Articles

Reducing the stigma surrounding opioid use disorder: evaluating an opioid overdose prevention training program applied to a diverse population

The opioid epidemic is a rapidly growing public health concern in the USA, as the number of overdose deaths continues to increase each year. One strategy for combating the rising number of overdoses is through...

Authors: Nicholas Alexander Bascou, Benjamin Haslund-Gourley, Katrina Amber-Monta, Kyle Samson, Nathaniel Goss, Dakota Meredith, Andrew Friedman, Andrew Needleman, Vishnu K. Kumar and Bradford D. Fischer

“It’s called overamping”: experiences of overdose among people who use methamphetamine

The USA is experiencing increases in methamphetamine use and methamphetamine-related or attributed deaths. In the current study, we explore qualitative narratives of methamphetamine overdose and strategies use...

Authors: Robert W. Harding, Katherine T. Wagner, Phillip Fiuty, Krysti P. Smith, Kimberly Page and Karla D. Wagner

Diverse psychotropic substances detected in drug and drug administration equipment samples submitted to drug checking services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 2019–April 2020

The overdose crisis has generated innovative harm reduction and drug market monitoring strategies. In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a multi-site drug checking service (DCS) pilot project was launched in October 2...

Authors: Kristy M. Scarfone, Nazlee Maghsoudi, Karen McDonald, Cristiana Stefan, Daniel R. Beriault, Ernest Wong, Mark Evert, Shaun Hopkins, Peter Leslie, Tara Marie Watson and Dan Werb

Evaluation of a novel therapeutic education programme for people with alcohol use disorder in France: a mixed-methods intervention study protocol (ETHER)

ETHER (“Education THEérapeutique pour la Réduction des dommages en alcoologie” or Therapeutic education for alcohol-related harm reduction) is a multicentre community-based mixed-methods study, which aims to eval...

Authors: Saskia Antwerpes, Marie Costa, Marion Coste, Morgane Bureau, Gwenaelle Maradan, Christophe Cutarella, Jacques Leloutre, Olivier Riccobono-Soulier, Sophie Hedoire, Elodie Frot, Fabienne Vernier, Stéphanie Vassas-Goyard, Tangui Barré, Danielle Casanova and Patrizia Carrieri

A qualitative study on pharmacy policies toward over-the-counter syringe sales in a rural epicenter of US drug-related epidemics

Expanding access to sterile syringes in rural areas is vital, as injection-related epidemics expand beyond metropolitan areas globally. While pharmacies have potential to be an easily accessible source of ster...

Authors: Monica Fadanelli, Hannah L. F. Cooper, Patricia R. Freeman, April M. Ballard, Umed Ibragimov and April M. Young

«One prick and then it´s done»: a mixed-methods exploratory study on intramuscular injection in heroin-assisted treatment

Intramuscular (IM) injection of drugs is associated with high rates of injecting-related injuries and diseases. However, little is known about the role of this route of administration in heroin-assisted treatm...

Authors: Maximilian Meyer, Ramón Eichenberger, Johannes Strasser, Kenneth M. Dürsteler and Marc Vogel

Barriers and facilitators of HIV and hepatitis C care among people who inject drugs in Nairobi, Kenya: a qualitative study with peer educators

In Kenya, people who inject drugs (PWID) are disproportionately affected by HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) epidemics, including HIV-HCV coinfections; however, few have assessed factors affecting their access to and...

Authors: Natasha T. Ludwig-Barron, Brandon L. Guthrie, Loice Mbogo, David Bukusi, William Sinkele, Esther Gitau, Carey Farquhar and Aliza Monroe-Wise

Police discretion in encounters with people who use drugs: operationalizing the theory of planned behavior

Policing shapes the health risks of people who use drugs (PWUD), but little is understood about interventions that can align officer practices with PWUD health. This study deploys the Theory of Planned Behavio...

Authors: Brandon del Pozo, Emily Sightes, Jeremiah Goulka, Brad Ray, Claire A. Wood, Saad Siddiqui and Leo A. Beletsky

Acute pain and self-directed discharge among hospitalized patients with opioid-related diagnoses: a cohort study

Patients with substance use disorders are more likely than those without to have a self-directed hospital discharge, putting them at risk for poor health outcomes including progressing illness, readmissions, a...

Authors: Peggy Compton, Shoshana V. Aronowitz, Heather Klusaritz and Evan Anderson

Injection drug use practices and HIV infection among people who inject drugs in Kigali, Rwanda: a cross-sectional study

In Rwanda, epidemiological data characterizing people who inject drugs (PWID) and their burden of HIV are limited. We examined injection drug use (IDU) history and practices, and HIV infection in a sample of P...

Authors: Jean Olivier Twahirwa Rwema, Vianney Nizeyimana, Neia M. Prata, Nneoma E. Okonkwo, Amelia A. Mazzei, Sulemani Muhirwa, Athanase Rukundo, Lisa Lucas, Audace Niyigena, Jean Damascene Makuza, Chris Beyrer, Stefan D. Baral and Aflodis Kagaba

Correction to: Predicting the impact of placing an overdose prevention site in Philadelphia: a mathematical modeling approach

Authors: Joanna R. Wares, Jing Dong, Jana L. Gevertz, Ami Radunskaya, Kendra Viner, Doug Wiebe and Sara Solomon

Harm reduction must be recognised an essential public health intervention during crises

The COVID-19 had a substantial impact on the provision of harm reduction services for people who use drugs globally. These front-line public health interventions serve a population that due to stigma, discrimi...

Authors: Robert Csák, Sam Shirley-Beavan, Arielle Edelman McHenry, Colleen Daniels and Naomi Burke-Shyne

Implementing a low-threshold audio-only telehealth model for medication-assisted treatment of opioid use disorder at a community-based non-profit organization in Washington, D.C.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had especially devastating effects on people who use drugs. Due to pandemic protocols in the USA, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) regulations became more flexible, permitting our ...

Authors: Ellis Jaewon Yeo, Hannah Kralles, David Sternberg, Dana McCullough, Ajetha Nadanasabesan, Richard Mayo, Hana Akselrod and Jillian Catalanotti

Is your syringe services program cost-saving to society? A methodological case study

While there is a general acceptance among public health officials and policy-makers that syringe services programs can be effective in reducing HIV transmission among persons who inject drugs, local syringe se...

Authors: Don C. Des Jarlais, Jonathan Feelemyer, Courtney McKnight, Kelly Knudtson and Sara N. Glick

The hazardous (mis)perception of Self-estimated Alcohol intoxication and Fitness to drivE—an avoidable health risk: the SAFE randomised trial

Worldwide, alcohol-related road traffic accidents represent a major avoidable health risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of self-estimating the degree of acute alcohol intoxication regardi...

Authors: Jöran Köchling, Berit Geis, Cho-Ming Chao, Jana-K. Dieks, Stefan Wirth and Kai O. Hensel

Managed alcohol: one community’s innovative response to risk management during COVID-19

Harm reduction programs often lack community-based support and can be controversial, despite data demonstrating effectiveness. This article describes one small Alaskan community’s development of a harm reducti...

Authors: Heidi Brocious, Kathi Trawver and LaVerne Xilegg Demientieff

Investigating the impact of COVID-19 on performance and image enhancing drug use

Emerging research has suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic has had some impact on substance use patterns. The aim of the study was to conduct a rapid survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 on performance and ...

Authors: Matthew Dunn and Timothy Piatkowski

The health impact of smokeless tobacco products: a systematic review

The objective was to systematically review studies on health outcomes from smokeless tobacco (SLT) products.

Authors: C. Hajat, E. Stein, L. Ramstrom, S. Shantikumar and R. Polosa

Reporting and methodological quality of systematic literature reviews evaluating the associations between e-cigarette use and cigarette smoking behaviors: a systematic quality review

Several published systematic reviews have examined the potential associations between e-cigarette use and cigarette smoking, but their methodological and/or reporting quality have not yet been assessed. This s...

Authors: Mimi M. Kim, Lynley Pound, Isabella Steffensen and Geoffrey M. Curtin

Decolonizing drug policy

This paper reviews evidence of how drug control has been used to uphold colonial power structures in select countries. It demonstrates the racist and xenophobic impact of drug control policy and proposes a pat...

Authors: Colleen Daniels, Aggrey Aluso, Naomi Burke-Shyne, Kojo Koram, Suchitra Rajagopalan, Imani Robinson, Shaun Shelly, Sam Shirley-Beavan and Tripti Tandon

Telehealth for opioid use disorder treatment in low-barrier clinic settings: an exploration of clinician and staff perspectives

The majority of individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) face access barriers to evidence-based treatment, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the United States (US) opioid overdose crisis. However, th...

Authors: Shoshana V. Aronowitz, Eden Engel-Rebitzer, Abby Dolan, Kehinde Oyekanmi, David Mandell, Zachary Meisel, Eugenia South and Margaret Lowenstein

The impact of COVID-19 on people who inject drugs in New York City: increased risk and decreased access to services

While people who inject drugs (PWID) are vulnerable to the adverse outcomes of events like COVID-19, little is known regarding the impact of the current pandemic on PWID. We examine how COVID-19 has affected P...

Authors: Yesenia Aponte-Melendez, Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, Chunki Fong, Benjamin Eckhardt, Shashi Kapadia and Kristen Marks

The impact of Taiwan’s implementation of a nationwide harm reduction program in 2006 on the use of various illicit drugs: trend analysis of first-time offenders from 2001 to 2017

After implementing a nationwide harm reduction program in 2006, a dramatic decline in the incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among people with injection drug use (IDU) was observed in Ta...

Authors: Wei J. Chen, Chi-Ya Chen, Shang-Chi Wu, Kevin Chien-Chang Wu, Susyan Jou, Yu-Chi Tung and Tzu-Pin Lu

Implementation and first-year operating costs of an academic medical center-based syringe services program

Syringe services programs (SSPs) remain highly effective, cost-saving interventions for the prevention of blood-borne infections among people who inject drugs. However, there have been restrictions regarding f...

Authors: Tyler S. Bartholomew, Hardik Patel, Kathryn McCollister, Daniel J. Feaster and Hansel E. Tookes

Assessing the relationship between syringe exchange, pharmacy, and street sources of accessing syringes and injection drug use behavior in a pooled nationally representative sample of people who inject drugs in the United States from 2002 to 2019

Provision of sterile syringes is an evidence-based strategy of reducing syringe sharing and reusing and yet, access to sterile syringes through pharmacies and syringe exchange programs (SEPs) in the United Sta...

Authors: Phillip L. Marotta, Kristi Stringer, Leo Beletsky, Brooke S. West, Dawn Goddard-Eckrich, Louisa Gilbert, Tim Hunt, Elwin Wu and Nabila El-Bassel

Prevalence and characteristics of ever regular use of non-combustible nicotine for 1 year or more: a population survey in England

Up-to-date monitoring of non-combustible nicotine products (e.g. e-cigarettes, nicotine replacement therapies (NRT), heated tobacco products (HTP); NNP) is important to assess their impact. To date, there is l...

Authors: Sharon Cox, Jamie Brown, Loren Kock and Lion Shahab

Correction to: 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

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

“Prevention of opioid use disorder: the HOME (housing, opportunities, motivation and engagement) feasibility study”

Young adults experiencing homelessness are at high risk of opioid and other substance use, poor mental health outcomes, exposure to trauma, and other risks. Providing access to stable housing has the potential...

Authors: Kelly J. Kelleher, Ruri Famelia, Tansel Yilmazer, Allen Mallory, Jodi Ford, Laura J. Chavez and Natasha Slesnick

Theoretically informed gender analysis for gambling harm reduction: a New Zealand study

Gambling harm affects men and women relatively equally, and gender influences the social determinants of gambling harm. Responses to preventing and minimising women’s gambling harm have been shaped and constra...

Authors: Katie Palmer du Preez, Anna-Marie Paavonen and Maria E. Bellringer

Predicting the impact of placing an overdose prevention site in Philadelphia: a mathematical modeling approach

Fatal overdoses from opioid use and substance disorders are increasing at an alarming rate. One proposed harm reduction strategy for reducing overdose fatalities is to place overdose prevention sites—commonly ...

Authors: Joanna R. Wares, Jing Dong, Jana L. Gevertz, Ami Radunskaya, Kendra Viner, Doug Wiebe and Sara Solomon

Estimation of the global number of e-cigarette users in 2020

The combustion of tobacco is the main cause of tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. E-cigarettes are potentially disruptive innovations with considerable potential for population health. A key question is ...

Authors: Tomasz Jerzyński, Gerry V. Stimson, Harry Shapiro and Grzegorz Król

Non-beverage alcohol consumption among individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in Edmonton, Canada: a cross-sectional study

Among individuals experiencing homelessness, the prevalence of alcohol use disorder is extremely high. Alcohol-related harms are compounded by the use of non-beverage alcohol (NBA; e.g. rubbing alcohol, cookin...

Authors: Jean Nicolas Westenberg, Mostafa Mamdouh Kamel, Sindi Addorisio, Mohammad Abusamak, James S. H. Wong, Ava Outadi, Kerry L. Jang and R. Michael Krausz

Generating evidence on the use of Image and performance enhancing drugs in the UK: results from a scoping review and expert consultation by the Anabolic Steroid UK network

The use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) and associated image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) is now a global phenomenon. There is a need to develop evidence to support the development of interven...

Authors: Jim McVeigh, Evelyn Hearne, Ian Boardley, Geoff Bates, Vivian Hope, Rob Ralphs and Marie Claire Van Hout

Facilitators and barriers to the regulation of medical cannabis: a scoping review of the peer-reviewed literature

In recent decades, several political, legislative, judicial, consumer, and commercial processes around the world have advanced legalization efforts for the use of medical cannabis (MC). As the use of MC evolve...

Authors: Mohammad Ali Ruheel, Zoya Gomes, Sana Usman, Pargol Homayouni and Jeremy Y. Ng

“I would rather do it myself”: injection initiation and current injection patterns among women who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico

Women who inject drugs (WWID) experience unique risks and adverse health outcomes related to injection initiation and patterns of injection drug use. However, there is limited information on injection initiati...

Authors: Allison Stewart, Brooke S. West, Claudia Rafful, Kenya Lazos, Jennifer Jain, Patricia Gonzalez-Zuniga and Teresita Rocha-Jimenez

Xylazine detected in unregulated opioids and drug administration equipment in Toronto, Canada: clinical and social implications

The North American opioid overdose crisis is driven in large part by the presence of unknown psychoactive adulterants in the dynamic, unregulated drug supply. We herein report the first detection of the psycho...

Authors: Jeanette M. Bowles, Karen McDonald, Nazlee Maghsoudi, Hayley Thompson, Cristiana Stefan, Daniel R. Beriault, Sarah Delaney, Ernest Wong and Dan Werb

Recovery capital among people receiving treatment for opioid use disorder with buprenorphine

Recovery is a multidimensional process that includes health, quality of life, and citizenship. Recovery capital is a strengths-based concept representing the sum of an individual’s resources that support recov...

Authors: Anna Beth Parlier-Ahmad, Mishka Terplan, Dace S. Svikis, Laura Ellis and Caitlin E. Martin

Hepatitis C reinfection in former and active injecting drug users in Belgium

There is currently no systematic screening for hepatitis C (HCV) reinfection in people who inject drugs (PWID) after treatment in Belgium. However, in a recent meta-analysis, the overall HCV reinfection rate w...

Authors: Dana Busschots, Rob Bielen, Özgür M. Koc, Leen Heyens, Rita Verrando, Chantal de Galocsy, Christophe Van Steenkiste, Frederik Nevens, Håvard Midgard, Olav Dalgard and Geert Robaeys

Interaction and conflict between outreach workers and research officers in implementing collaborative action research in the field of harm reduction: a qualitative study

The effectiveness of collaborative approaches in health interventions is underlined in the literature. Given the serious challenges to adequately managing the HCV epidemic in people who inject drugs (PWID), an...

Authors: Nicolas Khatmi, David Michels, Daniela Rojas Castro and Perrine Roux

Correction to: Third party drug checking: accessing harm reduction services on the behalf of others

Authors: Ashley Larnder, Piotr Burek, Bruce Wallace and Dennis K. Hore

Third party drug checking: accessing harm reduction services on the behalf of others

Drug checking uses chemical analytical technologies to analyze drugs from the unregulated market to reduce substance use-related risks. We aim to examine the frequency of third party use of a community drug ch...

Authors: Ashley Larnder, Piotr Burek, Bruce Wallace and Dennis K. Hore

“It is the One Thing that has Worked”: facilitators and barriers to switching to nicotine salt pod system e-cigarettes among African American and Latinx people who smoke: a content analysis

Electronic cigarettes are a harm reduction strategy for individuals who smoke cigarettes who cannot or do not want to quit using FDA-approved cessation methods. Identifying perceived facilitators and barriers ...

Authors: Kim Pulvers, Myra Rice, Jasjit S. Ahluwalia, Michael J. Arnold, Crystal Marez and Nicole L. Nollen

Investigation on heroin and cocaine quality in Luxembourg

Heroin and cocaine are among the most dangerous illicit drugs available and their presence on the market is increasing. These facts have led to the investigation of the quality of heroin and cocaine samples se...

Authors: Adèle Bourmaud, Georges Dahm, François Meys, Nicolas Gengler, Alain Origer and Serge Schneider

Development and testing of relative risk-based health messages for electronic cigarette products

Health messages on e-cigarette packs emphasise nicotine addiction or harms using similar wording to warnings on cigarette packs. These may not be appropriate for e-cigarettes which constitute a reduced risk al...

Authors: Catherine Kimber, Sharon Cox, Daniel Frings, Ian P. Albery and Lynne Dawkins

How a sample of English stop smoking services and vape shops adapted during the early COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods cross-sectional survey

The COVID-19 pandemic in England led to major changes in the delivery of support via stop smoking services (SSS) and to the widespread temporary closure of bricks and mortar e-cigarette retailers (vape shops h...

Authors: Sharon Cox, Emma Ward, Louise Ross and Caitlin Notley

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

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

Prevalence and correlates of non-fatal overdose among people who use drugs: findings from rapid assessments in Massachusetts, 2017–2019

People who experience non-fatal overdose (NFOD) are at high risk of subsequent overdose. With unprecedented increases in fentanyl in the US drug supply, many Massachusetts (MA) communities have seen a surge in...

Authors: Shikhar Shrestha, Thomas J. Stopka, Jaclyn M. W. Hughto, Patricia Case, Wilson R. Palacios, Brittni Reilly and Traci C. Green

Drug use, homelessness and health: responding to the opioid overdose crisis with housing and harm reduction services

Canada is in the midst of an opioid overdose crisis and Alberta has one of the highest opioid use rates across the country. Populations made vulnerable through structural inequities who also use opioids, such ...

Authors: Katrina Milaney, Jenna Passi, Lisa Zaretsky, Tong Liu, Claire M. O’Gorman, Leslie Hill and Daniel Dutton

A drug-related Good Samaritan Law and calling emergency medical services for drug overdoses in a Canadian setting

People who use drugs (PWUD) are known to fear calling emergency medical services (EMS) for drug overdoses. In response, drug-related Good Samaritan Laws (GSLs) have been widely adopted in the USA and Canada to...

Authors: Soroush Moallef, JinCheol Choi, M.-J. Milloy, Kora DeBeck, Thomas Kerr and Kanna Hayashi

Food access among people who inject drugs in West Virginia

The substance use epidemic in the United States continues to drive high levels of morbidity and mortality, particularly among people who inject drugs (PWID). Poor access to food often co-occurs with drug use a...

Authors: Saba Rouhani, Sean T. Allen, Sara Whaley, Rebecca Hamilton White, Allison O’Rourke, Kristin E. Schneider, Michael E. Kilkenny, Brian W. Weir and Susan G. Sherman