Illicit COVID-19 products online: A mixed-method approach for identifying and preventing online health risks.

Aims: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a demand for vaccines, cures, and the need of related documentation for travel, work and other purposes. Our project aimed to identify the illicit availability of such products across the Dark Web Markets (DWMs).

Methods: A retrospective search for COVID-19 related products was carried out across 118 DWMs since the start of the pandemic (March 2020-October 2021).

Profiling the vendors of COVID-19 related product on the Darknet: An observational study.

Background: In a time of unprecedented global change, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in demand of COVID-19 vaccines and related certifications. Mainly due to supply shortages, counterfeit vaccines, fake documentation, and alleged cures to illegal portfolios, have been offered on darkweb marketplaces (DWMs) with important public health consequences. We aimed to profile key DWMs and vendors by presenting some in-depth case studies.

Alternate policing strategies: Cost-effectiveness of cautioning for cannabis offences.

Background: There is increasing international interest in alternatives to the use of arrest for minor drug offences. While Australia has been at the forefront in the provision of diversionary programs for minor drug offences there remain key gaps in knowledge about the cost-effectiveness of different approaches. Here we set out to assess the cost-effectiveness of cannabis cautioning schemes whereby police refer minor cannabis use and possession offenders to education and/or treatment instead of arresting and charging them.

The impact of paying treatment providers for outcomes: difference-in-differences analysis of the 'payment by results for drugs recovery' pilot.

Aims: To estimate the effect on drug misuse treatment completion of a pilot scheme to pay service providers according to rates of recovery.

Design: A controlled, quasi-experimental (difference-in-differences) observational study using multi-level random effects logistic regression.

Setting: Drug misuse treatment providers in all 149 commissioning areas in England in the financial years 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Predictors of retention in the 'voluntary' and 'quasi-compulsory' treatment of substance dependence in europe.

Background: Policies and practices related to the quasi-compulsory treatment (QCT) of substance-dependent offenders are currently implemented in many countries, despite the absence of reliable knowledge about significant predictors of treatment retention. This study aimed to identify such predictors in QCT and voluntary treatment.

Methods: Participants were treated in one of 65 institutions in 5 European countries.

Comparing outcomes of 'voluntary' and 'quasi-compulsory' treatment of substance dependence in Europe.

Aim: This study evaluates quasi-compulsory drug treatment (QCT) arrangements for substance-dependent offenders receiving treatment instead of imprisonment in comparison to voluntary treatment within five European countries.

Methods: Participants were interviewed with the European Addiction Severity Index, the ASI-crime module, questions on perception of pressure and self-efficacy, and the Readiness-to-Change Questionnaire at treatment entry and after 6, 12, and 18 months.

Results: Reductions in substance use and crime as well as improvements in health and social integration were observed in QCT and voluntary treatment groups.

The relationship between legal status, perceived pressure and motivation in treatment for drug dependence: results from a European study of Quasi-Compulsory Treatment.

This paper reports on intake data from Quasi-Compulsory Treatment in Europe, a study of quasi-compulsory treatment (QCT) for drug dependent offenders. It explores the link between formal legal coercion, perceived pressure to be in treatment and motivation amongst a sample of 845 people who entered treatment for drug dependence in five European countries, half of them in quasi-compulsory treatment and half 'voluntarily'. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, it suggests that those who enter treatment under QCT do perceive greater pressure to be in treatment, but that this does not necessarily lead to higher or lower motivation than 'volunteers'.

Over a decade of syringe exchange: results from 1997 UK survey.

Aims: To describe syringe exchange provision in the United Kingdom.

Design: Two-phase cross-sectional survey: phase I, establishing a sampling frame of syringe exchange coordinators (n=420); phase II, surveying the coordinators seeking data on the number of syringe exchange outlets, visits and syringes distributed during April 1997 (68% response rate).

Setting: United Kingdom.