Drug checking services provide people who use drugs with chemical analysis results of their drug samples while simultaneously monitoring the unregulated drug market. We sought to identify and synthesize literature on the following domains: (a) the influence of drug checking services on the behaviour of people who use drugs; (b) monitoring of drug markets by drug checking services; and (c) outcomes related to models of drug checking services.
Type: Advocacy
Drug checking services for people who use drugs: a systematic review
Evaluating the Impact of Brave Technology Co-op’s Novel Drug Overdose Detection and Response Devices in North America: a Retrospective Study
Assess the preliminary impact of Brave Technology Co-op’s overdose detection devices that have been implemented in housing, medical, social service facilities, and several private settings in North America. Data analyzed provided insights on the number of overdoses detected and reversed (averted overdose deaths) using Brave Sensors and Buttons, along with other programmatic and session-specific indicators. Brave’s devices hold promise for increasing rates of overdose detection and preventing overdose deaths.
Virtual overdose monitoring services: a novel adjunctive harm reduction approach for addressing the overdose crisis
Virtual overdose monitoring services use digital technologies, such as smartphone applications or phone lines, to provide a variety of supports focused on harm reduction, such as overdose monitoring, harm reduction education, and referrals to health and social services. They can facilitate timely and anonymous access to emergency care for people who use substances.
Preference for hotline versus mobile application/countdown-based mobile overdose response services: a qualitative study
Since the emergence of mobile overdose response services (MORS), two strategies have aimed to help reduce the mortality associated with acute overdose including staffed hotline-based services and unstaffed timer-based services. In this article, we aim to gather the perspectives of various key interest groups on these technologies to determine which might best support service users.
Overall, participants noted that individuals who use substances vary in their desire for connection during a substance use session offered by hotline and timer-based service modalities. Participants perceived hotline-based approaches to be more reliable and thus potentially safer than their timer-based counterparts but noted that access to technology is a limitation of both approaches.
Overdose Detection Technologies to Reduce Solitary Overdose Deaths: A Literature Review
The goal of this narrative review is to describe recent global innovations in overdose detection technologies (ODT) enabling rapid responses to overdose events, especially for people who use drugs alone. We found that only a small number of technologies designed to assist in overdose detection and response are currently commercially available, though several are in the early stages of development. Research, development, and scale-up of practical, cost-effective ODTs remains a public health imperative.
Naloxone vending machines in county jail
In this paper we describe efforts funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) grant to design and implement naloxone vending machines that provide free naloxone within 6 county jails in Michigan to returning citizens and those visiting county jail facilities.
A scoping review of implementation considerations for harm reduction vending machines
Given the rapidity with which communities are standing up harm reduction vending machines (HRVM), there is a pressing need for a consolidated examination of implementation evidence. This scoping review summarizes existing literature using multiple implementation science frameworks.
HRVM implementation best practices include maximizing accessibility up to 24 h, 7 days a week, offering syringe disposal options, ensuring capability of data collection, and allowing for anonymity of use. Organizations that implement HRVM should establish strong feedback loops between them, their program participants, and the broader community upfront.
Assessing the role of syringe dispensing machines and mobile van outlets in reaching hard-to-reach and high-risk groups of injecting drug users (IDUs): a review
The findings demonstrate that syringe dispensing machines and mobile vans are promising modalities of NSPs, which can make services more accessible to the target group and in particular to the harder-to-reach and higher-risk groups of IDUs. Their anonymous and confidential approaches make services attractive, accessible and acceptable to these groups. These two outlets were found to be complementary to each other and to other modes of syringe access programs. Services through dispensing machines and mobile vans in strategically important sites are crucial elements in continuing efforts in reducing the spread of HIV and other blood borne viruses among IDUs.
Harm reduction in the USA: the research perspective and an archive to David Purchase
This article gives an overview of the history of harm reduction in the USA and the political resistance that has accompanied its growth.
