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Background: Cannabis social clubs (CSCs) in Spain are non-profit organisations that connect regular adult cannabis users. One of their functions is to supply cannabis to the closed circuit of members. The CSCs do not breach any international treaties. The aim of the paper is to present the findings of a qualitative study among Spanish CSCs in order to assess their potential for minimising the harm resulting from cannabis use (such as respiratory and mental health risks, the risk of dependence, and social risks).Method: A convenience sample of 11 CSCs was selected from four regions of Spain - the Basque country, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Galicia. 94 respondents took part in 14 focus groups (FGs). The number of participants in a FG ranged from two to 12. A semi-structured interview guide and a structured questionnaire were used in the FG.Findings: Members described a variety of risk minimising features of the CSCs: the availability of a quality product and mechanisms for its control, availability of different strains of cannabis and knowledge about their different psychoactive effects, increased control over personal cannabis use, informal information sharing and interaction, reduced stigma, and reduced criminal risks.Conclusions: The fact that the CSCs have no incentive to increase members' consumption means that they should be considered to be feasible spaces for the implementation of public health policies. Policy objectives could include a requirement that CSC members have control over the quality of cannabis, that different strains of cannabis are available together with information on their effects, that quantity of cannabis at intake is restricted and planned for each member, and that harm minimisation activities are both formally and informally implemented in the clubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: News media coverage of drugs represents an important source for public perceptions of illicit drugs, which shape national drug policies. The aim of this article is to acknowledge differences between media types and formats, which are often neglected in the literature, so that drug field professionals can target them efficiently in order to achieve balanced media coverage of drug issues. Methods: We coded a total of 8380 Czech news media articles from 2007 related to drugs and drug use and analysed them with respect to their characteristics and drug-related coverage. With the use of multinomial logit models, two hypotheses were tested: (1) media types and formats differ with respect to their drug-related contents, and (2) media sources differ across media types and formats. Findings: Significant differences in drug-related coverage between media types and formats were found, except for public and private TV and the partisan and serious press; the media sources differed significantly across all media types and formats, public and serious media allow a broader range of sources. An exploratory analysis showed that there was a greater likelihood of TV and radio broadcasting supply reduction news, while tabloid journals, the partisan press, and local newspapers featured crime-related drug coverage. Conclusion: Drug field professionals can shape their media outputs to the needs of differing media types and formats, such as local media, which allow for direct contact with individual reporters, or audio-visual media, which require competent direct speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developments in information technology have impacted on all areas of modern life and in particular facilitated the growth of globalisation in commerce and communication. Within the drugs area this means that both drugs discourse and drug markets have become increasingly digitally enabled. In response to this, new methods are being developed that attempt to research and monitor the digital environment. In this commentary we present three case studies of innovative approaches and related challenges to software-automated data mining of the digital environment: (i) an e-shop finder to detect e-shops offering new psychoactive substances, (ii) scraping of forum data from online discussion boards, (iii) automated sentiment analysis of discussions in online discussion boards. We conclude that the work presented brings opportunities in terms of leveraging data for developing a more timely and granular understanding of the various aspects of drug-use phenomena in the digital environment. In particular, combining the number of e-shops, discussion posts, and sentiments regarding particular substances could be used for ad hoc risk assessments as well as longitudinal drug monitoring and indicate "online popularity". The main challenges of digital data mining involve data representativity and ethical considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is now commonly accepted that there exists a form of drug supply, that involves the non-commercial supply of drugs to friends and acquaintances for little or no profit, which is qualitatively different from profit motivated 'drug dealing proper'. 'Social supply', as it has become known, has a strong conceptual footprint in the United Kingdom, shaped by empirical research, policy discussion and its accommodation in legal frameworks. Though scholarship has emerged in a number of contexts outside the UK, the extent to which social supply has developed as an internationally recognised concept in criminal justice contexts is still unclear.Methods: Drawing on an established international social supply research network across eleven nations, this paper provides the first assessment of social supply as an internationally relevant concept. Data derives from individual and team research stemming from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, England and Wales, and the United States, supported by expert reflection on research evidence and analysis of sentencing and media reporting in each context. In situ social supply experts addressed a common set of questions regarding the nature of social supply for their particular context including: an overview of social supply research activity, reflection on the extent that differentiation is accommodated in drug supply sentencing frameworks; evaluating the extent to which social supply is recognised in legal discourse and in sentencing practices and more broadly by e.g. criminal justice professionals in the public sphere. A thematic analysis of these scripts was undertaken and emergent themes were developed. Whilst having an absence of local research, New Zealand is also included in the analysis as there exists a genuine discursive presence of social supply in the drug control and sentencing policy contexts in that country.Results: Findings suggest that while social supply has been found to exist as a real and distinct behaviour, its acceptance and application in criminal justice systems ranges from explicit through to implicit. In the absence of dedicated guiding frameworks, strong use is made of discretion and mitigating circumstances in attempts to acknowledge supply differentiation. In some jurisdictions, there is no accommodation of social supply, and while aggravating factors can be applied to differentiate more serious offences, social suppliers remain subject to arbitrary deterrent sentencing apparatus.Conclusion: Due to the shifting sands of politics, mood, or geographical disparity, reliance on judicial discretion and the use of mitigating circumstances to implement commensurate sentences for social suppliers is no longer sufficient. Further research is required to strengthen the conceptual presence of social supply in policy and practice as a behaviour that extends beyond cannabis and is relevant to users of all drugs. Research informed guidelines and/or specific sentencing provisions for social suppliers would provide fewer possibilities for inconsistency and promote more proportionate outcomes for this fast-growing group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]