Substance use policy and practice in the COVID-19 pandemic: Learning from early pandemic responses through internationally comparative field data

TY - JOUR

T1 - Substance use policy and practice in the COVID-19 pandemic

T2 - Learning from early pandemic responses through internationally comparative field data

AU - Aronowitz, Shoshana V.

AU - Carroll, Jennifer J.

AU - Hansen, Helena

AU - Jauffret-Roustide, Marie

AU - Parker, Caroline Mary

AU - Suhail-Sindhu, Selena

AU - Albizu-Garcia, Carmen

AU - Alegria, Margarita

AU - Arrendondo, Jaimie

AU - Baldacchino, Alexander

AU - Bluthenthal, Ricky

AU - Bourgois, Philippe

AU - Burraway, Joshua

AU - Chen, Jia-shin

AU - Ekhtiari, Hamed

AU - Elkhoy, Hussien

AU - Farhoudian, Ali

AU - Friedman, Joseph

AU - Jordan, Ayana

AU - Kato, Lindsey

AU - Knight, Kelly

AU - Martinez, Carlos

AU - McNeil, Ryan

AU - Murray, Hayley

AU - Namirembe, Sarah

AU - Radfar, Ramin

AU - Roe, Laura

AU - Sarang, Anya

AU - Scherz, China

AU - Tay Wee Teck, Joe

AU - Textor, Lauren

AU - Thi Hai Oanh, Khuat

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented natural experiment in drug policy, treatment delivery, and harm reduction strategies by exposing wide variation in public health infrastructures and social safety nets around the world. Using qualitative data including ethnographic methods, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews with people who use drugs (PWUD) and Delphi-method with experts from field sites spanning 13 different countries, this paper compares national responses to substance use during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Field data was collected by the Substance Use x COVID-19 (SU x COVID) Data Collaborative, an international network of social scientists, public health scientists, and community health practitioners convened to identify and contextualise health service delivery models and social protections that influence the health and wellbeing of PWUD during COVID-19. Findings suggest that countries with stronger social welfare systems pre-COVID introduced durable interventions targeting structural drivers of health. Countries with fragmented social service infrastructures implemented temporary initiatives for PWUD led by non-governmental organisations. The paper summarises the most successful early pandemic responses seen across countries and ends by calling for greater systemic investments in social protections for PWUD, diversion away from criminal-legal systems toward health interventions, and integrated harm reduction, treatment and recovery supports for PWUD.

AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented natural experiment in drug policy, treatment delivery, and harm reduction strategies by exposing wide variation in public health infrastructures and social safety nets around the world. Using qualitative data including ethnographic methods, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews with people who use drugs (PWUD) and Delphi-method with experts from field sites spanning 13 different countries, this paper compares national responses to substance use during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Field data was collected by the Substance Use x COVID-19 (SU x COVID) Data Collaborative, an international network of social scientists, public health scientists, and community health practitioners convened to identify and contextualise health service delivery models and social protections that influence the health and wellbeing of PWUD during COVID-19. Findings suggest that countries with stronger social welfare systems pre-COVID introduced durable interventions targeting structural drivers of health. Countries with fragmented social service infrastructures implemented temporary initiatives for PWUD led by non-governmental organisations. The paper summarises the most successful early pandemic responses seen across countries and ends by calling for greater systemic investments in social protections for PWUD, diversion away from criminal-legal systems toward health interventions, and integrated harm reduction, treatment and recovery supports for PWUD.

KW - COVID-19

KW - drug policy

KW - Harm reduction

KW - overdose

KW - substance use

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85147225776

U2 - 10.1080/17441692.2022.2129720

DO - 10.1080/17441692.2022.2129720

M3 - Article

C2 - 36692903

SN - 1744-1692

VL - 17

SP - 3654

EP - 3669

JO - Global Public Health

JF - Global Public Health

IS - 12

ER -