The International journal on drug policy
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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.
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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
The Canadian war on drugs: structural violence and unequal treatment of Black Canadians.
This paper examines the impact of Canada's war on drugs on segments of the Black community, specifically with respect to the impact of structural violence, over-policing, and high incarceration rates. It offers evidence of the systemic nature of these dynamics by examining the early context of the war, growing stigma against Blacks, globalizing influences, and the punitive focus of funding and policy. ⋯ This commentary calls for an immediate dissolution of policies regulating the war on drugs as the first step in remedying the injustices experienced by Black Canadians. Due to the lack of Canadian data in this important area, the paper also emphasizes the critical need for more research to shed more light on the Canadian-specific complexities.