The International journal on drug policy
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Int. J. Drug Policy · May 2014
Public opinion of drug treatment policy: exploring the public's attitudes, knowledge, experience and willingness to pay for drug treatment strategies.
Research evidence is strong for opiate replacement treatment (ORT). However, public opinion (attitudes) can be at odds with evidence. This study explored the relationships between, attitudes, knowledge of drugs and a range of socio-demographic variables that potentially influence attitude. This is relevant in the current policy arena in which a major shift from harm reduction to, rehabilitation is underway. ⋯ There is a gap between public attitudes and evidence regarding drug treatment. Findings suggest a way forward might be to develop and evaluate treatment that integrates ORT with a community rehabilitative approach. Evaluation of public engagement/education to improve knowledge of drug treatment effectiveness is recommended.
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Int. J. Drug Policy · May 2014
Establishing expertise: Canadian community-based medical cannabis dispensaries as embodied health movement organisations.
In this commentary, I describe how, through both advocacy and the generation of new knowledge, community-based medical cannabis dispensaries have contributed to the broader dialogue regarding the legal and safe provision of medical cannabis in Canada. By employing an embodied health movement framework (Brown et al., 2004), this analysis highlights the role of dispensaries in creating new knowledge, challenging existing practices, and advancing their agenda to legitimise cannabis as a therapeutic substance and offer an alternative model for its provision. Although the community-based, holistic approach that dispensaries offer has not been adopted by the Canadian government, dispensaries have achieved success in being recognized as credible stakeholders and experts in the ongoing debate on the legal provision of medical cannabis in Canada.
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Int. J. Drug Policy · May 2014
Is there any legal and scientific basis for classifying electronic cigarettes as medications?
The rapid growth in the use of electronic cigarettes has been accompanied by substantial discussions by governments, international organisations, consumers and public health experts about how they might be regulated. In the European Union they are currently regulated under consumer legislation but new legislation will regulate them under the Tobacco Products Directive. However, several countries have sought to regulate them under medicines regulations. ⋯ They are not used to treat nicotine addiction or other disease, but to enable continued use of nicotine. Their use is adjusted individually by each consumer according to his or her perceived pleasure and satisfaction. Gaps in current regulation regarding safety and quality can be met by tailored regulations.
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Marijuana potency has risen dramatically over the past two decades. In the United States, it is unclear whether state medical marijuana policies have contributed to this increase. ⋯ Our findings have important implications for policymakers and those in the scientific community trying to understand the extent to which greater availability of higher potency marijuana increases the risk of negative public health outcomes, such as drugged driving and drug-induced psychoses. Future work should reconsider the impact of medical marijuana laws on health outcomes in light of dramatic and ongoing shifts in both marijuana potency and the medical marijuana policy environment.
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Int. J. Drug Policy · Mar 2014
Comparative Study"Every 'never' I ever said came true": transitions from opioid pills to heroin injecting.
This qualitative study documents the pathways to injecting heroin by users in Philadelphia and San Francisco before and during a pharmaceutical opioid pill epidemic. Data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews (conducted between 2010 and 2012) that were, conducted against a background of longer-term participant-observation, ethnographic studies of street-based drug users and dealers in Philadelphia (2007-12) and San Francisco (1994-2007, 2012). Philadelphia and San Francisco were selected for their contrasting political economies, immigration patterns and source type of heroin. ⋯ Many expressed surprise and dismay at their progression to sniffing and subsequently to injecting heroin. Historically and structurally these users found themselves caught at the intersection of two major developments in the opiate supply: (1) an over 500% increase in opiate pill prescription from 1997 to 2005 resulting in easy access to diverted supplies of less stigmatized opiates than heroin and (2) a heroin supply glut, following the US entry of Colombian-sourced, heroin in the early 1990s, that decreased cost and increased purity at the retail level. A nationwide up-cycle of heroin use may be occurring among young inner city, suburban and rural youth fueled by widespread prescription opioid pill use.