The negative social attributes associated with drug use and abuse/dependence may arise as a result of shared genetic or environmental factors rather than through causal pathways. To evaluate this possibility, structured interviews were conducted for 3969 male and female twins from the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry and evaluations of their socioeconomic status (SES), social interactions, and use of...

It is estimated that almost a quarter of a billion people between the ages of 15 and 64 years used an illicit drug in 2013. This corresponds to a global prevalence of 5.2 per cent (range: 3.4-7.0 per cent), suggesting that drug use has remained stable in the past three years, although the estimated number of drug users has actually risen by 6 million to 246 million (range: 162 million-329 milli...

Based on 1853 questionnaires derived from adolescent students participating in the 1995 Ontario Student Drug Use Survey, this article describes the prevalence of rave attendance and the drug-use profile of rave attendees and those participating in similar activities (i.e. bush parties). The results showed that 13% of the sample attended a rave during the 12 months before the survey. Although ra...

Surveillance data suggests that use of ecstasy in the U.S. is predominantly among white adolescent and young adults. To investigate ecstasy use among substance users in New York City we added questions to ongoing efforts to recruit heroin and cocaine users. Of 715 participants recruited, 58.3% were injection drug users (IDUs). The median age was 32 (range 17-64), 76.4% were male, 49.0% were cur...

Myths and folklore about drugs represent important aspects of user subcultures. This paper explores Ecstasy users' perceptions about drug folklore as it relates to the social relationships of drug user lifestyles. The data for the study were collected through in-depth interviews with 50 current or former Ecstasy users in Northern Ireland. The findings indicate that although some Ecstasy users p...

It has been theorized that drug abusers recently released from prison have an increased risk of fatal drug overdose. The objective of this study was to determine whether persons released from prison in the state of New Mexico have an increased risk of death due to unintentional drug overdose in the time immediately after release from prison. A total of 96 people were identified who had been rel...

Abuse liability of diazepam was examined among experienced drug users. The subjects, randomly divided into two groups, each having eight subjects, received diazepam, 15 mg intravenously (gr. 1) and 30 mg orally (gr. 2). Subjective states, drug liking, sedation and euphoria were assessed at pre-drug, 15 min, 120 min and 240 min post-drug administration. In addition, brief assessment to evaluate ...

A study of the whole spectrum of drug incidents dealt with in one month by 62 casualty departments in the Greater London area was carried out in the summer of 1975. Apart from demonstrating the large number of such incidents, this preliminary report presents an analysis of the drugs responsible for these episodes, basic demographic characteristics of the drug users, and an estimate of the contr...

Endogenous endophthalmitis is a rare but feared infectious ocular complication of injection drug use (IDU). The recent opioid epidemic in the United States threatens to increase the incidence of this disease. We report the first case of endogenous endophthalmitis in the United States caused by the emerging fungal pathogen Rhodotorula in an injection drug user which led to no light perception vi...

This study examines the prevalence of public injecting and willingness to use drug consumption rooms (DCRs) among UK needle exchange programme (NEP) attendees. Three hundred and one injecting drug users (IDUs) were surveyed using a brief questionnaire across five NEPs in London and Leeds between April and June 2005. Injection in a public place in the past week was reported by 55% of the sample ...