Capitalising upon political opportunities to reform drug policy: A case study into the development of the Australian “Tough on Drugs-Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative”

The police paradox: A qualitative study of post-overdose outreach program implementation through public health-public safety partnerships in Massachusetts

BACKGROUND

Post-overdose outreach has emerged in the United States as an increasingly common response to non-fatal overdose. This qualitative study investigates the implementation of such programs through public health-public safety partnerships in Massachusetts.

METHODS

We conducted semi-structured interviews with post-overdose outreach team members, overdose survivors, and family members who received outreach. Interview transcripts were inductively analyzed to identify emergent themes and subsequently organized within the framework of Ecological Systems Theory.

RESULTS

Forty-nine interviews were conducted, including 15 police officers (80% male, 100% non-Hispanic White); 23 public health partners (48% male, 87% non-Hispanic White); 8 overdose survivors who received outreach services and 3 parents of survivors who received services (collectively 27% male, 64% non-Hispanic White). Implementation factors identified across all levels (macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem, and microsystem) of Ecological Systems Theory included key program facilitators, such as access to police data and funding (macro), interagency collaboration (exo), shared recognition of community needs (exo), supportive relationships among team members (meso), and program champions (micro). Common barriers included inherent contradictions between policing and public health mandates (macro), poor local treatment and service capacity (exo), divergent staff views of program goals (exo), overdose survivors' prior negative experiences with law enforcement (meso), difficulty locating overdose survivors (meso), and police officers' lack of qualifications or training in providing psycho-social services (micro).

CONCLUSIONS

Most post-overdose outreach programs in this study were dependent on funding and data-sharing partnerships, which police agencies largely controlled. Yet, police participation, especially during outreach visits presented numerous challenges for engaging overdose survivors and establishing non-coercive linkages with evidence-based services, which may undermine the public health goals of these programs. These findings should inform state and federal efforts to expand the role of law enforcement in behavioral health initiatives.

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.

METHODS

This study used a purpose built nation-wide online survey to evaluate cost-effectiveness of cannabis cautioning versus a traditional response for minor cannabis offences (arrest). The survey was completed by a self-selected group of detected cannabis offenders. The outcome measure was self-reported cannabis use days in the previous month post-intervention. Cost data included costs of policing, court, penalties, assessment, treatment and educational sessions. Propensity score weighting and doubly robust regression analyses were utilised to address differences between the groups.

RESULTS

There were 195 respondents who reported being arrested for a cannabis possession/use offence and 355 who reported receiving a formal cannabis caution. After matching on a range of characteristics (age, prior criminal conviction, cannabis consumption, employment status, self-reported criminal activity prior to detection, severity of dependence) there was no statistically significant difference in cannabis use pre- and post-police intervention between the two groups(N=544). After matching and bootstrapping the costs there was a significant difference in costs; the mean cost for the charge group (net of fines) was $733 (SD 151) and $388 (SD 111) for the caution group.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that after matching on a range of relevant characteristics there were no differences across groups in the change in self-reported cannabis use days, but cannabis cautioning was less costly than charge/arrest. These results add to the evidence about the efficacy and desirability of alternatives to arrest both within Australia and abroad.

Hospitalization due to drug use did not change after a decade of the Psychiatric Reform

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether the psychiatric hospitalization rates due to use of psychoactive substances and average time of hospitalization suffered any changes after the first decade of effective implementation of the psychiatric reform in Brazil.

METHODS

This article examines the evolution of hospitalizations due to disorders arising from the use of alcohol or other substances in the state of Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil, from 2000 to 2012. This is an ecological, time-series study, which uses data from admissions obtained by the Informatics Service of the Brazilian Unified Health System. Hospitalization rates by 100,000 inhabitants and average time of occupancy of beds were estimated. Coefficients of variation of these rates were estimated by Poisson Regression.

RESULTS

The total and male hospitalization rates did not vary (p = 0.056 and p = 0.244, respectively). We observed an increase of 3.0% for the female sex (p = 0.049). We did not observe any significant variation for occupancy time of beds.

CONCLUSIONS

The deployment of services triggered by the Brazilian psychiatric reform was not accompanied by a reduction of hospitalization rates or mean occupancy time of hospitalized patients during this first decade of implementation of the reform.