A daily tablet of tenofovir, a drug otherwise used to treat HIV infection, reduced the risk of HIV acquisition among people who inject drugs by 49% in a clinical trial. Those who took the medication most consistently had higher levels of protection, report scientists from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) in 

These findings from Thailand come from the only pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) trial ever conducted with injecting drug users, and show that PrEP can reduce infections associated with sharing injecting equipment as well as sexual transmission among drug users.

Incidence was 0.35 per 100 person-years in the PrEP group and 0.68 per 100 person-years in the placebo group, representing a 48.9% reduction in infections.

Read the full publication here (restricted access).

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Antiretroviral prophylaxis for HIV infection in injecting drug users in Bangkok, Thailand 

The Drug Matrix is concerned with the treatment of problems related to the use of illegal drugs by adults (a similar table deals with alcohol-related problems). It maps the terrain within which relevant evidence may be found and for each location tries to find the most important UK-relevant research and guidance. In widening contextual circles, across the top of the matrix the columns move from specific interventions through how their impacts are affected by staff, the management of the service, and the nature of the organisation, to the impact of whole local area treatment systems. Down the rows are the major intervention types implemented at these levels. At the intersections, inside each cell is our pick of the most important documents relevant to the impact of that intervention type at that contextual level.

Drug Matrix: Evidence for effective treatment

Drug abuse in Japan began after World War II and has been characterized by three epidemics of methamphetamine abuse; in addition, solvent abuse has been prominent for a long time. Since 1995, with the beginning of the third epidemic of methamphetamine abuse, drug abuse or dependence in Japan changed, with a marked decrease in solvent abuse, stabilization of methamphetamine abuse, an increase in the abuse of such drugs as cannabis or 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (which do not have high potential of causing drug-induced psychosis), and the emergence of designer drugs. Furthermore, the abuse of medical drugs such as Ritalin became a major issue in 2007.

These changes reveal an increase in the abuse of drugs that do not as easily produce a psychotic state, underlain with a shift from personal conduct that leads to arrest to conduct that does not. Japan, therefore, needs to deal with drug abuse and dependence using not only a medical model, but also a criminal model as well.

Click here to read the full report (restricted access).

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

The history and current state of drug abuse in Japan

Stability in use of traditional drugs, alarming rise in new psychoactive substances

The 2013 World Drug Report released in Vienna on 26th June shows that, while the use of traditional drugs such as heroin and cocaine seems to be declining in some parts of the world, prescription drug abuse and new psychoactive substance abuse is growing. In a special high-level event of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov urged concerted action to prevent the manufacture, trafficking and abuse of these substances.

Marketed as 'legal highs' and 'designer drugs', NPS are proliferating at an unprecedented rate and posing unforeseen public health challenges. The report shows that the number of NPS reported to UNODC rose from 166 at the end of 2009 to 251 by mid-2012, an increase of more than 50 per cent. For the first time, the number of NPS exceeded the total number of substances under international control (234). Since new harmful substances have been emerging with unfailing regularity on the drug scene, the international drug control system is now challenged by the speed and creativity of the NPS phenomenon.

The global picture for the use of traditional drugs such as heroin and cocaine shows some stability. In Europe, heroin use seems to be declining. Meanwhile, the cocaine market seems to be expanding in South America and in the emerging economies in Asia. Use of opiates (heroin and opium), on the other hand, remains stable (around 16 million people, or 0.4 per cent of the population aged 15-64), although a high prevalence of opiate use has been reported from South-West and Central Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and North America.

Africa is emerging as a target for the trafficking as well as production of illicit substances, although data are scarce. Mr. Fedotov called for international support to monitor the situation and to prevent the continent from becoming increasingly vulnerable to the drugs trade and organized crime. There is also a need to help the large number of drug users who are the victims of the spill-over effect of drug trafficking through the continent.

2013 UNODC World Drug Report

On February 28 and March 1, 2013, an international conference organized by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on transnational organized crime gathered experts from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe. The title of the conference, »Being Tough Is Not Enough – Curbing transnational Organized Crime« was inspired by the realization that, so far, the narrow focus on law enforcement in addressing transnational organized crime has had significant shortcomings. Other areas, such as development and health policy, institution building and capacity development, could contribute to a more balanced response. The conference discussed possible avenues for addressing issues of organized crime more effectively.

Being tough is not enough: Curbing transnational organised crime

Awareness is growing of the importance of developing health policy and practice based on the best available scientific evidence. Despite this, a major disconnect between research, public policy and practise persists in many settings. As a result of the failure to incorporate scientific evidence into policy, various marginalized populations, including people who use illicit drugs (PWUD), remain vulnerable to preventable health-related harms.

In an effort to close the research– policy gap, scientists from the Urban Health Research Initiative of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS and the University of British Columbia’s Division of AIDS have prepared a second report on the scope and extent of Vancouver’s drug problems.

This report contains 15 years of prospective data on drug use and behavioural trends among some of the city’s most vulnerable PWUD, including HIV-positive and HIV-negative PWUD and street-involved youth. The objective of this report is to make data accessible to a wide variety of stakeholders and to directly inform the City of Vancouver’s Four Pillars Drug Strategy, the Province of British Columbia’s response to illicit drug use, and the Canadian federal government’s National Anti-Drug Strategy.

Drug situation in Vancouver

This report detail the activities of the Community Action on Harm Reduction Project on 2012.

CAHR annual report

Some commentators argue that programmes developed in North America (Canada and the US) are unlikely to work in European countries, due to differing cultural contexts and because most of the evidence for their effectiveness comes from North America. This Thematic paper presents experiences of adapting and implementing four innovative and proven North American drug prevention programmes in Europe, showing the clear potential of transferring such programmes and avoiding the cliché of culture as a barrier to implementation.

North American drug prevention programmes: Are they feasible in European cultures and contexts?

Although data are limited, an estimated 70,000-100,000 people die from opioid overdose each year. Opioid overdose was the main cause of the estimated 99,000-253,000 deaths worldwide related to illicit drug use in 2010.1 Opioid overdose is both preventable and, if witnessed, treatable (reversible). In its resolution 55/7 on promoting measures to prevent drug overdose, in particular opioid overdose, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs called upon Member States to include effective measures to prevent and treat drug overdose in national drug policies.2 In that resolution, the Commission requested the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), to collect and circulate available best practices on the prevention and treatment of and emergency response to drug overdose, in particular opioid overdose, including on the use and availability of opioid receptor antagonists such as naloxone and other measures based on scientific evidence.

This discussion paper outlines the facts about opioid overdose, the actions that can be taken to prevent and treat (reverse) opioid overdose and areas requiring further investigation.

Opioid overdose: preventing and reducing mortality

The present study is a research in the new psychoactive substances (NPS) consumption in Romania conducted on two levels: the empirical level – a field qualitative study in ten major cities of Romania; and a secondary analysis of various data and information from scientific and online media.

The main purpose is a quick survey on new psychoactive substances (NPS) consumption – „legal highs” or „ethno-botanicals” – patterns of consumption and associated risks in 120 children and teens from ten major cities in Romania.

Risk assessment of new psychoactive substances consumption among children and youth in Romania

Read here the full declarations and resolutions approved by OAS Member States during the XLIII General Assembly that took place on June 4-6, 2013 in Antigua, Guatemala.

Declarations and resolutions adopted by the OAS General Assembly 

The series ‘A year in review’ contains the essence of the EMCDDA's General Report of Activities. It is designed to provide interested audiences with a brief summary of the agency’s achievements for the year concerned with a focus on key topics.

Publications