BACKGROUND Socioeconomic status (SES) is often inversely related to health outcomes and is likely to play a role in the use of psychoactive substances among young individuals, although little consensus exists on the association between SES and substance use. The purpose of the study was to determine the association of three SES indicators (perceived family income, education level of participant...

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge on illicit drugs as emerging environmental contaminants. Several studies have recently reported that illicit drugs are detectable in wastewater from municipal sewage treatment plants (STPs) and surface waters. These substances are excreted in urine and faeces unchanged or as active metabolites in high percentages after consumption and continuous...

Background: Rhabdomyolysis is one of the major complications of poisoning caused by alcohol, narcotics, and psychotropic substances acute toxicity, which might lead to acute renal failure and even death. This study aimed to evaluate clinical and laboratory findings of rhabdomyolysis syndrome in poisoning patients who were admitted to poisoning ward of Farshchian Hospital of Hamadan, Iran. Meth...

BACKGROUND Anti-illicit-drug public-service announcements (PSAs) have become a cornerstone of drug policy in the USA. However, studies of the effectiveness of these interventions have not been subjected to a systematic evaluation. METHODS The authors searched 10 electronic databases along with major conference abstract databases (from inception until 15 February 2010) for all articles and abs...

BACKGROUND Undertreated pain is common among people who use illicit drugs (PWUD), and can often reflect the reluctance of health care providers to provide pain medication to individuals with substance use disorders. OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between having ever been denied pain medication by a health care provider and having ever reported using illicit drugs in hospital. MET...

BACKGROUND The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prescribes that drug testing is conducted in sports competitions to detect drug use in athletes. This testing includes performance-enhancing drugs as well as illicit substances such as marijuana, amphetamines and cocaine. Illicit drugs are tested for on match days but not on non-match days. Some athletes are known to use illicit substances for recr...

The aim of this study was to assess the presence of alcohol, illicit drugs and medicinal drugs among Spanish drivers involved in fatal road accidents between 1991 and 2000. Samples were obtained for 5745 drivers killed in road accidents from January 1991 to December 2000. Of the samples, 91.7% represented males and 8.3% females; 40.7% were under 30 years of age, 31.9% were under 31-50 years of ...

Illicit drug use is widespread across most industrialised countries. The prevalence of illicit use is probably measured best in the United States: at least 14 million people, or 6% of the population, use illicit drugs every month (Office of National Drug Control Policy [ONDCP], 1999). Nor is this pattern of use confined to the U.S. In Britain, for example, around 2 million people use illicit dr...

INTRODUCTION Cannabis use is strongly associated with the use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs. Gateway and common liabilities models have been employed to explain this relationship. We sought to examine this association using a combination of the discordant twin design and modeling methods. METHOD We assess the relationship between early cannabis use and the subsequent use and abu...