years. however, the nature and initial factors associated with this serious health problem have not been studied yet. methods: to understand this issue, a cross-sectional study was conducted and sixty treatment and nontreatment seekers who met the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th ed., text revision (dsm.iv-tr) criteria for drug dependence with mean age of 28.7 (± 8.3) ...

OBJECTIVE High purity heroin use is a new epidemic health concern among Iranian drug-using women in recent years. However, the nature and initial factors associated with this serious health problem have not been studied yet. METHODS To understand this issue, a cross-sectional study was conducted and sixty treatment and non-treatment seekers who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Men...

conclusions reasons associated with initial and continued co-use of heroin kerack with ma, factors associated with treatment entry and the differences between regular and recreational co-users should be specifically considered in designing and tailoring drug use treatment programs for this group. materials and methods 82 clients were randomly recruited. a researcher-designed questionnaire was u...

Heroin abuse has been a long-standing problem in the United States, especially in New York City, which is a major heroin trafficking center and home to the largest population of heroin addicts in the country. As a consequence, New York City is also the major center for methadone treatment. Over time, however, the heroin problem seems to have changed in terms of demographic characteristics of ab...

The Australian heroin “drought” was a singular event deserving of the considerable scholarly attention it has engendered. The best way to understand market disruption is to examine both supply and demand side indicators, yet data on the former have been relatively neglected. Here we explore a rich data set on heroin and methamphetamine purity from 1998-2002 in Victoria that support monthly and ...

BACKGROUND Randomized clinical trials of methadone maintenance have found that on average high daily doses are more effective for reducing heroin use, and clinical practice guidelines recommend 60 mg/d as a minimum dosage. Nevertheless, many clinicians report that some patients can be stably maintained on lower methadone dosages to optimal effect, and clinic dosing practices vary substantially....

During the past decade, the purity of heroin sold in the Northeastern U.S. declined, while at the same time the availability of prescription opioids increased considerably. In 2006, illicitly produced fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid, was added to heroin sold in a handful of mostly Northeastern U.S. cities, resulting in over one thousand deaths. We argue that the introduction of f...

Ethnographic research identifies brokering (a.k.a., “copping for others”) as an important and popular way people who use heroin acquire the drug by making purchases for their peers. Brokering is when a customer buys drugs for a fellow customer using the buyer’s money and is paid using drug the buyer purchases. This distributes heroin costs. Heroin dealers obviously manipulate price and/or drug ...

AIMS In this paper we outline and evaluate competing explanations for a heroin shortage that occurred in Australia during 2001 with an abrupt onset at the beginning of 2001. METHODS We evaluated each of the explanations offered for the shortage against evidence from a variety of sources: government reports, police and drug law enforcement documents and briefings, key informant (KI) interviews...