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Category Archives: Harm Reduction

Articles from journals across the web on strategies to reduce the harm caused by drugs and alcohol,

Pharmacological interventions in the treatment of the acute effects of Cannabis: a systematic review of literature

Background: Cannabis intoxication is related to a number of physical and mental health risks with ensuing social costs. However, little attention has been given to the investigation of possible pharmacological interactions in this condition. Objective: To review the available scientific literature concerning pharmacological interventions for the treatment of the acute effects of cannabis

Sex work involvement among women with long-term opioid injection drug dependence who enter opioid agonist treatment

Background: Substitution with opioid-agonists (e.g., methadone) has shown to be an effective treatment for chronic long-term opioid dependency.

Addiction to nicotine trumps even lung cancer

Unfortunately, harm reduction approaches have yet to be widely accepted for those addicted to cigarettes. A new study by the American Cancer Society illustrates the depth of this addiction and the difficulty some smokers face even when a diagnosis of cancer makes it imperative that they quit. One woman, a smoker whose cancerous lung was removed, explained in an MSNBC interview the draw of cigarettes despite the litany of cessation methods she tried.

Injecting drug use via femoral vein puncture: Preliminary findings of a point-of-care ultrasound service for opioid-dependent groin injectors in…

Background: Within the UK, injecting in the femoral vein (FV), often called ‘groin injecting’, is a serious cause of risk and harm. This study aimed to use ultrasound scanning as a means to engage groin injectors (GIs), examine their femoral injecting sites and assess their venous health, with the intention of developing improved responses. Methods: Between September 2006 and March 2009, GIs attending a network of community drug treatment centres in South East England were invited to attend an ultrasound ‘health-check’ clinic.

Implementation and Evaluation of a Harm-Reduction Model for Clinical Care of Substance Using Pregnant Women

Background: Methamphetamine (MA) use during pregnancy is associated with many pregnancy complications, including preterm birth, small for gestational age, preeclampsia, and abruption. Hawaii has lead the nation in MA use for many years, yet prior to 2007, did not have a comprehensive plan to care for pregnant substance-using women. In 2006, the Hawaii State Legislature funded a pilot perinatal addiction clinic

Psychoactive substances and the political ecology of mental distress

The goal of this paper is to both understand and depathologize clinically significant mental distress related to criminalized contact with psychoactive biotic substances by employing a framework known as critical political ecology of health and disease from the subdiscipline of medical geography. The political ecology of disease framework joins disease ecology with the power-calculus of political economy and calls for situating health-related phenomena in their broad social and economic context, demonstrating how large-scale global processes are at work at the local level, and giving due attention to historical analysis in understanding the relevant human-environment relations. Critical approaches to the political ecology of health and disease have the potential to incorporate ever-broadening social, political, economic, and cultural factors to challenge traditional causes, definitions, and sociomedical understandings of disease.

The Nature of Methadone Diversion in England: A Merseyside case study

Background: Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is a key element in treatment for opiate addiction; however concerns about the diversion of methadone remain. More current empirical data on methadone diversion are required.

It Can’t Hurt to Ask; A Patient-Centered Quality of Service Assessment of Health Canada’s Medical Cannabis Policy and Program

Background: In 2001 Health Canada responded to a series of Ontario court decisions by creating the Marihuana Medical Access Division (MMAD) and the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR). Although Health Canada has conducted a small number of stakeholder consultations, the federal government has never polled federally authorized cannabis patients

DH streamlines public health social marketing for 2012

The Department of Health (DH) will shortly launch public health communications for 2012, taking a 'linked behaviours' approach. It will tailor social marketing operations to follow the life course, instead of focusing on individual behaviour issues. The strategy, Changing behaviour, Improving outcomes , was published in April 2011 and aims to increase effective communication of public health issues

Prescribing Cannabis for Harm Reduction

Neuropathic pain affects between 5% and 10% of the US population and can be refractory to treatment.