Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use features

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  Harm reduction and human rights

  Harm reduction for injecting drug users, including clean needles and syringes and opiate substitution therapy, is extremely limited in some regions of the world. Harm reduction...

  From:HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  The lonely drug: crystal meth in the UK

  There are increasing signs of problematic methamphetamine use amongst some gay men in the UK. Gus Cairns reports. ...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Mental health and HIV: a clinical review

  This issue (part one of two) covers the wide range of mental health problems people living with HIV experience....

  From:HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

Recreational drug use news from aidsmap

• Earlier deaths in people with HIV due to drugs, alcohol, co-infections, poorly controlled HIV - not rapid ageing

  Patients taking antiretroviral therapy have the same mortality risk as individuals in the general population, according to Danish research published in the open-access journal PLoS One. However, this was only the case when the patients responded to treatment and ...

  12 December 2011 | Michael Carter

• Fracture rates higher in patients with HIV

  Fracture rates in patients with HIV are higher than those in the general US population, investigators report in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Rates increased between 2000 and 2002, and then remained broadly stable until the ...

  15 March 2011 | Michael Carter

• Treatment interruptions explain higher HIV viral load in patients with depression and those who use stimulants

  Inconsistent use of antiretroviral therapy is the main explanation for the higher viral loads observed in HIV-positive patients who are depressed or who use stimulant drugs, US investigators report in the February 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired ...

  08 February 2011 | Michael Carter

• HIV infections soar amongst Eastern European 'street youth'

  As many as 40% of young people living on the streets in some areas of Eastern Europe are infected with HIV, according to doctors, activists and UNICEF representatives presenting at the Eighteenth International AIDS Conference in ...

  20 July 2010 | Mara Kardas-Nelson

• Vienna declaration calls for science-based drug policies

  Three leading scientific and health policy organizations this week launched a global drive for signatories to the Vienna Declaration, a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence ...

  30 June 2010 | Press Release

• Feasible to recruit and retain meth-using gay men to programmes treating dependence to the drug

  It is feasible to recruit and retain methamphetamine-dependent gay men in a pharmacologic drug-treatment programme, US investigators report in the April 24th edition of AIDS. The men participating in the study reduced their risky sexual behaviour, ...

  30 April 2010 | Michael Carter

• Counselling as well as drug treatment needed to reduce risky behaviour in opioid-using youth

  Extended treatment with buprenorphine/naloxone helps reduce levels of injecting drug use and sexual activity in opioid-using youth, according to US research published in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. However, therapy ...

  30 April 2010 | Michael Carter

• Drug interactions still common and often unrecognised in patients taking HIV treatment

  Clinically significant drug interactions are common amongst patients taking antiretroviral therapy, and often are not noticed by HIV doctors, UK investigators report in the May 15th edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Researchers from Liverpool recorded clinically ...

  23 April 2010 | Michael Carter

• Morphine may protect against HIV-related brain disease

  Morphine protects rat neurons against damage by HIV, researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC, reported last week. They believe the finding might help in the design of new neuroprotective therapies for patients with the infection. ...

  21 April 2010 | Keith Alcorn

• Having older sexual partners increases HIV risk for younger gay men

  Sex with older partners is associated with a significantly increased risk of HIV infection for younger gay men, and other men who have sex with men (MSM), investigators from North Carolina report in the online edition ...

  06 April 2010 | Michael Carter

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Recreational drug use news selected from other sources

• Germany: Intoxicating history

  In tracing the modern history of Germany’s policy on intoxicant and drug use, which favours therapy rather than punishment, Cambridge historian Dr Victoria Harris highlights that criminalisation may not be the only route.

  18 May 2012 | University of Cambridge

• Changes to UK Steroid Laws

  Steroids have always been a bit confusing when it comes to discussing legalities with visitors to a needle programme. But changes to the law covering steroids that come into effect from April 23rd are going to cause a major change if both the legalities and possible risks of using this group of drugs.

  23 April 2012 | Injecting Advice

• London: The drug epidemic that is hitting gay men hard

  As someone who has worked in the drug and alcohol field for many years, what concerns Monty Moncrieff are some of the current trends in drug use and how these are specifically impacting gay men: ‘We are seeing massive changes in the way that men who have sex with men are using drugs and the problems that they are experiencing as a result. Men are increasingly using drugs to enhance sex.’

  12 April 2012 | Gay Star News

• Odd Blood: Serodiscordancy, or, Life With an HIV-Positive Partner

  Chad, my boyfriend, types to me from the Hyatt on New Jersey Avenue, "I am hiv positive." We study the screen together, 1426 miles apart. The cursor of my chat window blinks for me. I'm not stunned, or even much scared, really; definitely not sickened, repulsed.

  05 April 2012 | The Atlantic

• Anti-drug ads do not work and can be counterproductive

  Governments spend millions on them and they may serve political functions, but do anti-drug media campaigns prevent drug use? This first systematic review finds no strong evidence that they do and some that they can have the opposite effect.

  26 November 2011 | Drug & Alcohol Findings

• Drug use is changing fast; the economic slump may shake things up again

  Drug use is changing fast. Old drugs are falling from favour, new ones are growing, and the economic slump may shake things up again

  18 November 2011 | The Economist

• London: First club drug help clinic opens

  The first UK clinic to help users of club drugs opens in west London.

  26 September 2011 | BBC Health

• Substance Use Doesn't Increase Risk of Neurocognitive Problems in HIV

  Neurocognitive problems—notably HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND)—are no more likely to occur in illicit substance users compared with non-substance users, according to a report published ahead of print on the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes website.

  12 July 2011 | AIDSMeds

• Warning over legal Russian drug

  Russian epilepsy medication is being increasingly used in the UK as a substitute for illegal drugs, scientists have warned.

  07 July 2011 | BBC Health

• Drug policy: Supply and demand

  The argument over treatment is being won. Now for the battle over supply.

  03 June 2011 | The Economist

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