Articles

A critical narrative inquiry to understand the impacts of an overdose prevention site on the lives of site users

Globally, communities are struggling to gain support for harm reduction strategies being implemented to address the impacts of substance use. A key part of this discussion is understanding and engaging with pe...

Authors: Abe Oudshoorn, Michelle Sangster Bouck, Melissa McCann, Shamiram Zendo, Helene Berman, Jordan Banninga, Marlene Janzen Le Ber and Zayya Zendo

Peer-assisted injection as a harm reduction measure in a supervised consumption service: a qualitative study of client experiences

Peer assistance is an emerging area of study in injection drug use. When Canada’s first supervised consumption site (SCS) opened in 2003 in Vancouver, Canada, clients were prohibited from injecting their peers...

Authors: Em Pijl, Tracy Oosterbroek, Takara Motz, Erin Mason and Keltie Hamilton

Supervised consumption sites and crime: scrutinizing the methodological weaknesses and aberrant results of a government report in Alberta, Canada

To date, peer-reviewed research has found no evidence linking supervised consumptions sites (SCSs) to increased crime. Yet, in March 2020, a government Report released in the province of Alberta, Canada, prese...

Authors: James D. Livingston

Harm reduction in Europe: a framework for civil society-led monitoring

Civil society organisations (CSOs) play a vital role in developing and implementing effective measures to reduce the harms of drug use. They are also fundamental actors to monitor and evaluate programmes and p...

Authors: Rafaela Rigoni, Tuukka Tammi, Daan van der Gouwe and Eberhard Schatz

Lessons learned from the Amsterdam Cohort Studies among people who use drugs: a historical perspective

The Netherlands is well known for its early adoption of harm reduction (HR) programs at the height of its heroin crisis in the 1970s/1980s, including the implementation of the first needle and syringe program ...

Authors: Daniela K. van Santen, Roel A. Coutinho, Anneke van den Hoek, Giel van Brussel, Marcel Buster and Maria Prins

Having a voice and saving lives: a qualitative survey on employment impacts of people with lived experience of drug use working in harm reduction

Ongoing legal and social discrimination, and stigmatization of people with lived experience of drug use (PWLE) continues to contribute to overdose-related deaths in Canada. The involvement of PWLE working in h...

Authors: Tamar Austin and Jade Boyd

Factors associated with drug checking service utilization among people who use drugs in a Canadian setting

The United States and Canada are amidst an opioid overdose crisis, with the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) among the hardest hit. In response, drug checking services (DCS) have been introduced in t...

Authors: Viseth Long, Jaime Arredondo, Lianping Ti, Cameron Grant, Kora DeBeck, M-J Milloy, Mark Lysyshyn, Evan Wood, Thomas Kerr and Kanna Hayashi

Trends in inpatient discharges with drug or alcohol admission diagnoses to a skilled nursing facility among older adults, New York City 2008–2014

Recent research shows an increase in drug and alcohol-related hospitalizations in the USA, especially among older adults. However, no study examines trends in discharges to a skilled nursing facility (SNF) aft...

Authors: Benjamin H. Han, Ellenie Tuazon, Hillary V. Kunins and Denise Paone

Harm reduction via online platforms for people who use drugs in Russia: a qualitative analysis of web outreach work

Harm reduction services to people who use drugs (PWUD) in Russia are insufficient in terms of quantity, government endorsement, and accessibility. The situation has recently deteriorated even further because o...

Authors: Arsen Davitadze, Peter Meylakhs, Aleksey Lakhov and Elizabeth J. King

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

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 ...

Authors: Adam Holland

Predictors of skin and soft tissue infections among sample of rural residents who inject drugs

Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality for people who inject drugs (PWID). Studies demonstrate that certain injection practices correlate with SSTI inci...

Authors: Amelia Baltes, Wajiha Akhtar, Jen Birstler, Heidi Olson-Streed, Kellene Eagen, David Seal, Ryan Westergaard and Randall Brown

Rapid evidence review of harm reduction interventions and messaging for people who inject drugs during pandemic events: implications for the ongoing COVID-19 response

People who inject drugs are at increased health risk in a pandemic due to their greater susceptibility to severe disease and as a consequence of the restrictions put in place to halt the spread of infection. H...

Authors: Rebecca Wilkinson, Lindsey Hines, Adam Holland, Sema Mandal and Emily Phipps

New psychoactive substances in Eurasia: a qualitative study of people who use drugs and harm reduction services in six countries

This study examines the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) and the harm reduction response in six Eurasian countries: Belarus, Moldova, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia. The aim is to identify...

Authors: Eliza Kurcevič and Rick Lines

Reporting on the opioid crisis (2000–2018): role of The Globe and Mail, a Canadian English-language newspaper in influencing public opinion

We aim to describe the general characteristics of how the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reports on opioid-related news, the opioid crisis and its victims, and explore how Canadians’ perceptions of the opi...

Authors: Amanda My Linh Quan, Lindsay A. Wilson, Salima S. Mithani, David T. Zhu, A. Brianne Bota and Kumanan Wilson

Seeking safety: a focus group study of young adults’ cannabis-related attitudes, and behavior in a state with legalized recreational cannabis

Only July 1, 2017, Nevada became the fifth US state to allow the legal sale of recreational cannabis products for adults ages of 21 and over. This study investigates young adults’ cannabis-related attitudes, p...

Authors: Nada Amroussia, Mika Watanabe and Jennifer L. Pearson

How effective are electronic cigarettes for reducing respiratory and cardiovascular risk in smokers? A systematic review

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are widely promoted as harm-reduction products for smokers, and smokers commonly perceive them as less harmful than combustible cigarettes. One of the key questions regardi...

Authors: Maciej L. Goniewicz, Connor R. Miller, Edward Sutanto and Dongmei Li

Convenience and comfort: reasons reported for using drugs alone among clients of harm reduction sites in British Columbia, Canada

North American communities are severely impacted by the overdose crisis, particularly in British Columbia (BC), which has the highest toxic drug overdose death rate in Canada. Most fatal overdoses in BC occurr...

Authors: Kristi Papamihali, Minha Yoon, Brittany Graham, Mohammad Karamouzian, Amanda K. Slaunwhite, Vivian Tsang, Sara Young and Jane A. Buxton

The civil society monitoring of hepatitis C response related to the WHO 2030 elimination goals in 35 European countries

People who inject drugs (PWID) account for the majority of new cases of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Europe; however, HCV testing, and treatment for PWID remain suboptimal. With the advent of direct ac...

Authors: M. Maticic, Z. Pirnat, A. Leicht, R. Zimmermann, T. Windelinck, M. Jauffret-Roustide, E. Duffell, T. Tammi and E. Schatz

Implementation of a medical student-run telemedicine program for medications for opioid use disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of the IDEA syringe services program medical student-run free clinic in Miami, Florida. In an effort to continue to serve the community of people who inject drugs and p...

Authors: Marcus Castillo, Brianna Conte, Sam Hinkes, Megan Mathew, C. J. Na, Ainhoa Norindr, David P. Serota, David W. Forrest, Amar R. Deshpande, Tyler S. Bartholomew and Hansel E. Tookes

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on harm reduction services in Spain

Containment policies and other restrictions introduced by the Spanish government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic present challenges for marginalised populations, such as people who use drugs. Harm reducti...

Authors: Camila A. Picchio, Jorge Valencia, Jason Doran, Tracy Swan, Marta Pastor, Elisa Martró, Joan Colom and Jeffrey V. Lazarus

A qualitative study of diphenhydramine injection in Kyrgyz prisons and implications for harm reduction

To reduce opioid dependence and HIV transmission, Kyrgyzstan has introduced methadone maintenance therapy and needle/syringe programs into prisons. Illicit injection of diphenhydramine, an antihistamine brande...

Authors: Jaimie P. Meyer, Gabriel J. Culbert, Lyuba Azbel, Chethan Bachireddy, Ainura Kurmanalieva, Tim Rhodes and Frederick L. Altice

“Caballo”: risk environments, drug sharing and the emergence of a hepatitis C virus epidemic among people who inject drugs in Puerto Rico

Sharing drug injection equipment has been associated with the transmission of HCV among PWID through blood contained in the cooker and cotton used to prepare and divide up the drug solution. While epidemiologi...

Authors: R. Abadie and K. Dombrowski

A qualitative study of facilitators and barriers to participate in a needle exchange program for women who inject drugs

Women who inject drugs (WWID) show higher levels of injecting risk behaviour compared to men, putting them at risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis C (HCV). Compared to men, WWID are also less present in harm ...

Authors: Malin Värmå Falk, Susanne Strömdahl, Anna Mia Ekström, Martin Kåberg, Niklas Karlsson, Helena Dahlborn and Anders Hammarberg

Understanding the crisis in harm reduction funding in Central and Eastern Europe

The harm reduction (HR) approach to injecting drug use was rapidly adopted in Central Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain. The associated social and economic transformation had significant consequenc...

Authors: Michal Miovský, Silvia Miklíková, Viktor Mravčík, Jean-Paul Grund and Tereza Černíková

Who chooses to enroll in a new national gambling self-exclusion system? A general population survey in Sweden

Self-exclusion from gambling is a common method for prevention and harm reduction in hazardous gambling. However, few national self-exclusion programs, involving a large number of gambling operators and activi...

Authors: A. Håkansson and V. Henzel

Hepatitis B virus infection among people who use drugs in Iran: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and trend analysis

People who use drugs (PWUD) are considered as one of the main at-risk populations for Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We conducted a systematic review on the prevalence of HBV infection among PWUD in Iran.

Authors: Yasna Rostam-Abadi, Hossein Rafiemanesh, Jaleh Gholami, Behrang Shadloo, Masoumeh Amin-Esmaeili and Afarin Rahimi-Movaghar

Continuum of hepatitis C care cascade in prison and following release in the direct-acting antivirals era

People with criminal justice involvement contribute remarkably to the rising hepatitis C virus (HCV) burden; however, the continuum of care is a major barrier to prison-based programs. We aimed to evaluate a c...

Authors: Sanam Hariri, Heidar Sharafi, Mahdi Sheikh, Shahin Merat, Farnaz Hashemi, Fatemeh Azimian, Babak Tamadoni, Rashid Ramazani, Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, Behzad Abbasi, Mehrzad Tashakorian, Ramin Alasvand, Seyed Moayed Alavian, Hossein Poustchi and Reza Malekzadeh

Hepatitis C in Israeli prisons: status report

The article discusses and analyzes the changes that have taken place since 2016 in Israeli policy with regard to the treatment, diagnosis and detection of hepatitis C (HCV) in prison settings. The article find...

Authors: Niv Michaeli, Anat Litvin and Nadav Davidovitch

Women and barriers to harm reduction services: a literature review and initial findings from a qualitative study in Barcelona, Spain

There are an estimated 3.2 million women who inject drugs worldwide, constituting 20% of all people who inject drugs. The limited data that are available suggest that women who inject drugs are at greater risk...

Authors: Sam Shirley-Beavan, Aura Roig, Naomi Burke-Shyne, Colleen Daniels and Robert Csak

Toward a human-centered use of technology: a stakeholder analysis of harm reduction and CBO staff

Technology can enable syringe service programs (SSPs) and other community-based organizations (CBOs) operating under a harm reduction framework to work with an increased number of clients and can also enable o...

Authors: Ian David Aronson, Alex S. Bennett and Robert Freeman

The greater use of flavoured snus among ever-smokers versus never-smokers in Norway

Similar to the debate around e-cigarettes, an increase in snus use among Norwegian adolescents has prompted debate on whether flavour options in snus should be limited. To this end, we compared use of flavoure...

Authors: Tord Finne Vedoy and Karl Erik Lund

Sensory experiences and cues among E-cigarette users

We characterized the extent and quality of respiratory sensations and sensory-related smoking cues associated with e-cigarette use among those who failed to quit combustible tobacco cigarette (CTC) use with tr...

Authors: J. DiPiazza, P. Caponnetto, G. Askin, P. Christos, M. Lyc Psych Maglia, R. Gautam, S. Roche and R. Polosa

Fifteen years of heroin-assisted treatment in a Swiss prison—a retrospective cohort study

In the context of the current US opioid crisis and the compelling fact that a quarter to a third of all those addicted to heroin pass through its prisons and jails each year, the care of incarcerated opioid-us...

Authors: Michael Liebrenz, Alex Gamma, Anna Buadze, Roman Schleifer, Stéphanie Baggio, Bruce Schwartz, Andres Schneeberger and Ambros Uchtenhagen

Hostility, compassion and role reversal in West Virginia’s long opioid overdose emergency

West Virginia is a largely rural state with strong ties of kinship, mutual systems of support and charitable giving. At the same time, wealth inequalities are extreme and the state’s drug overdose fatality rat...

Authors: Jeff Ondocsin, Sarah G. Mars, Mary Howe and Daniel Ciccarone

An exploratory non-randomized study of a 3-month electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) intervention with people accessing a homeless supported temporary accommodation service (STA) in Ireland

Smoking is endemic amongst people accessing homeless services, and they are disproportionately affected by smoking-related diseases. This paper reports on the results of a 3-month small scale intervention whic...

Authors: Florian Scheibein, Kevin McGirr, Andy Morrison, Warren Roche and John Stephen Gary Wells

To what extent do supervised drug consumption services incorporate non-injection routes of administration? A systematic scoping review documenting existing facilities

Most of the existing research on supervised consumption services (SCS) is focused on injection drug use. Less is known about the applicability of SCS for people who consume drugs orally, intranasally, or throu...

Authors: Kelsey A. Speed, Nicole D. Gehring, Katherine Launier, Daniel O’Brien, Sandy Campbell and Elaine Hyshka

Buprenorphine therapy in the setting of induced opioid withdrawal from oral naltrexone: a case report

Patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) frequently present to the emergency department for acute treatment of overdose and withdrawal.

Authors: Laura M. Szczesniak, Vincent J. Calleo and Ross W. Sullivan

Reported patterns of vaping to support long-term abstinence from smoking: a cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of vapers

E-cigarettes are the most popular aid to smoking cessation attempts in England and the USA. This research examined associations between e-cigarette device characteristics and patterns of use, tobacco-smoking r...

Authors: Sarah Victoria Gentry, Emma Ward, Lynne Dawkins, Richard Holland and Caitlin Notley

Perspectives of clients and providers on factors influencing opioid agonist treatment uptake among HIV-positive people who use drugs in Indonesia, Ukraine, and Vietnam: HPTN 074 study

Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) is an effective method of addiction treatment and HIV prevention. However, globally, people who inject drugs (PWID) have insufficient OAT uptake. To expand OAT access and uptake,...

Authors: Tetiana Kiriazova, Vivian F. Go, Rebecca B. Hershow, Erica L. Hamilton, Riza Sarasvita, Quynh Bui, Kathryn E. Lancaster, Kostyantyn Dumchev, Irving F. Hoffman, William C. Miller and Carl A. Latkin

Retention and outcomes for clients attending a methadone clinic in a resource-constrained setting: a mixed methods prospective cohort study in Imphal, Northeast India

Opioid substitution therapy (OST) with buprenorphine has been widely available in India since 2007, but the introduction of methadone occurred much later in 2012, and availability remains limited. Illicit inje...

Authors: Michelle Kermode, Robedi Sharma Choudhurimayum, Lenin Singh Rajkumar, Tilahun Haregu and Greg Armstrong

Methamphetamine use and HIV risk behavior among men who inject drugs: causal inference using coarsened exact matching

Understanding the association between methamphetamine (MA) use and HIV risk behavior among people who inject drugs (PWID) will assist policy-makers and program managers to sharpen the focus of HIV prevention i...

Authors: Mehdi Noroozi, Peter Higgs, Alireza Noroozi, Bahram Armoon, Bentolhoda Mousavi, Rosa Alikhani, Mohammad Rafi Bazrafshan, Ali Nazeri Astaneh, Azadeh Bayani and Ladan Fattah Moghaddam

Perception of the relative harm of electronic cigarettes compared to cigarettes amongst US adults from 2013 to 2016: analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study data

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been characterised as significantly less harmful than cigarettes by many health agencies and regulators globally. In this study, we examined to what extent perceived r...

Authors: Layla Malt, Thomas Verron, Xavier Cahours, Mengran Guo, Sarah Weaver, Tanvir Walele and Grant O’Connell

A qualitative study of perceived barriers to hepatitis C care among people who did not attend appointments in the non-urban US South

Most people diagnosed with hepatitis C virus (HCV) have not linked to care, despite the availability of safe and effective treatment. We aimed to understand why people diagnosed with HCV have not pursued care ...

Authors: Jacqueline E. Sherbuk, Alexa Tabackman, Kathleen A. McManus, Terry Kemp Knick, Julie Schexnayder, Tabor E. Flickinger and Rebecca Dillingham

Identification of factors influencing tampering of codeine-containing medicines in England: a qualitative study

Tampering of psychoactive medicines presents challenges to regulation and public health. However, little is currently known about what influences the decisions to treat codeine-containing medicines (CCM) with ...

Authors: Andreas Kimergård, Stephen Parkin, Stacey Jennings, Eileen Brobbin and Paolo Deluca

Snus cessation patterns - a long-term follow-up of snus users in Sweden

Several studies have investigated the role of snus as an aid to become smoke-free, but few have focused on who use snus, how they perceive snus use, why and how they quit, and their perception of being non-snu...

Authors: Tove Sohlberg and Peter Wennberg

Population estimation and harm reduction among people who inject drugs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Injecting drug use is known to contribute significantly to the spread of the HIV epidemic in many parts of the developing world. Due to the hidden nature and stigma of the problem, it is difficult to study usi...

Authors: Negussie Deyessa, Bekele Senbete, Aman Abdo and Bernard M. Mundia

Harm reduction in an emergency response to homelessness during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown

Caledonian Stadium, the main mass temporary shelter for homeless people in the City of Tshwane, was created as a local response to the imperatives of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) National State of ...

Authors: Tessa S. Marcus, Jan Heese, Andrew Scheibe, Shaun Shelly, Sasha X. Lalla and Jannie F. Hugo

HaRePo (harm reduction by post): an innovative and effective harm reduction programme for people who use drugs using email, telephone, and post service

Despite multiple harm reduction (HR) programmes worldwide, there are still an important number of people who use drugs (PWUD) who do not access those services. Their difficulties to obtain HR tools are due to ...

Authors: Magally Torres-Leguizamon, Emmanuel G. Reynaud, Thomas Néfau and Catherine Duplessy

Training to reduce emergency responders’ perceived overdose risk from contact with fentanyl: early evidence of success

Authors: Rachel P. Winograd, Sarah Phillips, Claire A. Wood, Lauren Green, Brandon Costerison, Jeremiah Goulka and Leo Beletsky

Social network support and harm reduction activities in a peer researcher-led pilot study, British Columbia, Canada

People who smoke drugs (PWSD) are at high risk of both infectious disease and overdose. Harm reduction activities organized by their peers in the community can reduce risk by providing education, safer smoking...

Authors: Sulaf Elkhalifa, Ehsan Jozaghi, Samona Marsh, Erica Thomson, Delilah Gregg, Jane Buxton and Ann Jolly