Theorizing “Big Events” as a potential risk environment for drug use, drug-related harm and HIV epidemic outbreaks

This article presents a re-conceptualization of moderate adolescent drug use. It is argued that experimentation with alcohol and other drugs during the teenage years may play an important role in the development of regulatory competency in relation to drug consumption in adulthood. When such regulatory skills fail to emerge in young people, during the transition to adulthood, the likelihood of serious alcohol- or drug-related harm is increased. The article reviews the empirical evidence of poor self-regulation as a predictor of long-term alcohol- and drug-related problems, places self-regulation within a broader theoretical framework, and considers the policy and practice implications of this conceptualization.

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The gendered risk environment for injection drug use: An event specific analysis of injection risk behavior

Drug and Alcohol Dependence ◽

10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.07.285 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 156 ◽

pp. e103

Author(s):

Patrick Janulis

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Risk Behavior ◽

Injection Drug Use ◽

Injection Drug ◽

Risk Environment ◽

Specific Analysis ◽

Injection Risk Behavior ◽

Injection Risk

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Out-of-Home Care As an Institutional Risk Environment for Volatile Substance Use

Children Australia ◽

10.1017/cha.2012.4 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 23-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sarah MacLean

Keyword(s):

Substance Use ◽

Young People ◽

Drug Use ◽

Home Care ◽

Familial Risk ◽

Volatile Substance ◽

Future Research ◽

Risk Environment ◽

Out Of Home Care ◽

Institutional Risk

The exploratory study of meanings of volatile substance use (VSU) on which this article draws (involving 28 young people living in Melbourne, Victoria, Australa, aged from 13 to 24 years, each with experience of VSU, and 14 expert workers) was not designed to investigate any relationship between VSU and living in out-of-home care while subject to protective orders. However, when asked about their lives at the time they commenced or intensified VSU, 8 participants were adamant that living in out-of-home care was a significant factor. Two narratives reiterated by these young people are identified in the article: first that VSU is part of life in out-of-home care, and second that VSU ceases to be appropriate after leaving care. Young people who are living in out-of-home care report substantially higher levels of VSU than occur across the general population. This article shows how narrative accounts (even when expressed by small numbers of participants) provide insight into how VSU and other drug use may become embedded in particular institutional settings through assuming meanings and utility for users that are specific to these environments. While previous literature on the aetiology of VSU generally emphasises individual or familial risk factors, this article argues that out-of-home care may function, at least in some instances, as an institutional ‘risk environment’ for VSU and that this should be further explored through future research. Adjusting models of care may offer new strategies for responding to this form of drug use.

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The Australian Illicit Drug Reporting System: Monitoring Trends in Illicit Drug Availability, Use and Drug-Related Harm in Australia 1996–2006

Contemporary Drug Problems ◽

10.1177/009145090903600317 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 36 (3-4) ◽

pp. 643-661 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Wayne Hall ◽

Louisa Degenhardt

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Drug Users ◽

Illicit Drug ◽

Reporting System ◽

Pharmaceutical Preparations ◽

Recent Experience ◽

Prescription Data ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Combining Data ◽

Related Harm

We describe trends in illicit drug use revealed by the Australian Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) between 1996 and 2006. We begin by briefly outlining the rationale, development, and testing of the IDRS, which integrates information from: interviews with a sentinel population of injecting drug users (IDU); key experts in health and law enforcement; and indicators that include information on drug purity and price, plus indicators of drug-related harm, such as fatal and nonfatal overdoses. These sources of information are critically discussed at annual meetings of researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the field. We describe what the IDRS has revealed about the use of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, and injected pharmaceutical preparations (opioids and benzodiazepines) over the period 1996–2006. We also illustrate how IDRS data can be combined with pharmaceutical prescription data to evaluate the effectiveness of policies designed to reduce benzodiazepine injecting. We also very briefly describe recent experience with monitoring trends on “dance party” drug use that extends the methods of IDRS by combining data from interviews with party drug users, key experts, and leading indicators of drug use.

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An ethical analysis of UK drug policy as an example of a criminal justice approach to drugs: a commentary on the short film Putting UK Drug Policy into Focus

Harm Reduction Journal ◽

10.1186/s12954-020-00434-8 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Adam Holland

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Drug Policy ◽

Legal Status ◽

War On Drugs ◽

Current Approach ◽

Convincing Evidence ◽

Short Film ◽

People Who Use Drugs ◽

Main Body ◽

Related Harm

Abstract Background Drug-related deaths in the UK are at the highest level on record—the war on drugs has failed. A short film has been produced intended for public and professional audiences featuring academics, representatives of advocacy organisations, police and policymakers outlining the problems with, and highlighting alternative approaches to, UK drug policy. A range of ethical arguments are alluded to, which are distilled here in greater depth for interested viewers and a wider professional and academic readership. Main body The war on drugs is seemingly driven by the idea that the consumption of illegal drugs is immoral. However, the meaning ascribed to ‘drug’ in the illicit sense encompasses a vast range of substances with different properties that have as much in common with legal drugs as they do with each other. The only property that distinguishes illegal from legal drugs is their legal status, which rather than being based on an assessment of how dangerous they are has been defined by centuries of socio-political idiosyncrasies. The consequences of criminalising people who use drugs often outweigh the risks they face from drug use, and there is not convincing evidence that this prevents wider drug use or drug-related harm. Additionally, punishing someone as a means, to the end of deterring others from drug use, is ethically problematic. Although criminalising the production of harmful drugs may seem more ethically tenable, it has not reduced the supply of drugs and it precludes effective regulation of the market. Other potential policy approaches are highlighted, which would be ethically preferable to existing punitive policy. Conclusion It is not possible to eliminate all drug use and associated harms. The current approach is not only ineffective in preventing drug-related harm but itself directly and indirectly causes incalculable harm to those who use drugs and to wider society. For policymakers to gain the mandate to rationalise drug policy, or to be held accountable if they do not, wider engagement with the electorate is required. It is hoped that this film will encourage at least a few to give pause and reflect on how drug policy might be improved.

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