How do we understand the value of drug checking as a component of harm reduction services? A qualitative exploration of client and provider perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Mortality related to opioid overdose in the U.S. has risen sharply in the past decade. In California, opioid overdose death rates more than tripled from 2018 to 2021, and deaths from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl increased more than seven times in those three years alone. Heightened attention to this crisis has attracted funding and programming opportunities for prevention and harm reduction interventions. Drug checking services offer people who use drugs the opportunity to test the chemical content of their own supply, but are not widely used in North America. We report on qualitative data from providers and clients of harm reduction and drug checking services, to explore how these services are used, experienced, and considered. METHODS: We conducted in-depth semi-structured key informant interviews across two samples of drug checking stakeholders: "clients" (individuals who use drugs and receive harm reduction services) and "providers" (subject matter experts and those providing clinical and harm reduction services to people who use drugs). Provider interviews were conducted via Zoom from June-November, 2022. Client interviews were conducted in person in San Francisco over a one-week period in November 2022. Data were analyzed following the tenets of thematic analysis. RESULTS: We found that the value of drug checking includes but extends well beyond overdose prevention. Participants discussed ways that drug checking can fill a regulatory vacuum, serve as a tool of informal market regulation at the community level, and empower public health surveillance systems and clinical response. We present our findings within three key themes: (1) the role of drug checking in overdose prevention; (2) benefits to the overall agency, health, and wellbeing of people who use drugs; and (3) impacts of drug checking services at the community and systems levels. CONCLUSION: This study contributes to growing evidence of the effectiveness of drug checking services in mitigating risks associated with substance use, including overdose, through enabling people who use and sell drugs to test their own supply. It further contributes to discussions around the utility of drug checking and harm reduction, in order to inform legislation and funding allocation.

Innovation and adaptation: The rise of a fentanyl smoking culture in San Francisco.

BACKGROUND: Illicitly manufactured fentanyls and stimulants are implicated in the escalating US mortality from drug overdose. San Francisco, California (SF) has seen declining fentanyl injection while smoking has increased. Beliefs and behaviors surrounding this development are not well understood. METHODS: The study used rapid ethnography to explore fentanyl and methamphetamine use in SF. The team conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 34) with participants recruited from syringe service programs. Video-recorded smoking sequences (n = 12), photography and daily field notes supplemented interview data. RESULTS: Difficulty injecting and fear of overdose motivated transitions from injecting to smoking. Fentanyl was extremely cheap-$10/gram-with variability in quality. Foil was the most commonly used smoking material but glass bubbles, bongs and dabbing devices were also popular. No reliable visible methods for determining fentanyl quality existed, however, participants could gauge potency upon inhalation, and developed techniques to regulate dosage. Several participants reported at least hourly use, some reporting one or more grams of daily fentanyl consumption. Smoking was also very social, with people sharing equipment, drugs and information. Participants raised concerns about hygiene and overdose risk to others arising from shared equipment. Reportedly potent fentanyl 'residue' accumulated on smoking materials and was commonly shared/traded/stolen or consumed accidentally with diverse preferences for its use. CONCLUSION: Our data highlight fentanyl residue as a new overdose risk with potential mismatch between the potency of the residual drug and the recipient's tolerance. Further, large doses of fentanyl are being consumed (estimated at approximately 50 mg of pure fentanyl/day). Smoking fentanyl has potential health benefits over injecting and may be protective against overdose, but substantial uncertainty exists. However, SF overdose mortality hit a record high in 2023. Recommendations to reduce fentanyl smoking overdose risks through pacing, greater awareness of dosages consumed and checking tolerance of residue recipients are potentially viable interventions deserving further exploration.

The influence of transformations in supply on methamphetamine initiation among people injecting opioids in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Co-use of methamphetamine (MA) and opioids (pharmaceutical pills, heroin and fentanyls) has increased in the United States and is represented in rising mortality. Although coinciding with the import of low cost, high potency and purity methamphetamine, the relationship between supply and demand in propelling this polydrug use is not well understood. We consider the influence of macro changes in supply on the uptake of opioid and methamphetamine co-use by injection at the level of individual drug and injection initiation in West Virginia, a state which leads the US in drug overdose mortality. METHOD: We recruited n = 30 people for semi-structured interviews who self-reported injecting heroin/fentanyl and using methamphetamine by any route at a West Virginia syringe service program and through snowball sampling. Interviews were recorded and transcripts analyzed using a thematic approach. Ethnographic observation was also conducted and recorded in fieldnotes. Sequence of substance and mode of use initiation and use trajectories for opioids and stimulants were charted for each participant. RESULTS: A clear pattern of individual drug initiation emerged that matched each successive supply wave of the US overdose epidemic: 25 participants had initiated opioid use with pills, followed by heroin, often mixed with/replaced by fentanyl, and subsequently added methamphetamine use. For participants, the supply and consumption of opioid analgesics had set in motion a series of steps leading to the addition of stimulant injection to existing opioid injecting repertoires. Unlike other studies that have found a birth cohort effect in patterns of initiation, participants showed the same sequence across age groups. Considerations of economy, availability, dependence, tolerance and the erosion of taboos that marked transitions from opioid pills to heroin injection influenced these subsequent trajectories in novel ways. The form, timing and extent of opioid and stimulant consumption was influenced by four stages of the changing drug supply, which in turn reflected back on demand. CONCLUSION: Transformations in the social meaning and supply of methamphetamine enabled these transitions while other desired, non-injectable drugs were difficult to obtain. We discuss policy implications of injectable drugs' market dominance at this location and possible interventions.

The motives and methods of methamphetamine and 'heroin' co-use in West Virginia.

BACKGROUND: Opioid and methamphetamine co-use is increasing across the USA with overdoses involving these drugs also rising. West Virginia (WV) has led the US in opioid overdose death rates since at least 2013 and rising co-use of methamphetamine with opioids has played a greater role in deaths over the last 5 years. METHODS: This study used rapid ethnography to examine methods and motivations behind opioids and methamphetamine co-use from the viewpoint of their consumers. Participants (n = 30) were people who injected heroin/fentanyl also using methamphetamine who participated in semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: We found multiple methods of co-using opioids and methamphetamine, whether alternately or simultaneously and in varying order. Most prioritized opioids, with motives for using methamphetamine forming three thematic categories: 'intrinsic use', encompassing both inherent pleasure of combined use greater than using both drugs separately or for self-medication of particular conditions; 'opioid assisting use' in which methamphetamine helped people manage their existing heroin/fentanyl use; and 'reluctant or indifferent use' for social participation, reflecting methamphetamine's low cost and easy availability. CONCLUSIONS: Methamphetamine serves multiple functions among people using opioids in WV. Beliefs persist that methamphetamine can play a role in preventing and reversing opioid overdose, including some arguments for sequential use being protective of overdose. 'Reluctant' uptake attests to methamphetamine's social use and the influence of supply. The impact on overdose risk of the many varied co-use patterns needs further investigation.

African immigrants' favorable preterm birth rates challenge genetic etiology of the Black-White disparity in preterm birth.

Background: We examined over a million California birth records for 2010 through 2021 to investigate whether disparities in preterm birth (PTB) by nativity and race support the widely held but hitherto unsubstantiated belief that genetic differences explain the persistent Black-White disparity in PTB. Methods: We examined PTB rates and risk ratios among African-, Caribbean-, and U.S.-born Black women compared to U.S.-born White women. Multivariate analyses adjusted for maternal age, education, number of live births, delivery payer, trimester of prenatal care initiation, pre-pregnancy BMI, smoking, and prevalence of poverty in a woman's residence census tract; and for paternal education. Results: In adjusted analyses, African-born Black women's PTB rates were no different from those of U.S.-born White women. Discussion: The results add to prior evidence making a genetic etiology for the racial disparity in PTB unlikely. If genetic differences tied to "race" explained the Black-White disparity in PTB among U.S.-born women, the African immigrants in this study would have had higher rates of PTB, not the lower rates observed. Multiple explanations for the observed patterns and their implications are discussed. Failure to distinguish causes of PTB from causes of the racial disparity in PTB have likely contributed to erroneous attribution of the racial disparity to genetic differences. Based on the literature, unmeasured experiences of racism, including racism-related stress and adverse environmental exposures, are plausible explanations for the PTB disparity between Black and White U.S.-born women. The favorable birth outcomes of African-born Black immigrants may reflect less exposure to racism during sensitive life periods, e.g., childhood, when they were in African countries, where Black people are in the racial majority.

Systemic And Structural Racism: Definitions, Examples, Health Damages, And Approaches To Dismantling.

Racism is not always conscious, explicit, or readily visible-often it is systemic and structural. Systemic and structural racism are forms of racism that are pervasively and deeply embedded in systems, laws, written or unwritten policies, and entrenched practices and beliefs that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment and oppression of people of color, with adverse health consequences. Examples include residential segregation, unfair lending practices and other barriers to home ownership and accumulating wealth, schools' dependence on local property taxes, environmental injustice, biased policing and sentencing of men and boys of color, and voter suppression policies. This article defines systemic and structural racism, using examples; explains how they damage health through many causal pathways; and suggests approaches to dismantling them. Because systemic and structural racism permeate all sectors and areas, addressing them will require mutually reinforcing actions in multiple sectors and places; acknowledging their existence is a crucial first step.

Simulation-based research in emergency medicine in Canada: Priorities and perspectives.

OBJECTIVE: Simulation plays an integral role in the Canadian healthcare system with applications in quality improvement, systems development, and medical education. High-quality, simulation-based research will ensure its effective use. This study sought to summarize simulation-based research activity and its facilitators and barriers, as well as establish priorities for simulation-based research in Canadian emergency medicine (EM). METHODS: Simulation-leads from Canadian departments or divisions of EM associated with a general FRCP-EM training program surveyed and documented active EM simulation-based research at their institutions and identified the perceived facilitators and barriers. Priorities for simulation-based research were generated by simulation-leads via a second survey; these were grouped into themes and finally endorsed by consensus during an in-person meeting of simulation leads. Priority themes were also reviewed by senior simulation educators. RESULTS: Twenty simulation-leads representing all 14 invited institutions participated in the study between February and May, 2018. Sixty-two active, simulation-based research projects were identified (median per institution = 4.5, IQR 4), as well as six common facilitators and five barriers. Forty-nine priorities for simulation-based research were reported and summarized into eight themes: simulation in competency-based medical education, simulation for inter-professional learning, simulation for summative assessment, simulation for continuing professional development, national curricular development, best practices in simulation-based education, simulation-based education outcomes, and simulation as an investigative methodology. CONCLUSION: This study summarized simulation-based research activity in EM in Canada, identified its perceived facilitators and barriers, and built national consensus on priority research themes. This represents the first step in the development of a simulation-based research agenda specific to Canadian EM.

Effects of thioether substituents on the O2 reactivity of beta-diketiminate-Cu(I) complexes: probing the role of the methionine ligand in copper monooxygenases.

The activation of dioxygen by dopamine beta-monooxygenase (DbetaM) and peptidylglycine alpha-hydroxylating monooxygenase (PHM) is postulated to occur at a copper site ligated by two histidine imidazoles and a methionine thioether, which is unusual because such thioether ligation is not present in other O2-activating copper proteins. To assess the possible role of the thioether ligand in O2 activation by DbetaM and PHM, two new ligands comprising beta-diketiminates with thioether substituents were synthesized and Cu(I) and Cu(II) complexes were isolated. The Cu(II) compounds are monomeric and exhibit intramolecular thioether coordination. While the Cu(I) complexes exhibit a multinuclear topology in the solid state, variable-temperature 1H NMR studies implicate equilibria in solution, possibly including monomers with intramolecular thioether coordination that are structurally defined by DFT calculations. Low-temperature oxygenation of solutions of the Cu(I) complexes generates stable 1:1 Cu/O2 adducts, which on the basis of combined experimental and theoretical studies adopt side-on "eta(2)" structures with negligible Cu-thioether bonding and significant peroxo-Cu(III) character. In contrast to previously reported findings with related ligands lacking the thioether group, however (cf., Aboelella; et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 16896), purging the solutions of the thioether-containing adducts with argon results in conversion to bis(mu-oxo)dicopper(III) species. A role for the thioether in promoting loss of O2 from the 1:1 Cu/O2 adduct and facilitating trapping of the resulting Cu(I) complex to yield the bis(mu-oxo) species is proposed, and the possible relevance of this role to that of the methionine in the active sites of DbetaM and PHM is discussed.