This study by Oviedo-Joekes E., Guh D., Brissette S. et al. Is the first Canadian study which shows that among long-term, severely opiate dependent patients who have not responded well to prior treatment, women as well as men benefit more from being prescribed injectable heroin than oral methadone.

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union interviews several politicians, professionals and activists in Mexico, to find out why so many people have had to die in the fight on the war on drugs: “Were they the necessary costs of an inescapable but winnable war, as many decision-makers claim, or the victims of a failed policy?” (film)

Article in The Fix, "All over the world, women have always had lower rates of addiction than men. But when women gain more rights as nations grow richer, they begin to catch up; in one drug type, they're already ahead."

Based on its activities, INCB publishes an annual report that is submitted to ECOSOC through the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the drug control situation in various parts of the world. As an impartial body, INCB tries to identify and predict dangerous trends and suggests necessary measures to be taken. In its Annual Report, the Board makes recommendations to Governments and international organizations for improving the global drug control situation.

The German Society for Addiction Medicine March Newsletter (German)

The policy brief by Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) summarizes key findings from an assessment of hepatitis C treatment accessibility in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).

Health Officers' Council of British Columbia (HOC) has produced a paper describing "how inadequate, inappropriate, and ineffective regulation of these substances contributes in large measure to this terrible toll. The law is a powerful tool for protecting and improving health, and failure to use the law appropriately is contributing to many substance-associated problems. The paper describes the failures and harms caused by implementation of the prohibition policy, and points out that the current prohibition policy is unsustainable."

This issue highlights news, upcoming conferences, new publications, and more.

Data recently released by the National Center for Health Statistics show drug overdose deaths increased for the 11th consecutive year in 2010. Pharmaceuticals, especially opioid analgesics, have driven this increase. Other pharmaceuticals are involved in opioid overdose deaths, but their involvement is less well characterized. Using 2010 mortality data, we describe the specific drugs involved in pharmaceutical and opioid-related overdose deaths.

The manufacture, trafficking and use of crystalline methamphetamine is now the greatest illicit drug threat facing Indonesia, according to a jointly-published report released today by the National Narcotics Board of Indonesia (BNN) and the UNODC Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme.

Circumstantial evidence from laboratory studies, mathematical models, ecological studies and bio behavioural surveys, suggests that injection-related HIV epidemics may be averted or reversed if people who inject drugs (PWID) switch from using high dead-space to using low dead-space syringes.

New Jersey Civil Child Abuse Laws Do Not Authorize State Jurisdiction Over Pregnant Women; Drug Tests Are Not Predictors of Parenting Ability.

The rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among people using heroin led to a shift from a drug-free approach to the treatment of opioid dependence to one focused on harm reduction. A substantial change in legislation made it possible to meet public health needs and offer OAMT as part of harm reduction programmes in the public health system, including prisons.

The study examines the effect of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) on mortality in people injecting opioids who receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in China.

The United Republic of Tanzania is the first mainland sub-Saharan country to launch a national methadone programme as part of its battle to fight the twin epidemics of heroin addiction and HIV infection

This report systematically reviews cohort studies of mortality among people who inject drugs, examine mortality rates and causes of death in this group, and identify participant- and study-level variables associated with a higher risk of death.

In Malaysia, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is highly concentrated among people who inject opioids. For this reason, the country undertook a three-phase roll-out of a methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programme. In Phase 3, described in this paper, MMT was implemented within prisons and retention in care was assessed.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission among people who inject drugs remains a challenging public health problem. We investigated the risk of HCV transmission by analyzing the direct association of HCV with filters, water to dilute drugs, and water containers.

The article applies an international relations approach, including examples from the UN system in general and other issue areas in particular, to explore how the formation and operation of a group, or groups, of like-minded nations may offer a route towards some form of substantive treaty revision.

This issue highlights news, upcoming conferences, new publications, and more.

The report focuses on certain forms of abuses in health-care settings that may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It identifies the policies that promote these practices and existing protection gaps.

Medicines have an important role in healthcare. However, dependence on prescribed and over‐the‐counter medicines can occur and can be devastating to those affected and their families. Care is needed in the initiation of any drugs that can lead to dependence and in managing the risk and development of withdrawal symptoms.

This toolkit was developed in line with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance’s Good Practice Guide on HIV and Drug Use: Community responses to injecting drug use. It is aimed at services in developing countries but has information that may be useful for any outreach service and focuses particularly on reducing the harms associated with drug use and offering routes into drug treatment services.

IDHDP member Dr. Alexander Walley, et al‘s analysis concludes “Opioid overdose death rates were reduced in communities where OEND was implemented. This study provides observational evidence that by training potential bystanders to prevent, recognize, and respond to opioid overdoses, OEND is an effective intervention.”

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)–infected drug users (DUs) have largely been excluded from HCV care. This is a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature on treatment completion and sustained virologic response (SVR) rates in DUs. The effects of different treatment approaches and services to promote HCV care among DUs as well as demographic and viral characteristics are assessed.

This document produced by SMMGP gives an update on current clinical documents for December 2012 - January 2013.

The report starts by examining the scale of the problem, the harms associated with drug use – for both the individual and society – and influences on illicit drug use.The development of drug policy in Britain is then presented, followed by a chapter discussing the particular harms to the individual and society that are associated with the prohibitionist legal framework controlling drug use. This chapter also presents the options for an alternative legal framework. Interventions to reduce the harms associated with illicit drug use are then discussed, followed by three chapters that examine the doctor’s role in the medical management of drug dependence and the ethical challenges of working within the criminal justice system.

First published in 2009, this revised document provides technical guidance to countries on monitoring efforts to prevent and treat HIV infection among people who inject drugs (PWID) and for setting ambitious but achievable national targets for scaling up towards universal access.

Presentation by Dr Vivian Hope, Health Protection Agency and although it’s UK data, it has relevance for other countries.

Concern over drug trafficking and abuse in Africa is a recent phenomenon. A radical change appears to have taken place about 40 years ago when trafficking and abuse crept into the mainstream society, and there has been a dramatic acceleration of these trends during the past 30 years. Concern regarding abuse of drugs such as heroin and cocaine is even more recent, starting about 25 years ago in some countries and escalating to involve more countries in the past 10 years.