The ‘great debate’ has come full circle and once again the legalisation debate is dominating the drug field. But what exactly is legalisation? Here one of Britain’s champions of law reform seeks to clarify some very muddled thinking and, once…
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Druglink article 1998 – The new orthodoxy: harm reduction goes AWOL by Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt
It was the drug field’s big idea of the last decade. But just as it is gaining the international recognition it has deserved, we’re getting worrying reports from the good ship harm reduction. It’s perhaps time to ask – what’s…
Druglink article 1998 – Control through evidence: the double-edged sword by Tom Waller
With licensing on the cards for GPs who prescribe substitute drugs, the research base for those prescribing decisions must be urgently reconsidered. When we insist on only accepting evidence-based medicine are we simply cutting ourselves off from better alternatives? Control…
Druglink article 1998 – Looking for clues – does the strategy stand up to scrutiny? by Roger Paxton
With Tackling Drugs Together up for renewal, it’s about time to look at the evidence for the original’s aims and objectives. For, without evidence, it is unlikely that any policy – let alone a strategy – will get off the…
Druglink article 1998 – Czar czar galore by Oswin Baker
They’ve effectively been in post for three months and even the most hardened cynics have their wishlists for them to tackle. But what exactly does it mean to be UK Anti-Drugs Coordinator or his deputy? What do Keith Hellawell and…
Druglink news item 1998 – Rapid opiate detox out for the count
Following last year’s inquest into the death of Brendan Woolhead while undergoing rapid opiate detoxification, a public debate and a number of recent cases have called into question the basis of such detoxification programmes Rapid opiate detox out for the…
Druglink article 1997 – Drought warning: rapid assessment in practice by Jim Sherval and Ian Grant
Reports of a cannabis drought in 1996 prompted the authors to carry out a rapid assessment of the situation in the Lothians. Interviews with drug workers and drug users confirmed the rumours as well as a switch to amphetamine and…
Druglink article 1997 – Feeling our way in the dark: matching client need to service function by Bryan Masterson and Anna Hindhaugh
Multi-Disciplinary Community Teams (MDCTs) have been chosen as a model for delivering services to people with drug and alcohol problems. A snapshot survey focusing on the procedures under which clients are allocated to workers within two MDCTs found that the…
Druglink article 1997 – Feed me by Dr Alan Davis
It barely requires saying that drug misusers often have health problems. Hepatitis, HIV, bacterial endocarditis and injection sores may be the ones we focus on, but perhaps we should not ignore what is often the most obvious health problem –…
Druglink article 1997 – A new kind of user – a new kind of service? by Margaret Woolgrove and Jan Keene
This paper presents the results of an in-depth qualitative study of senior managers and practitioners in social services, health, youth work and the criminal justice service. The respondents high-lighted concerns about drug users who they felt were not in contact…