Abstract: alcohol-attributable injuries are of a growing concern to the public health community, with alcohol-related injuries such as road traffic accidents, burns, poisonings, falls and drownings making up more than a third of the disease burden attributable to alcohol consumption. This publication synthesizes results of a number of hospital emergency department studies conducted in different cultural and health care settings, including the WHO Collaborative Study on alcohol and Injuries. It provides an introduction to the epidemiology of alcohol related injuries and refers to methodological issues of emergency department studies. It addresses public policy implications and equips the reader with practical information on interventions that can be implemented in emergency departments, such as screening and brief interventions for hazardous and harmful drinking. The book has been compiled by an international group of editors with extensive experience in the area of alcohol and injuries.

Abstract: Most injecting drug users have never been in drug treatment yet much research is done on samples with high treatment rates drawn from agency and peer recruited populations. This study accessed drug injectors with little or no prior drug treatment, described their characteristics, BBVI risk behaviours and feedback on services. Its results challenge some stereotypes about citizens who inject drugs. A sample of 511 ’hidden’ drug injectors, of whom only 28.7% had any specialist drug treatment agency contact, completed a questionnaire which was distributed with ’Fitpack’ needle packs sold through community pharmacies in WA. The mean age of respondents was 26.2 years, 43.4% were women, 44.3% were living with their sexual partner, 41.7% were parents, and 46.4% were employed, mostly in full time work. In the previous month 61.2% had injected less frequently than daily. The study accessed a diverse group of drug injectors not typically seen in agency and peer recruited research. They provided useful feedback about how harm reduction strategies among injectors can be improved. However, they also reported higher rates of injecting and sharing than found previously in traditionally recruited samples of injectors, which suggests there is no room for complacency regarding the potential for blood-borne viral infection (BBVI) transmission in this group.

Abstract: Der Konsum psychoaktiver Substanzen stellt eine Verhaltensweise dar, die je nach historischem, kulturellem und situationalem Kontext unterschiedlich bewertet wird. In heutigen Gesellschaften kann Drogengebrauch als moralisches Fehlverhalten, als Krankheit, als Folge von Armut und Sozialisationsdefiziten oder als risikobehafteter Lebensstil interpretiert werden. Je nach Interpretation unterliegt Drogenkonsum einem anderen Modus der sozialen Kontrolle. Im Fokus dieser Darstellung steht die Frage, wie sich die verschiedenen Möglichkeiten, das ’Drogenproblem’ gesellschaftlich zu regulieren, im historischen Verlauf herausgebildet und institutionalisiert haben. Gleichzeitig ist sie darauf ausgerichtet, am Beispiel des Drogenkonsums die Beziehungen von Sozialer Arbeit und sozialer Kontrolle sichtbar zu machen.

Abstract: This volume is the result of an EMCDDA-commissioned study carried out in 1998 and 1999 into one of the most widely discussed drug-related topics in Europe today: substitution treatment. The study was prompted by the lively debate on the issue in the mid-1990s, when Switzerland launched its first heroin trial, France began buprenorphine treatment and methadone programmes expanded rapidly throughout Europe. These initiatives led to an increased focus on substitution treatment and to the trajectories it was to follow in the future. The volume opens with a historical overview of substitution treatment, the development of methadone maintenance and other substitution services and a section on monitoring and evaluation. It closes with a series of country profiles for each of the then 15 EU Member States, all containing an introduction to substitution treatment in the country concerned.