Drug checking: a potential solution to the opioid overdose epidemic?

Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy - Tập 13 - Trang 1-3 - 2018
Geoff Bardwell1,2, Thomas Kerr1,2
1British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada
2Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada

Tóm tắt

North America is experiencing an overdose epidemic driven in part by the proliferation of illicitly-manufactured fentanyl and related analogues. In response, communities are scaling up novel overdose prevention interventions. Included are drug checking technologies. Drug checking technologies aim to identify the contents of illicit drugs. These technologies vary considerably in terms of cost, accuracy, and usability, and while efforts are now underway to implement drug checking programs for people who inject drugs, there remains a lack of rigorous evaluation of their impacts. Given the ongoing overdose crisis and the urgent need for effective responses, research on drug checking should be prioritized. However, while such research should be supported, it should be completed before these technologies are widely implemented.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Hedegaard H, Warner M, Minino AM. Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 1999-2016. NCHS data brief. 2017(294):1–8.

British Columbia Coroners Service. Illicit drug overdose deaths in BC, January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2017. British Columbia: Government of British Columbia; 2018.

Government of British Columbia Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions: Province expands fentanyl testing and launches drug-checking pilot in Vancouver. British Columbia: Government of British Columbia; 2017.

Health Canada. New federal initiatives to address the opioid crisis. Ottawa: Government of Canada; 2017.

Kerr T, Tupper K. Drug checking as a harm reduction intervention: evidence review report. Vancouver, BC: British Columbia Centre on Substance Use; 2017.

Harper L, Powell J, Pijl EM. An overview of forensic drug testing methods and their suitability for harm reduction point-of-care services. Harm Reduction J. 2017;14(1):52.

Kennedy MC, Scheim A, Rachlis B, Mitra S, Bardwell G, Rourke S, Kerr T. Willingness to use drug checking within future supervised injection services among people who inject drugs in a mid-sized Canadian city. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2018; 185: 248-252.

Krieger MS, Yedinak JL, Buxton JA, Lysyshyn M, Bernstein E, Rich JD, Green TC, Hadland SE, Marshall BDL. High willingness to use rapid fentanyl test strips among young adults who use drugs. Harm Reduction J. 2018;15(1):7.

Sande M, Šabić S. The importance of drug checking outside the context of nightlife in Slovenia. Harm Reduction J. 2018;15(1):2.

Lysyshyn M, Dohoo C, Forsting S, Kerr T, McNeil R. Evaluation of a fentanyl drug checking program for clients of a supervised injection site, Vancouver, Canada. Montréal: Harm Reduction International Conference; 2017.

Kerr T, Small W, Hyshka E, Maher L, Shannon K. ‘It’s more about the heroin’: injection drug users’ response to an overdose warning campagin in a Canadian setting. Addiction. 2013;108(7):1270–6.

John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Forecast: fentanyl overdose reduction checking analysis study. February 6, 2018. Baltimore, MD: Bloomberg American Health Initiative.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy

Tập 13

1-3

Thông tin tác giả