The May 2024 issue (43:4) features a commentary discussing how it is time to reconsider the best practice models of substance use care for young people and comprehensive reviews on the burden of prenatal and early life maternal substance use among children at risk of maltreatment; young people's alcohol use in and around water; and approaches and reporting of alcohol and other drug testing for injured patients in hospital-based studies.
A series of papers focus on alcohol, with papers on the effects of the Sacramento Neighborhood Alcohol Prevention Project on rates of child abuse and neglect; socio-economic inequities in emergency department visits for wholly alcohol-attributable acute and chronic harms; characteristics, toxicology and major organ pathology of deaths due to acute alcohol toxicity in Australia; alcoholic beverage types consumed by population subgroups in the United States; and smartphone-delivered approach bias modification for reducing harmful drinking amongst middle–older age adults.
Other papers discussed the differences in stigma reduction related to injection drug use between people expressing conservative, moderate and progressive values following an online intervention; policies for recovery from drug use; approaches and reporting of alcohol and other drug testing for injured patients in hospital-based studies; adulteration and substitution of drugs purchased in Australia from cryptomarkets; increases in the use of drug testing kits among nightclub and festival attendees in New York City who use ecstasy; a multicentre case series of analytically confirmed gamma-hydroxybutyrate intoxications in Western Australian emergency departments; health utility among people who regularly use opioids in Australia; buprenorphine microdosing regimen using transdermal buprenorphine patches to transition from methadone to buprenorphine; and needle and syringe sharing among people who have recently injected drugs in Australia.
Finally, there is a letter on how more data on opioid diversion in response to a previous paper, with a response from the original authors.
Cannabis legalisation and its impact on access, use and public perceptions
Follow Drug and Alcohol Review on Twitter