CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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Law enforcement is often used in an effort to reduce the social, community and health-related harms of illicit drug use by injection drug users (IDUs). There are, however, few data on the benefits of such enforcement or on the potential harms. A large-scale police "crackdown" to control illicit drug use in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside provided us with an opportunity to evaluate the effect. ⋯ The effort to control illicit drug use did not alter the price of drugs or the frequency of use, nor did it encourage enrollment in methadone treatment programs. Several measures indicated displacement of injection drug use from the area of the crackdown into adjacent areas of the city, which has implications for both recruitment of new initiates into injection drug use and HIV prevention efforts.
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The reduction of socioeconomic inequalities in health is an explicit objective of health policy in Canada, yet rates of death from cervical cancer are known to be higher among women of low socioeconomic status than among those of higher socioeconomic status. To evaluate progress toward the World Health Organization's goal of "Health for All," we examined whether income-related differentials in cervical cancer mortality diminished from 1971 to 1996. ⋯ The income-related disparity in rates of death from cervical cancer as measured by rate ratios and rate differences diminished markedly in urban Canada from 1971 to 1996. Among the numerous factors that may have contributed to the decline (including decline in fertility and improvement in diet), one important factor was probably the implementation of effective screening programs.