The International journal on drug policy
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Int. J. Drug Policy · Nov 2013
ReviewThe role of the Chinese police in methadone maintenance therapy: a literature review.
The behavior of police is an important factor in drug users' access to preventive and therapeutic health services. In China, opiate users must be registered and approved by police before accessing methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). ⋯ Reviewed studies report drug policing practices that appear to be impeding MMT access and reducing successful treatment outcomes. Research focusing on the nature, prevalence and severity of these effects is urgently needed. Health and public security officials in China should review and reform policies and practices of registering, monitoring, and incarcerating drug users.
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Int. J. Drug Policy · Nov 2013
ReviewWork and the journey to recovery: exploring the implications of welfare reform for methadone maintenance clients.
An emphasis on welfare reform has been a shared concern of recent UK governments, with the project of transforming the provision of welfare gathering pace over the past six years. Replicating active labour market policies pursued across the globe, successive governments have used welfare-to-work programmes as mechanisms to address worklessness. Since 2008, problem drug users (PDUs) have been added to a list of groups for whom intervention is deemed necessary to encourage, enable, and sometimes coerce them into paid employment. This approach is underpinned by three beliefs relating to paid work: it sustains recovery, has a transformative potential and should be the primary duty of the responsible citizen. Using policy developments in the UK as a case study, the article explores the implications for methadone maintenance clients of connecting drug policy (premised on the belief that work is central to recovery) with welfare policy (which at present is preoccupied with reducing worklessness). ⋯ Welfare reform in the UK is likely to undermine the recovery of methadone maintenance clients. Further research is urgently needed to explore its impact on this sub-group of PDUs, alongside comparative studies to determine best practice in integrating drug and welfare policies.