Articles

Women’s gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of product harm: differences by age and gambling risk status

Women’s participation in, and harm from gambling, is steadily increasing. There has been very limited research to investigate how gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of gambling harm may v...

Authors: Simone McCarthy, Samantha L. Thomas, Melanie Randle, Amy Bestman, Hannah Pitt, Sean Cowlishaw and Mike Daube

Origins in the USA in the 1980s of the warning that smokeless tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarettes: a historical, documents-based assessment with implications for comparative warnings on less harmful tobacco/nicotine products

Before the 1980s in the USA, smokeless tobacco carried no health warnings, was not judged to cause disease, and was a declining practice. In 1986, the federal government passed legislation requiring rotating w...

Authors: Lynn T. Kozlowski

Electronic cigarette use in Greece: an analysis of a representative population sample in Attica prefecture

The purpose was to assess prevalence and correlates of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use in Greece in 2017.

Authors: Konstantinos E. Farsalinos, Georgios Siakas, Konstantinos Poulas, Vassilis Voudris, Kyriakoula Merakou and Anastasia Barbouni

‘Worth the test?’ Pragmatism, pill testing and drug policy in Australia

Recent deaths of young Australian music festival attendees from ‘party-drug’ overdoses have sparked debate about the effectiveness of drug policies. Australia is widely lauded for its harm minimisation approac...

Authors: Andrew Groves

Expanding harm reduction to include fentanyl urine testing: results from a pilot in rural British Columbia

Harm reduction has been at the forefront of the response to the opioid overdose public health emergency in British Columbia (BC). The unprecedented number of opioid overdose deaths in the province calls for an...

Authors: Silvina C. Mema, Chloe Sage, Serge Popoff, Jessica Bridgeman, Deanne Taylor and Trevor Corneil

Lay responder naloxone access and Good Samaritan law compliance: postcard survey results from 20 Indiana counties

To reduce fatal drug overdoses, two approaches many states have followed is to pass laws expanding naloxone access and Good Samaritan protections for lay persons with high likelihood to respond to an opioid ov...

Authors: Dennis P. Watson, Bradley Ray, Lisa Robison, Philip Huynh, Emily Sightes, La Shea Walker, Krista Brucker and Joan Duwve

From problem people to addictive products: a qualitative study on rethinking gambling policy from the perspective of lived experience

Previous research has shown that government and industry discussions of gambling may focus on personal responsibility for gambling harm. In Australia, these discussions have largely excluded people with lived ...

Authors: Helen E. Miller, Samantha L. Thomas and Priscilla Robinson

Government and public health responses to e-cigarettes in New Zealand: vapers’ perspectives

The New Zealand (NZ) government is to lift the ban on the sale of nicotine for use in electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).

Authors: Trish Fraser, Marewa Glover and Penelope Truman

Methamphetamine-type stimulant use in Lao PDR: qualitative findings from users aged 15–25 years in Vientiane Capital and Vientiane Province

Methamphetamine is one of the most widely used illicit drugs in several Southeast Asian countries, including the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). The purpose of this study was to examine the socio-cultu...

Authors: Vanphanom Sychareun, Bangone Santavasy, Niramonh Chanlivong, Andrea Fischer, Nicholas Thomson, Robert Power and Jo Durham

Attitudes towards community gambling venues and support for regulatory reform: an online panel study of residents in New South Wales, Australia

Harmful gambling has been identified as an important public health issue that affects individuals, families and the broader community. One gambling product, electronic gambling machines (EGMs), has been associ...

Authors: Amy Bestman, Samantha L. Thomas, Melanie Randle, Hannah Pitt and Mike Daube

Hospitalization among street-involved youth who use illicit drugs in Vancouver, Canada: a longitudinal analysis

Street-involved youth who use illicit drugs are at high risk for health-related harms; however, the profile of youth at greatest risk of hospitalization has not been well described. We sought to characterize h...

Authors: Derek C. Chang, Launette Rieb, Ekaterina Nosova, Yang Liu, Thomas Kerr and Kora DeBeck

A national public health programme on gambling policy development in New Zealand: insights from a process evaluation

In New Zealand, a public health programme on gambling policy development is part of a national gambling harm reduction and prevention strategy mandated by the Gambling Act 2003. Funded by the Ministry of Health, ...

Authors: Komathi Kolandai-Matchett, Jason Landon, Maria Bellringer and Max Abbott

Another frontier for harm reduction: contraceptive needs of females who inject drugs in Estonia, a cross-sectional study

Despite increasing contraceptive availability, unintended pregnancy remains a global problem. Developing strategies to reverse this trend and increasing occurrence of withdrawal syndrome among newborn children...

Authors: Anneli Uusküla, Mait Raag, Sigrid Vorobjov and Don Des Jarlais

“They accept me, because I was one of them”: formative qualitative research supporting the feasibility of peer-led outreach for people who use drugs in Dakar, Senegal

Peer outreach harm reduction initiatives are being developed with and for people who use drugs in Dakar, Senegal. This is in response to growing injecting drug use across the West Africa region and linked emer...

Authors: Camille May Stengel, Famara Mane, Andrew Guise, Magath Pouye, Monika Sigrist and Tim Rhodes

Prevalence and correlates of HIV infection among men who inject drugs in a remote area of Vietnam

Lack of information on the HIV epidemic among men who inject drugs (MWID) in northwestern Vietnam, a remote area, may hamper national efforts to control the disease. We examined HIV prevalence, needle–syringe ...

Authors: Van T. Nghiem, Thanh C. Bui, Patrick P. Nadol, Son H. Phan, Binh T. Kieu, Ryan Kling and Theodore M. Hammett

High willingness to use rapid fentanyl test strips among young adults who use drugs

Synthetic opioid overdose mortality among young adults has risen more than 300% in the USA since 2013, primarily due to the contamination of heroin and other drugs with illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Rapid t...

Authors: Maxwell S. Krieger, Jesse L. Yedinak, Jane A. Buxton, Mark Lysyshyn, Edward Bernstein, Josiah D. Rich, Traci C. Green, Scott E. Hadland and Brandon D. L. Marshall

Scoping out the literature on mobile needle and syringe programs—review of service delivery and client characteristics, operation, utilization, referrals, and impact

Needle and syringe program (NSP) service delivery models encompass fixed sites, mobile services, vending machines, pharmacies, peer NSPs, street outreach, and inter-organizational agreements to add NSP service...

Authors: Carol Strike and Miroslav Miskovic

Evaluation of the Deadly Liver Mob program: insights for roll-out and scale-up of a pilot program to engage Aboriginal Australians in hepatitis C and sexual health education, screening, and care

Deadly Liver Mob (DLM) is a peer-driven, incentivised health promotion program aimed at increasing understanding of hepatitis C, promoting harm reduction in relation to injecting drug use, and linking particip...

Authors: Carla Treloar, Max Hopwood, Elena Cama, Veronica Saunders, L. Clair Jackson, Melinda Walker, Catriona Ooi, Ashley Ubrihien and James Ward

Pharmacists’ role in harm reduction: a survey assessment of Kentucky community pharmacists’ willingness to participate in syringe/needle exchange

Pharmacists’ role in harm reduction is expanding in many states, yet there are limited data on pharmacists’ willingness to participate in harm reduction activities. This study assessed community pharmacists’ w...

Authors: Amie Goodin, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Traci Green and Patricia R. Freeman

Options for reducing HIV transmission related to the dead space in needles and syringes

When shared by people who inject drugs, needles and syringes with different dead space may affect the probability of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission differently.

Authors: William A. Zule, Poonam G. Pande, David Otiashvili, Georgiy V. Bobashev, Samuel R. Friedman, V. Anna Gyarmathy and Don C. Des Jarlais

The importance of drug checking outside the context of nightlife in Slovenia

The main purpose of the research was to evaluate the implementation of the drug checking service in Slovenia and to obtain the opinion of users included in harm reduction programmes for high-risk drug users an...

Authors: Matej Sande and Simona Šabić

Music festival attendees’ illicit drug use, knowledge and practices regarding drug content and purity: a cross-sectional survey

Drug checking is a harm reduction strategy which allows users to check the content and purity of illicit drugs. Although drug checking has been trialled internationally, with demonstrated value as a harm reduc...

Authors: Niamh Day, Joshua Criss, Benjamin Griffiths, Shireen Kaur Gujral, Franklin John-Leader, Jennifer Johnston and Sabrina Pit

Knowledge and possession of take-home naloxone kits among street-involved youth in a Canadian setting: a cohort study

The distribution of take-home naloxone (THN) kits has been an important strategy in reducing overdose fatalities among people who use drugs. However, little is known about the use of THN among youth who are st...

Authors: Julia Goldman-Hasbun, Kora DeBeck, Jane A. Buxton, Ekaterina Nosova, Evan Wood and Thomas Kerr

Opiate agonist treatment to improve health of individuals with opioid use disorder in Lebanon

Opioid agonist therapy has been widely used to reduce harms among individuals with opioid use disorder but its effectiveness has not been evaluated in the Middle East North African (MENA) region. This study ai...

Authors: Ali Ghaddar, Zeinab Abbas and Ramzi Haddad

Housing and overdose: an opportunity for the scale-up of overdose prevention interventions?

North America is currently experiencing an overdose epidemic due to a significant increase of fentanyl-adulterated opioids and related analogs. Multiple jurisdictions have declared a public health emergency gi...

Authors: Geoff Bardwell, Alexandra B. Collins, Ryan McNeil and Jade Boyd

Using peer advocates to improve access to services among hard-to-reach populations with hepatitis C: a qualitative study of client and provider relationships

Peer support programmes use individuals with specific experiences to improve engagement and outcomes among new clients. However, the skills and techniques used to achieve this engagement have not been mapped. ...

Authors: Jennifer MacLellan, Julian Surey, Ibrahim Abubakar, Helen R. Stagg and Jenevieve Mannell

Why is there still hepatitis C transmission in Australian prisons? A case report

The ability to cure hepatitis C viral infection, with specific reference to the prisoner population and the prison environment, will be challenged, even if opiate replacement therapy is concurrently offered, a...

Authors: Ben Harkness, Michael Levy, Ruth Evans and Jillian Wenke

Overdose prevention training with naloxone distribution in a prison in Oslo, Norway: a preliminary study

Prison inmates face a ten times increased risk of experiencing a fatal drug overdose during their first 2 weeks upon release than their non-incarcerated counterparts. Naloxone, the antidote to an opioid overdo...

Authors: Aase Grønlien Petterson and Desiree Madah-Amiri

What Goes Around: the process of building a community-based harm reduction research project

Often, research takes place on underserved populations rather than with underserved populations. This approach can further isolate and stigmatize groups that are already made marginalized. What Goes Around is ...

Authors: Chelsea Jalloh, Shohan Illsley, John Wylie, Paula Migliardi, Ethan West, Debbie Stewart and Javier Mignone

Measuring improvement in knowledge of drug policy reforms following a police education program in Tijuana, Mexico

Mexico’s 2009 “narcomenudeo reform” decriminalized small amounts of drugs, shifting some drug law enforcement to the states and mandating drug treatment diversion instead of incarceration. Data from Tijuana su...

Authors: J. Arredondo, S. A. Strathdee, J. Cepeda, D. Abramovitz, I. Artamonova, E. Clairgue, E. Bustamante, M. L. Mittal, T. Rocha, A. Bañuelos, H. O. Olivarria, M. Morales, G. Rangel, C. Magis and L. Beletsky

Hepatitis C infection, related services, and barriers to HCV treatment among drug users in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) clinics in Shanghai, China

The purpose of this study was to document the prevalence of hepatitis C among MMT patients, hepatitis C virus (HCV) knowledge of patients and MMT staff members, and the barriers preventing them from receiving ...

Authors: Zhi-Bin Li, Lei Zhang, Jun Wang, Le-Ping Huang, Zhi-Rong Zhou, Yi-Ning Cao, Min Zhao and Jiang Du

Harm reduction principles for healthcare settings

Harm reduction refers to interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects of health behaviors without necessarily extinguishing the problematic health behaviors completely. The vast majority of the harm re...

Authors: Mary Hawk, Robert W. S. Coulter, James E. Egan, Stuart Fisk, M. Reuel Friedman, Monique Tula and Suzanne Kinsky

Needle acquisition patterns, network risk and social capital among rural PWID in Puerto Rico

People who inject drugs (PWID) take on significant risks of contracting blood-borne infection, including injecting with a large number of partners and acquiring needles from unsafe sources. When combined, risk...

Authors: Ian Duncan, Patrick Habecker, Roberto Abadie, Ric Curtis, Bilal Khan and Kirk Dombrowski

Mitigating risks of students use of study drugs through understanding motivations for use and applying harm reduction theory: a literature review

As postsecondary students’ use of “study drugs” becomes more popular with increasingly reported negative effects on health and academic performance, failing prohibitionist policies to reduce consumption, and a...

Authors: Dor David Abelman

Perceived benefits of the hepatitis C peer educators: a qualitative investigation

Although opioid-dependent patients are disproportionately impacted by hepatitis C (HCV), many do not receive treatment. In addition to HCV treatment-access barriers, substance-using patients may be reluctant t...

Authors: A. W. Batchelder, L. Cockerham-Colas, D. Peyser, S. P. Reynoso, I. Soloway and A. H. Litwin

Methadone maintenance—lessons from two systems in China

In Hong Kong, methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) was launched in the 1970s, almost 30 years before the counterpart programme’s inauguration in Mainland China. Both were established in response to perceived ...

Authors: Shui-Shan Lee and Robert Newman

Erratum to: “Like a lots happened with my whole childhood”: violence, trauma, and addiction in pregnant and postpartum women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Authors: Iris Torchalla, Isabelle Aube Linden, Verena Strehlau, Erika K. Neilson and Michael Krausz

Stigmatization of people who inject drugs (PWID) by pharmacists in Tajikistan: sociocultural context and implications for a pharmacy-based prevention approach

Pharmacies are an important source of sterile syringes for people who inject drugs (PWID) in Tajikistan who are under high risk of HIV and hepatitis C virus. Accessibility of sterile syringes at pharmacies wit...

Authors: Umedjon Ibragimov, Hannah L. Cooper, Regine Haardörfer, Kristin L. Dunkle, William A. Zule and Frank Y. Wong

Barriers to retention in methadone maintenance therapy among people who inject drugs in Bangkok, Thailand: a mixed-methods study

Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) is a mainstay for treating opioid use disorder and preventing and managing HIV among people who inject drugs (PWID). While previous research suggested low dosing of methadon...

Authors: Kanna Hayashi, Lianping Ti, Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya, Paisan Suwannawong, Karyn Kaplan, Will Small and Thomas Kerr

Characteristics of persons who inject drugs and who witness opioid overdoses in Vietnam: a cross-sectional analysis to inform future overdose prevention programs

Persons who use opioids have a high risk of overdose and associated mortality. In Vietnam, little is known about the characteristics of this population and the persons who are witness to those overdoses. One a...

Authors: N.A. Blackburn, K.E. Lancaster, T.V. Ha, C.A. Latkin, W.C. Miller, C. Frangakis, V.A. Chu, T. Sripaipan, V.M. Quan, N.L. Minh, P.T. Vu and V.F. Go

A critique of the US Surgeon General’s conclusions regarding e-cigarette use among youth and young adults in the United States of America

In December 2016, the Surgeon General published a report that concluded e-cigarette use among youth and young adults is becoming a major public health concern in the United States of America.

Authors: Riccardo Polosa, Christopher Russell, Joel Nitzkin and Konstantinos E. Farsalinos

Psychoactive substances as a last resort—a qualitative study of self-treatment of migraine and cluster headaches

Treatment resistant cluster headache and migraine patients are exploring alternative treatments online. The aim of this study was to improve comprehension regarding the use of non-established or alternative ph...

Authors: Martin Andersson, Mari Persson and Anette Kjellgren

A longitudinal and case-control study of dropout among drug users in methadone maintenance treatment in Haiphong, Vietnam

Vietnam began providing methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) in 2008; as of June 2016, 44,479 persons who inject drugs (PWID) were in treatment in 57 provinces. However, 10–23% of patients were estimated to hav...

Authors: Pham Minh Khue, Nguyen Thi Tham, Dinh Thi Thanh Mai, Pham Van Thuc, Vu Minh Thuc, Pham Van Han and Christina Lindan

Rationale for cannabis-based interventions in the opioid overdose crisis

North America is currently in the grips of a crisis rooted in the use of licit and illicit opioid-based analgesics. Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in Canada and the US, and the growing ...

Authors: Philippe Lucas

Risk behaviour determinants among people who inject drugs in Stockholm, Sweden over a 10-year period, from 2002 to 2012

People who inject drugs (PWID) frequently engage in injection risk behaviours exposing them to blood-borne infections. Understanding the underlying causes that drive various types and levels of risk behaviours...

Authors: Niklas Karlsson, Michele Santacatterina, Kerstin Käll, Maria Hägerstrand, Susanne Wallin, Torsten Berglund and Anna Mia Ekström

Novel remote electronic medication supply model for opioid-dependent outpatients with polypharmacy––first long-term case study

Patients with substance use disorders grow older thanks to effective treatments. Together with a high prevalence of comorbidities, psychological problems, and low social support, these patients are at high ris...

Authors: Samuel S. Allemann, Kenneth M. Dürsteler, Johannes Strasser, Marc Vogel, Marcel Stoeckle, Kurt E. Hersberger and Isabelle Arnet

Are we anywhere near there yet? The state of harm reduction in North America in 2017

Authors: Ernest Drucker and Nick Crofts

Use and knowledge of contraceptive methods by patients in two substance use disorders treatment centers in Paris

Studies on contraceptive use by patients with substance use disorders (SUD) show a concerning low use of contraception. Mainly conducted in USA, they could be irrelevant to patients attending European SUD trea...

Authors: Virgile Clergue-Duval, Suzanne Robin, Maeva Fortias, Gaël Dupuy, Béatrice Badin-de-Montjoye and Florence Vorspan

Developing harm reduction in the context of youth substance use: insights from a multi-site qualitative analysis of young people’s harm minimization strategies

Youth substance use programming and educational strategies are frequently informed by prevention approaches that emphasize abstinence goals, which often do not resonate with youth in their lack of acknowledgme...

Authors: Emily K. Jenkins, Allie Slemon and Rebecca J. Haines-Saah

An overview of forensic drug testing methods and their suitability for harm reduction point-of-care services

Given the current opioid crisis around the world, harm reduction agencies are seeking to help people who use drugs to do so more safely. Many harm reduction agencies are exploring techniques to test illicit dr...

Authors: Lane Harper, Jeff Powell and Em M. Pijl