Republic of Georgia estimates for prevalence of drug use: Randomized response techniques suggest under-estimation.

Background: Validity of responses in surveys is an important research concern, especially in emerging market economies where surveys in the general population are a novelty, and the level of social control is traditionally higher. The Randomized Response Technique (RRT) can be used as a check on response validity when the study aim is to estimate population prevalence of drug experiences and other socially sensitive and/or illegal behaviors.

Aim: To apply RRT and to study potential under-reporting of drug use in a nation-scale, population-based general population survey of alcohol and other drug use.

Qualitative research in Spanish cannabis social clubs: "The moment you enter the door, you are minimising the risks".

Background: Cannabis social clubs (CSCs) in Spain are non-profit organisations that connect regular adult cannabis users. One of their functions is to supply cannabis to the closed circuit of members. The CSCs do not breach any international treaties.

Public health and international drug policy.

Unlabelled: In September 2015, the member states of the United Nations endorsed sustainable development goals (SDG) for 2030 that aspire to human rights-centered approaches to ensuring the health and well-being of all people. The SDGs embody both the UN Charter values of rights and justice for all and the responsibility of states to rely on the best scientific evidence as they seek to better humankind. In April 2016, these same states will consider control of illicit drugs, an area of social policy that has been fraught with controversy, seen as inconsistent with human rights norms, and for which scientific evidence and public health approaches have arguably played too limited a role.

[New psychoactive substances and their prevalence in the Czech Republic].

Recently, there is a global growing concern over the new (mainly synthetic) psychoactive substances, known as legal highs, research chemicals or bath salts. They are represented by various chemical groups imitating "old" illicit drugs with stimulant, euphoric, hallucinogenic or sedative effects. In the Czech Republic, the peak of their use and supply was observed at the beginning of 2011, when new psychoactive substances were available in smart shops known locally as Amsterdam shops - in that time mainly synthetic cathinones and also synthetic cannabinoids were present.

"Should I Buy or Should I Grow?" How drug policy institutions and drug market transaction costs shape the decision to self-supply with cannabis in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

Background: This paper uses the framework of institutional economics to assess the impact of formal and informal institutions that influence the transaction costs on the cannabis market, and users' decisions to self-supply in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, two countries with seemingly identical policies towards cannabis cultivation.

Methods: A comparative analysis was conducted using secondary qualitative and quantitative data in four areas that were identified as relevant to the decision to cultivate cannabis: (i) the rules of the game - cannabis cultivation policy; (ii) "playing the game" - implementation of cannabis cultivation policy, (iii) informal institutions - cannabis cultivation culture, and (iv) the transaction costs of the cannabis market - availability, quality, and relative cannabis prices adjusted by purchasing power parity.

Results: Although the two policies are similar, their implementation differs substantially.

Post-Soviet Central Asia: a summary of the drug situation.

Background: The paper aims to provide a snapshot of the drug situation in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan using the EU methodology of "harmonised indicators of drug epidemiology."

Methods: Most of the data reported here were gathered and analysed within the framework of the EU-funded CADAP project in 2012. Together with members of CADAP national teams, we conducted extraction from the databases of national institutions in the field of (public) health and law enforcement, issued formal requests for the provision of specific information to national governmental authorities, and obtained national grey literature in Russian.

Mortality of registered drug users in Central Asia.

Background: Within the fifth phase of the Central Asia Drug Action Programme (CADAP) covering five post-Soviet Central Asian countries, an analysis of the mortality of drug users was performed. The results for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are presented in detail in this paper since results from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are not considered valid and Turkmenistan did not provide data at all.

Methods: A system of registration of all users of illegal drugs known to the health and/or law enforcement authorities ("narcological registers") exists in Central Asian countries inherited from the system of Soviet "narcology".

Mortality of cohort of very young injecting drug users in Prague, 1996-2010.

Aim: To determine the mortality in a cohort of very young injecting drug users (IDUs), and the factors associated with it.

Design: A database linkage prospective (follow-up) cohort study.

Setting: A convenience sample of clients of 2 low-threshold facilities, 1 drug treatment clinic, and one special facility for children with severe behavioural disorders, who were all younger than 19 and older than 15, was interviewed one or more times in 1996-8 and asked to agree with their being interviewed again after 10 or more years.

Hepatitis C in HIV-infected individuals: cure and control, right now.

For persons living with HIV, hepatitis C is a major public health problem that must be controlled and could be eliminated. The challenge arises because the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is prevalent among HIV-infected persons in most parts of the world, because HIV worsens all HCV outcomes, and because HCV may add additional individual economic and psychosocial complications to HIV disease. Despite the major benefits of antiretroviral therapy on HIV outcomes, antiretroviral therapy is not sufficient to halt the complications of HCV.

Use of gelatine capsules for application of methamphetamine: a new harm reduction approach.

Background: In order to reduce injecting drug use, low-threshold facilities in the Czech Republic have started to distribute empty gelatine capsules as an oral alternative of drug application for those injecting methamphetamine. This report reviews implementation of this intervention and its possible benefits and limitations.

Methods: Between December 2008 and January 2009, 109 low-threshold facilities were asked to complete a questionnaire about the capsule programmes.

[Ethanol and other psychoactive substances in fatal road traffic accidents in the Czech Republic in 2008].

Background: To map the recent prevalence of alcohol and other psychoactive substances in deceased victims of traffic accidents in the Czech Republic.

Material And Methods: The studied sample consisted of individuals autopsied in the departments of forensic medicine who died during traffic accidents in 2008 and were toxicologically tested for one or more of the following substances: ethanol, volatile substances, cannabis, opiates, stimulants, cocaine, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates. Case definition involved alcohol cases with blood alcohol concentration (BAC) 0.

Why do the clients of Georgian needle exchange programmes inject buprenorphine?

Aim: The aim of the study was to understand the prevalence and patterns of the non-medical injecting use of buprenorphine among drug injectors in Georgia.

Method: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among injecting drug users enrolled in Georgian needle exchange programmes. The questions covered topics related to drug use career, patterns (frequency, history, dosage) and reasons for the use of buprenorphine.

Mortality among amphetamine users: a systematic review of cohort studies.

Aims: To report the results of a comprehensive literature search of studies of mortality among people who use amphetamines.

Design And Setting: Three electronic databases were searched (EMBASE, Medline and PsycINFO) and "grey" literature was located. Shortlists of papers were circulated to experts to ascertain whether any important papers had been missed.

Drugs and fatal traffic accidents in the Czech Republic.

Introduction: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of psychotropic drug use in active participants in traffic accidents who died during the accident or shortly after it due to injuries resulting from the accident.

Methods: A special mortality register containing data of all forensic autopsies was analysed. The studied sample consisted of persons who died during traffic accidents and were active participants in those ones (pedestrians, cyclists, or drivers), and were toxicologically tested during the forensic examination.

Hepatitis C virus infection among injecting drug users in the Czech Republic -- prevalence and associated factors.

Aim: To determine the prevalence of, and factors associated with, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the population of Czech injecting drug users (IDUs).

Design: Multicentric cross-sectional study.

Setting: A convenience sample of injecting drug users was recruited using the snowball sampling method.