Essential medicines are intended to be available within the context of functioning health systems at all times in adequate amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality and adequate information, and at a price the individual and the community can afford.

This paper includes information that OAS Member States have provided on women's involvement in drug related crimes, and at certain levels within the chain of commercialization.

The rate of death from overdoses of prescription opioids in the United States more than quadrupled between 1999 and 2010 far exceeding the combined death toll from cocaine and heroin overdoses.

The information in this paper is drawn from the experiences of local service providers and young people who inject drugs.

The burden of premature mortality due to opioid-related death has not been fully characterised. We calculated temporal trends in the proportion of deaths attributable to opioids and estimated years of potential life lost (YLL) due to opioid-related mortality in Ontario, Canada.

The interface between HIV and substance use is inextricably intertwined and is complicated by interactions with the criminal justice system (CJS).1,2 Approximately one in six of the estimated 1.1 million HIV-infected individuals in the United States passes through the CJS annually.

Youth Rise, SAFIRE and PILS consulted with young people who inject drugs about the barriers they face in accessing harm reduction services.

Of nearly one million veterans who receive opioids to treat painful conditions, more than half continue to consume opioids chronically or beyond 90 days.

Opioid substitution treatment (OST) is the most effective intervention for heroin dependence. Optimising this intervention gives a better chance of sustained abstinence.

Benzodiazepines are being prescribed alone and in combination with opioids in increasing rates at primary care practices across the USA.

A comparative analysis of intergovernmental policies and approaches from EMCDDA

This paper suggests that practitioners have historically taken too narrow a view to counteract forces that are destructive to a science based approach

Special issue: Opiate pharmacotherapy: Treatment, regimes, constructions and control

The purpose of this report is to provide a critical examination of the available evidence on illicit methamphetamine use and its consequences in the United States and internationally. It is the aim of this report to dispel some of the myths about the effects of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs using the best available scientific data

Heroin addiction is a well-known condition that has been a major reason for concern about the state of public health and law enforcement over the last few decades.

Read here the February 2014 newsletter that contains UK-focused articles on heroin assisted treatment and Naloxone in primary care.

This report dispels some of the myths about the effects of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs using the best available scientific data.

This Clinical Update includes researches on sexual dysfunction among male patients receiving buprenorphine and naltrexone, maintenance treatment for opioid dependence with slow-release oral morphine, ‘Methadone Tracy': transformations of service-user identity, general health of opioid substitution therapy clients, pharmacological interventions for drug-using offenders (Review), the diversion and injection of a buprenorphine-naloxone soluble film formulation, the oral health of heroin drug users: case study in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The international drug control system has been ineffective in reducing the size of the market and in preventing the emergence of new drugs and drug routes that cause and shift instability around the world.

More than 5.5 billion people (83% of the world’s population) in over 150 countries have low to non-existent access to morphine and other controlled medicines for pain relief, palliative care or opioid dependency.

The report provides a comprehensive overview of the drug control situation in various parts of the world. INCB suggests drug control measures to be taken by member states to prevent drug use and back the UN drug conventions.

---

This report focuses the challenges and progress of the 2003 UE Council Recommendation on the prevention and reduction of health-related harm, associated with drug dependence, in the EU and candidate countries.

Long-term compulsory rehabilitation cannot be justified on the grounds of effectiveness or ethics. The practice has also been associated with a number of human rights violations.

This IDPC briefing paper reviews the recent developments in the response to HIV and illicit drug use in Kenya, and highlights some key recommendations to address the remaining challenges.

This International Drug Policy Consortium advocacy note offers an analyse on the changing rhetoric from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

This paper examines whether the provision of regulated and quality-controlled heroin to users in specified doses would reduce heroin overdose rates.

The EMCDDA report presents a review of tools for monitoring illicit drug use in prison population in Europe. It also describes the existing tools used at national level, to build a common European basis for data collection.

Sofosbuvir’s estimated $80,000 USD price tag for a 12-week course makes it out of reach for nearly 90% of people living with hepatitis C worldwide who reside in low- and middle-income countries.

This report presents the debate about the global AIDS response: what it has achieved, what it can teach others fighting for health and justice, and what remains to be done to bring about a sustainable end to AIDS.