, countries are encouraged to scale-up harm reduction services and target people who inject drugs (PWID). Blood-borne viruses (BBV) among PWID spread via unsterile injection equipment sharing and to combat this, many countries have introduced needle and syringe exchange programmes (NEP), though not without controversy. Sweden’s long, complicated harm reduction policy transition has been deviant compared to the Nordic countries. After launch in 1986, no NEP were started in Sweden for 23 years, the reasons for which are analysed in this study. Methods: Policy documents, grey literature and research mainly published in 2000–2017 were collected and analysed using a hierarchical framework, to understand how continuous build-up of evidence, decisions and key events, over time influenced NEP development. Results: Sweden’s first NEP opened in a repressive-control drug policy era with a drug-free society goal. Despite high prevalence of BBV among PWID with recurring outbreaks, growing research and key-actor support including a NEP law, no NEP were launched. Political disagreements, fluctuating actor-coalitions, questioning of research, and a municipality veto against NEP, played critical roles. With an individual-centred perspective being brought into the drug policy domain, the manifestation of a dual drug and health policy track, a revised NEP law in 2017 and removal of the veto, Sweden would see fast expansion of new NEP. Conclusions: Lessons from the Swedish case could provide valuable insight for countries about to scale-up harm reduction services including how to circumvent costly time- and resource-intensive obstacles and processes involving ideological and individual moral dimensions.

Download Full-text