Abstract: This paper presents an overview of findings from a content analysis of depictions of alcohol and illicit drugs in popular UK magazines read by young people aged 11 to 18 years. Findings are discussed in relation to the potential influence of media representations of substance use on young people’s attitudes and behaviours and the potential role of the media in disseminating health related messages to young people.

Abstract: This study investigated the importance of peer educator qualities among ecstasy users in Australia (n=661) and the Netherlands (n=265). Experience with illicit drug use, an affinity with the ecstasy-using subculture and age emerged as important peer educator characteristics. In the Netherlands, more importance was placed on the peer educator having used illicit drugs and less importance was placed on age, subculture membership, being «cool» and gender than in Australia. The implications for peer-led ecstasy-related education practices are discussed.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine the accomplishment of gender in the context of the youth cultural formation of dance raves. Drawing on a narrative analysis of in-depth interviews with 300 young women and men in a San Francisco rave scene, we examine the role that the drug ecstasy plays in the gender formations at these events. We present evidence to show that using ecstasy within the social context of raves allows increased gender flexibility and alternatives to conventional notions of femininity and masculinity. This is particularly apparent in the ways that young women exhibit greater sexual assertiveness and young men demonstrate increased affective and communicative displays. Yet at the same time, their narratives provide ample evidence that gender accomplishment in this context does not occur outside the bounds of gender accountability and behaviors seen as gender inappropriate are actively policed and sanctioned.

Abstract: Respect for human rights is a defining feature of harm reduction, which is commonly characterised as a public health-based movement. The importance it attaches to ‘user-friendliness’ and the view that drug users have a right to the same respect and dignity that other users of health and social care services receive is largely undisputed among harm reductionists. Within harm reduction there is also a developing discourse identifying drug use itself as a human right; nudging harm reduction towards being a rights based movement. This allows us to describe two philosophies of harm reduction: a ‘weak rights’ version, in which people are entitled to good treatment and a ‘strong rights’ version that additionally recognises a basic right to use drugs. Prioritising human rights or public health can lead to different concepts of harm reduction and different forms of ‘right action’. Privileging health may even, in some circumstances, be consistent with prohibitionary policies if these reduce harm. By contrast, the strong rights version of harm reduction subordinates public health considerations to the right to use drugs and implies support for policies that may sometimes increase harm. In the UK, the publication of ‘The Angel Declaration’, which recognises a right to use drugs and proposes a skeletal regulatory framework for a post-prohibition era, adds to the impetus for harm reductionists to clarify whether they fully embrace a right to use drugs within their understanding of harm reduction. This paper elaborates these issues in the context of the constraints upon the development of an evidence-based approach to controlling drug use that arise from the UN Conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988.

Abstract: This research has tested a structural model of risk and protection factors among 1437 at-risk adolescents in Switzerland. The model was used to identify important gender and age differences. Our research shows that interactions between parents, peers, negative mood, and secure self create a range of risk factors for girls and boys, and for younger and older teens. Negative peer group was a greater risk for young girls than for young boys. Negative mood can serve as an early warning sign for boys, as can negative peer group for girls. Mood for boys was marginally associated with a substance-using peer group and with poor relationships in the family. This suggests that for boys the focus of prevention should be on family relationships and for girls on peer relationships. For older girls, secure self was the greatest protector against substance-using peers, whereas for younger boys and girls, parents continued to offer some protection. The focus on development of secure self in older girls holds promise for secondary prevention.