He calls for nailing the hypocritics, the individuals and the countries that have done so much damage - all well reasoned, considered and made good sense.
Despite the common refrain that jails and prisons are de facto treatment facilities, most prioritize punitive mail scanning policies and strict visitation rules that fai
Julian Buchanan's insight:
Substance use disorders in jails and prisons far outpace rates in the general public
This year 773,000 people will be arrested based on field drug tests with known accuracy problems This report provides the first-ever comprehensive analysis of presumptive drug field test usage across law enforcement agencies in the United States.
Synthetic opioids are being produced in illicit labs in China, the UK's National Crime Agency says.
Julian Buchanan's insight:
More Prohibitionist Policy Deaths: "Street drugs stronger than heroin linked to 54 deaths in UK" *Prescribe oral and injectable opioids *Have Drug Consumption Rooms *Legally Regulate to end Street gear *End stigma & fear or arrest
AbstractBackground: London InterCommunity Health Centre (LIHC) launched a safer opioid supply (SOS) program in 2016, where clients are prescribed pharmaceutical opioids and provided with comprehensive health and social supports.
Our findings do not support any considerable impact of cannabis legislation on the prevalence of recreational cannabis use among youth and young adults in Europe.
Julian Buchanan's insight:
"Our findings do not support any considerable impact of cannabis legislation on the prevalence of recreational cannabis use among youth and young adults in Europe"
When compared to methadone maintenance treatment (MMT), heroin assisted treatment (HAT) more consistently retains people with heroin addictions in treatment and reduces their consumption of illicit drugs.
Julian Buchanan's insight:
Giving people a clean, regular, reliable and stable supply rather than having to rely on buying street drugs makes perfect sense.
Prescribing heroin also makes perfect sense, as well as offering methadone.
Key research highlighting the social exclusion that dependent drug users experience, and the difficulties they face in trying to reintegrate. Julian Buchanan describes a model for integrating probl…
'I want to mention a 2004 paper by Julian Buchanan that I came across last week, which describes his important research with problematic drugs users and a ‘new conceptual framework for practice that incorporates and promotes an understanding of the social nature and context of long term drug dependence.’
It’s listed on the NHS website and claims to be a ‘world leader’ in tackling substance abuse. But there is a shocking side to the Narconon addiction facility – as our nine-month investigation reveals
Julian Buchanan's insight:
Don't unconditional support treatment. Prohibitionist 'treatment' isn't treatment - it can be quite harmful indeed
Most Dangerous Object in the Office: AeroShot Pure Energy - Wired
Julian Buchanan's insight:
Caffeine is the most popular psychoactive drug worldwide - but people who use it are not ascribed the label 'drug user' - they are drug users!! We all use drugs
Drug overdose prevention centres (OPCs) could prevent thousands of deaths, reduce the spread of serious disease, improve communities, save taxpayer money and with no increase in drug-related crime – according to a major new report
Julian Buchanan's insight:
Prohibitionist drug policies are killing people. 1000s of lives can be saved by adopting evidence based drug policies rooted in harm reduction and human rights.
Rethinking Drug Laws: Theory, History, Politics, has now been published. It was written between 2019 and 2022 but based on work going back to around 2006. Further details and purchasing information are available on the publisher's page for the book. You can also buy it from the usual online outlets. The book is an attempt…
The government has doubled down on failed policies, citing deeply flawed studies and misrepresenting data.
Julian Buchanan's insight:
Blaming prescribing for increases in OD is a convenient completely misguided distraction when the real issues are caused by prohibition policies and desperate life circumstances
At the end of February, this year, the Authority on the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC) unveiled its recreational cannabis proposals which are premised on health and aimed at harm reduction.
Julian Buchanan's insight:
Reform negotiated through a prohibitionist discourse leads to a metamorphosis of prohibition - Prohibition 2.0
We saw this in New Zealand with the Psychoactive Substances Act.
Prohibitionist fears, lies and misinformation should have no place in future drug policy
Strong evidence indicates that overdose prevention centers (OPCs) reduce the transmission of HIV and hepatitis, prevent overdose deaths, reduce public injections, reduce the volume of shared or discarded syringes, and increase the number of drug users entering treatment programs.
Julian Buchanan's insight:
There have been so many reports, evaluations, pilot studies over the past decade that show Overdose Prevention Centres /Drug Consumption Rooms are effective
Our results suggest that cannabis use at a frequency of three to four days per week is not associated with apathy, effort-based decision-making for reward, reward wanting, or reward liking in adults or adolescents. Cannabis users had lower anhedonia than controls, albeit at a small effect size. Thes …
Julian Buchanan's insight:
Prohibitionists peddle propaganda to support their aims. The propaganda is accepted as truth, until a plethora of research can prove the opposite. And even then prohibitionists wont take any notice.
In an earlier series of blog posts starting here, I highlighted Julian Buchanan’s classic paper Tackling Problem Drug Use: A New Conceptual Framework in which he describes his ‘Steps to…
"Hospitals can better serve individuals with substance use disorders by incorporating harm reduction education and equipment provision as essential addiction care. We describe the implementation of a hospital intervention that provides harm reduction education and equipment (e.g., syringes, pipes, and fentanyl test strips)"
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He calls for nailing the hypocritics, the individuals and the countries that have done so much damage - all well reasoned, considered and made good sense.
Well worth watching!
The global war on drugs is a war on drug users: http://epubs.glyndwr.ac.uk/siru/23/