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In August 2019, an outbreak of “e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury” (EVALI) prompted many states and health organizations to warn against the use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes...
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Harm Reduction grant program expanded access to several harm reduction strategies to mitigate opioid overdose fatalities, including expa...
Opioid-related overdose death is a public health epidemic in much of the USA, yet little is known about how people who use opioids (PWUO) experience overdose deaths in their social networks. We explore these e...
Existing research in urban areas has documented a multitude of ways in which law enforcement may affect risks for bloodborne infectious disease acquisition among people who inject drugs (PWID), such as via syr...
Injection drug use and needle sharing remains a public health concern due to the associated risk of HIV, HCV and skin and soft tissue infections. Studies have shown gendered differences in the risk environment...
Access to sterile needles, syringes and methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) is critical to reduce the prevalence of bloodborne virus infections among people who inject drugs (PWID). We aimed to explore the exp...
In 2016, the US state of North Carolina (NC) legalized syringe services programs (SSPs), providing limited immunity from misdemeanor syringe possession when law enforcement is presented documentation that syri...
The impact of policing practices on the engagement of people who use drugs (PWUD) with harm reduction services is well evidenced. Although the police have traditionally taken an enforcement role in responding ...
Prescription opioids have been increasingly prescribed for chronic pain while the opioid-related death rates grow. Naloxone, an opioid antagonist, is increasingly recommended in these patients, yet there is li...
Heroin pipe distribution may encourage people who use heroin (PWUH) to transition from injecting to smoking heroin, reducing harms associated with injection drug use. A syringe services program (SSP) in Seattl...
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for wide deployment of effective harm reduction strategies in preventing opioid overdose mortality. Placing naloxone in the hands of key responders, including law e...
Australian harm reduction services are provided via a mix of modalities, including fixed-site needle and syringe programmes (NSP) and syringe-dispensing machines (SDMs). SDMs are cost-effective and provide 24-...
Vaccine-hesitant persons who inject drugs are at increased risk for several vaccine-preventable diseases. However, vaccination rates among this population remain low. While syringe services programs (SSPs) are...
People who use drugs in Scotland are currently experiencing disproportionately high rates of drug-related deaths. Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) are harm reduction services that offer a safe, hygienic environme...
In Scotland drug policy and consequently the progress of evidence-based treatment options has been struggling for many years. Political inaction is brought about by a complex chain of legal and operational obs...
Emergency departments (EDs) are important venues for the distribution of naloxone to patients at high risk of opioid overdose, but less is known about patient perceptions on naloxone or best practices for pati...
Increased opioid-related morbidity and mortality in racialized communities has highlighted the intersectional nature of the drug policy crisis. Given the racist evolution of the war on drugs and the harm reduc...
Substance use treatment and harm reduction services are essential components of comprehensive strategies for reducing the harms of drug use and overdose. However, these services have been historically siloed, ...
Resilience is a commonly used construct in substance use and mental health research. Yet it is often narrowly defined by only its internal qualities (e.g., adaptability, hardiness) and overlooks its external q...
Incarcerated people are at an increased risk of contracting HIV and transmitting it to the community post-release. In Iran, HIV epidemics inside prisons were first detected in the early 1990s. We assessed the ...
The majority of opioid-related deaths occur in suburban communities with people who use alone in their homes.
The original article was published in Harm Reduction Journal 2021 18:130
People who both smoke cigarettes and vape are often considered as a homogenous group even though multiple subgroups may exist. We examined biomarkers of exposure (BOE) and biomarkers of potential harm (BOPH) t...
Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) is the primary intervention for opioid use disorder (OUD) in Canada and the USA. Yet, a number of barriers contribute to sub-optimal treatment uptake and retention, including dai...
Australia has had a framework for legal medicinal cannabis since 2016, yet prior online surveys in 2016 and 2018 indicated that most consumers continued to use illicit medical cannabis products. Regulatory dat...
Supervised injection facilities (SIFs) provide spaces where persons who inject drugs (PWID) can inject under medical supervision and access harm reduction services. Though SIFs are not currently sanctioned in ...
Police action can increase risky substance use patterns by people who use drugs (PWUD), but it is not known how increased police presence affects utilization of low-barrier substance use disorder bridge clinic...
The original article was published in Harm Reduction Journal 2022 19:67
Per the CDC, it is estimated that 69,710 opioid overdose deaths occurred in the United States from September 2019 to September 2020. However, it is unclear whether naloxone prescribing also increased or otherw...
The meaningful inclusion of young people who use or have used drugs is a fundamental aspect of harm reduction, including in program design, research, service provision, and advocacy efforts. However, there are...
Internationally, strategies focusing on reducing alcohol-related harms in homeless populations with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD) continue to gain acceptance, especially when conventional modalities focuse...
Alongside a recent revival in the use of psychedelics in clinical settings, there have been increases in the prevalence of recreational use, with many using psychedelics to deal with difficult emotions or to i...
The impact of public health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic on people who inject drugs (PWID) has varied across regions. In other countries, recent research has shown that PWID access to harm reduction s...
US overdose deaths have reached a record high. Syringe services programs (SSPs) play a critical role in addressing this crisis by providing multiple services to people who use drugs (PWUD) that help prevent ov...
Syringe service programs (SSPs) provide essential harm reduction and prevention services for people who inject drugs in the USA, where SSP coverage is expanding. During the COVID-19 pandemic, US SSPs underwent...
The dual COVID-19 and overdose emergencies amplified strain on healthcare systems tasked with responding to both. One downstream consequence of the pandemic in the USA and Canada was a surge in drug overdoses ...
Illicit fentanyl has contributed to a drastic increase in overdose drug deaths. While fentanyl has subsumed the drug supply in the Northeastern and Midwestern USA, it has more recently reached the Western USA....
Syringe services programs (SSPs) hold promise for providing buprenorphine treatment access to people with opioid use disorder (OUD) who are reluctant to seek care elsewhere. In 2017, the New York City Departme...
Delivery of effective health care is hampered by stigma, the social processes that attach negative judgement and response to some attributes, conditions, practices and identities. Experiencing or anticipating ...
Safe consumption sites (SCSs) serve diverse populations of people who use drugs (PWUD) and public health objectives. SCS implementation began in the 1980s, and today, there are at least 200 known SCSs operatin...
Fatal drug overdoses in the USA hit historical records during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, people who used drugs had greater odds of contracting COVID-19, increased drug use due to COVID-rel...
Take-Home Naloxone (THN) is a core intervention aimed at addressing the toxic illicit opioid drug supply crisis. Although THN programs are available in all provinces and territories throughout Canada, there ar...
The opioid epidemic is a progressively worsening public health crisis that continues to impact healthcare system strategies such as overdose reversal and destigmatization. Even among healthcare professionals, ...
Buprenorphine and naloxone are first-line medications for people who use opioids (PWUO). Buprenorphine can reduce opioid use and cravings, help withdrawal symptoms, and reduce risk of opioid overdose. Naloxone...
Women who use heroin and other drugs (WWUD) are a key population with elevated risk of physical and sexual violence perpetrated by intimate partners and non-partners. While housing instability has been shown t...
Individuals with substance use disorder often encounter law enforcement due to drug use-related criminal activity. Traditional policing approaches may not be effective for reducing recidivism and improving out...
The Correction to this article has been published in Harm Reduction Journal 2022 19:85
The aim of this study was to critically analyse information concerning the relationship between alcohol and food consumption provided via alcohol industry (AI) funded and non-AI-funded health-oriented websites...
As the opioid overdose crisis persists and take-home naloxone (THN) programmes expand, it is important that the intervention is targeted towards those most likely to use it. We examined THN program participant...
Expanding availability to naloxone is a core harm reduction strategy in efforts to address the opioid epidemic. In the US, state-level legislation is a prominent mechanism to expand naloxone availability throu...
Traditional heroin-assisted treatment in Switzerland consists of oral and injectable diacetylmorphine (pharmaceutical heroin) administration. To date, no suitable treatment option is available for patients who...
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