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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:11 am
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Results for synthetic drugs
4 results foundAuthor: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Global SMART Programme Title: Afghanistan Synthetic Drugs Situation Assessment Summary: Afghanistan's opiate market has annually accounted for the largest share of illicit opium produced worldwide. Alongside the continued dominant presence of an illicit opiate market, recent reports indicate an increasing availability of synthetic drugs in Afghanistan and the South-Western and Central Asian region as a whole. Overall, there continue to be some significant analytical gaps in the information and data relating to synthetic drugs in Afghanistan. The main objective of this report is to offer some initial insights into the extent of synthetic drug production, use, and trafficking in Afghanistan and to highlight important areas for further research. The phenomenon of synthetic drugs cannot be understood by focussing on Afghanistan alone. Rather, this report situates the dynamics of synthetic drugs in the country within the wider context of South-Western and Central Asia in order to understand the recent emergence and origins of synthetic drugs in Afghanistan. Based on this approach, presenting the regional perspective helps to provide a full picture of the synthetic drug situation in Afghanistan. The research process of this report incorporated various resources and strands of information. Much of the data and information presented in this report are derived from field research material that was gathered over an eight-month period. The field research included missions to 5 provinces in Afghanistan, where interviews were conducted with over 100 key informants, drug users and law enforcement officials at government offices, health service centres and drug treatment providers (see Annex). These various sources of information have also been supplemented by official reports involving national aggregate information and data. Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2017. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2017 at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/Reports/2017_Afghanistan_Synthetic_Drugs_Assessment_report.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.unodc.org/documents/Reports/2017_Afghanistan_Synthetic_Drugs_Assessment_report.pdf Shelf Number: 144842 Keywords: Drug TraffickingIllegal DrugsIllicit DrugsOpiumSynthetic Drugs |
Author: Great Britain. HM Inspectorate of Probation Title: New Psychoactive Substances: the response by probation and substance misuse services in the community in England Summary: The prevalence of NPS is hard to quantify for several reasons. Synthetic drug manufacture is not geographically constrained and this prevents an estimation of the volume of such drugs being manufactured worldwide. Users of NPS often don't know what they are taking, and in some cases they have been misled, with NPS passed off as more conventional drugs such as ecstasy. In addition, GPs, accident and emergency departments, probation services and the police do not specifically record NPS use. While the overall size of the NPS market is small in comparison with other drugs, an increasing number of countries are reporting seizures of NPS. There is also growing recognition of the harm associated with NPS use - often the result of crude manufacturing techniques and unpredictable dosage levels. As a result, they can be more lethal than other drugs. Concern is also rising about their use among marginalised populations such as prisoners and street homeless, attracted by the availability and low cost of NPS. Treatment options are more limited than with other substances, for example opioids, where substitutes are available. In most cases, treatment involves psychosocial interventions to help people consider the health risks and the costs of using NPS, and to help them make behavioural changes to reduce harm and moderate their drug use. We came across two areas using clinical detoxification to help manage withdrawal from NPS use. Overall, inspected areas did not have a good enough understanding of the prevalence of NPS use at a local level or what may work for those using NPS. While the UK government has issued advice and guidance for commissioners and substance misuse services, in the main, strategies have focused on crisis management to address emergencies. While local management relationships between substance misuse services and probation providers were good, probation engagement at a strategic level was less consistent. Where the strategic response was appropriately coordinated, for example in Newcastle, it included longer-term actions for agencies to work together and address NPS-related concerns locally. They were also more likely to be collecting NPSspecific data. Partnership working was strongest in probation teams that worked in collaboration with other agencies, such as Integrated Offender Management, and in cases where service users had court-imposed or licence conditions to engage with substance misuse services. In other cases, work was often being done in isolation. We found the assessments and plans completed by substance misuse services sufficient overall. In line with Public Health England guidance, substance misuse services worked with the individual symptoms and not specifically on the drug that the individual used. We were told that this national guidance that NPS users should be treated the same as other drug users was the reason that NPS-specific training had not been rolled out to all keyworkers - we found that this had led to a significant gap. Without specific training, keyworkers relied on their more experienced colleagues and their own research to increase their knowledge and understanding. The most skilled practitioners had developed NPS toolkits, which were then used in individual work with service users. Where these were being used, we found that there was more awareness of the risks and effects of using NPS. However, many NPS users were not accessing available services. All the cases we inspected were known either to have used or be currently using NPS, yet probation assessments lacked sufficient information to explore the pattern, level and funding of NPS use. Many users experienced problems with housing, mental health, relationships and finances. Some had lost placements in hostels or housing tenancies for reasons that were often related to their NPS use, but responsible officers rarely identified this. In the process, those who lost their accommodation ended up on the streets, sleeping rough in an environment where NPS were easy to obtain and frequently used. Worryingly, probation providers did not routinely consider the risks associated with NPS use to groups such as children, staff, prisoners or the wider community, despite there being enough known about the unpredictable behaviour that could be displayed by those using the drugs. Two Community Rehabilitation Companies had developed short-duration substance misuse interventions. NPS use was only covered to a basic standard, with many attendees being better informed than responsible officers. We found no evidence that the Building Skills for Recovery accredited programme, which is designed to reduce offending behaviour and problematic substance misuse, was used for NPS users by either the National Probation Service or Community Rehabilitation Companies. Responsible officers were rarely able to talk to NPS users about their symptoms and consolidate work undertaken by substance misuse services. While probation providers were making appropriate referrals to substance misuse services, these were not always responded to in a timely fashion. Service user engagement was often sporadic and responsible officers did not do enough to support NPS users to re-engage. We found poor-quality information-sharing. Prisoners were being released into the community often with no information shared about their NPS use in prison, and release plans did not meet the needs of the prisoner in relation to their substance misuse. We found good recording of information by substance misuse keyworkers who had access to probation IT systems. In many cases, however, we found that substance misuse services held information that would have improved the quality of probation assessments and plans but was not being shared. NPS users were disengaged from services, insufficient progress had been made to address NPS use and in many cases no other work was taking place either. NPS users lacked trust in the help and support available, and many turned to using NPS to forget their problems. Confidence, knowledge and awareness were the key areas that affected the quality of work for both probation and substance misuse services. While some training had been provided, this was often not sufficient for practitioners and was no longer up to date. As a result, responsible officers and many substance misuse keyworkers were not confident enough to undertake harm minimisation work with NPS users. While clinical guidance is available, not enough has been provided to inform professionals working with NPS users on community orders in the criminal justice system. Details: Manchester, UK: Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation, 2017. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 30, 2017 at: http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/cjji/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/11/New-Psychoactive-Substances-report.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/cjji/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/11/New-Psychoactive-Substances-report.pdf Shelf Number: 148589 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug OffendersDrug TreatmentProbation OfficersProbationersSubstance AbuseSubstance Abuse TreatmentSynthetic Drugs |
Author: Flamini, Alessandro Title: Illegal Drugs and Public Corruption: Crack Based Evidence from California Summary: Do illegal drugs foster public corruption? To estimate the causal effect of drugs on public corruption in California, we adopt the synthetic control method and exploit the fact that crack cocaine markets emerged asynchronously across the United States. We focus on California because crack arrived here in 1981, before reaching any other state. Our results show that public corruption more than tripled in California in the first three years following the arrival of crack cocaine. We argue that this resulted from the particular characteristics of illegal drugs: a large trade-off between profits and law enforcement, due to a cheap technology and rigid demand. Such a trade-off fosters a convergence of interests between criminals and corrupted public officials resulting in a positive causal impact of illegal drugs on corruption. Details: California: USC Dornsife Institute for Economic Thinking, 2018. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 24, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3241814 Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3241814 Shelf Number: 152867 Keywords: Corruption Crack Cocaine Illegal Drugs Law Enforcement Policing Synthetic Drugs |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Title: Global Synthetic Drugs Assessment: Amphetamine-type stimulants and new psychoactive substances Summary: This report provides an analysis of the global synthetic drugs market in two parts. The first part consists of regional overviews that highlight context-specific dynamics relating to the demand and supply of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS) and New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) in Africa, Central and Southwest Asia, East and South-East Asia and Oceania, Europe, the Near and Middle East, North and Central America, and South Central America. The second part of this report presents a global thematic analysis of the key trends and emerging developments of the synthetic drugs market. Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2017. 81p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 18, 2019 at: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/scientists/global-synthetic-drugs-assessment-2017.html Year: 2017 Country: International URL: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/scientists/global-synthetic-drugs-assessment-2017.html Shelf Number: 155027 Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction Drug Markets Illegal Drugs Illegal Markets Synthetic Drugs |