The International journal on drug policy
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Int. J. Drug Policy · Apr 2018
A qualitative study comparing physician-reported barriers to treating addiction using buprenorphine and extended-release naltrexone in U.S. office-based practices.
Our aim was to compare physician-reported barriers to sublingual buprenorphine (BUP) and extended-release naltrexone (XR-NLT) prescribing in U.S. office-based practices, and to identify potential policies for minimizing these barriers. Only one previous qualitative study has examined physician-reported barriers to prescribing XR-NLT and no qualitative study has compared physician-reported barriers between the two medications. ⋯ While overlap exists, some barriers to BUP prescribing differ from barriers to XR-NLT prescribing.
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Int. J. Drug Policy · Mar 2018
CommentHedging bets: Applying New Zealand's gambling machine regime to cannabis legalization.
Cannabis legalization is often falsely depicted as a binary choice between status quo prohibition and legalizing production and distribution by (regulated) for-profit industry. There are, however, many more prudent architectures for legalization, such as restricting production and distribution licenses to not-for-profit entities. Wilkins describes how New Zealand applied that concept to gambling machines and proposes a parallel for cannabis legalization. Greater investment in proposing good designs along these lines, including attending to governance structures, would be valuable.
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Int. J. Drug Policy · Feb 2018
Perceptions about supervised injection facilities among people who inject drugs in Philadelphia.
People who inject drugs (PWID) are at high risk for infectious diseases, skin and soft tissue infections, and overdose. However, these harms are all avoidable when sterile injection equipment, hygienic places to inject, and medical care are accessible. Unfortunately, many PWID in the U.S lack these resources. The most vulnerable are forced to inject in public spaces, where individual risks are high and communal harms are sometimes many. Supervised Injection Facilities (SIFs) are an established intervention for reducing these harms. Despite positive experiences in other countries, little research explores how PWID in the U.S. perceive the value of such facilities. ⋯ Results both confirm and extend prior research about PWID and SIFs. Participants expressed support for SIFs as in prior survey research in the U.S. and in other countries. Facility location and housing status were identified as important determinants of facility use. Results extend prior research by illuminating PWID perceptions in the U.S. including motivations grounded in concern for public order.
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This paper explores the recent resurgence in use of ecstasy/MDMA in Europe and highlights keys areas of continuity and divergence between the ecstasy market of the 1990s and the current MDMA market. Based on a scoping study involving a targeted multi-source data collection exercise on MDMA, it highlights nine areas that have undergone some level of change, linked with both supply and demand for the drug. Factors discussed include: innovation in production techniques; changes in precursor chemical availability; the role of online markets; competition with other stimulants and new psychoactive substances; the increased availability of high-strength MDMA; and the shift from subcultural towards more mainstream use of the drug. The paper proposes that the MDMA on Europe's contemporary market is in some respects a third generation product with a different consumer profile, with implications that responses developed at the time of the drug's earlier iteration, may be in need of a review and revamp.