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

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.

Prisons as a source of tuberculosis in Russia.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to analyze poor management of tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment and explore parameters and causes of this problem drawing on qualitative interviews with former prisoners and medical specialists in Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The authors undertook a qualitative study, to explore access to HIV and TB treatment for people who inject drugs in Kaliningrad. The authors interviewed (outside of prisons) 15 patients and eight health specialists using a semi-structured guide. The authors analyzed the accounts thematically and health consequences of imprisonment emerged as a major theme. FINDINGS: Prisons are overcrowded and lack basic hygiene and infection control. Demand for medical services outstrip supply, HIV and TB prevention lacking, HIV and TB treatment is patchy, with no second-line drugs available for resistant forms. The prison conditions are generally degrading and unhealthy and many respondents perceived surviving prisons as a miracle. Cooperation with medical services in the community is poor. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The authors used qualitative research methods, which do not rely on a representative sample. However, many of the structural barriers preventing effective TB treatment and prevention highlighted in this paper have been noted elsewhere, suggesting that findings are likely to reflect conditions elsewhere in Russia. The authors tried to include all possible points of view, as of the medical staff and the patients. However, due to resistance of the officials the authors were unable to conduct interviews with employees of the FCS. Since all the interviews are recalling past experience, the situation may have changed. This does not undermine importance of the findings, as they shed light on particular treatment experiences, and development of prison health system. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper contributes to the literature on prisons as a contributor to TB epidemic, including drug resistant forms. An urgent penitentiary reform in Russia should focus on HIV and TB prevention, case detection, availability of medications and effective treatments. Key to decreasing prison population and improving health is political reform aimed at introduction of effective drug treatment, de-penalization and de-criminalization of drug users and application of alternatives to incarceration.

Systemic barriers accessing HIV treatment among people who inject drugs in Russia: a qualitative study.

Achieving 'universal access' to antiretroviral HIV treatment (ART) in lower income and transitional settings is a global target. Yet, access to ART is shaped by local social condition and is by no means universal. Qualitative studies are ideally suited to describing how access to ART is socially situated. We explored systemic barriers to accessing ART among people who inject drugs (PWID) in a Russian city (Ekaterinburg) with a large burden of HIV treatment demand. We undertook 42 in-depth qualitative interviews with people living with HIV with current or recent experience of injecting drug use. Accounts were analysed thematically, and supplemented here with an illustrative case study. Three core themes were identified: 'labyrinthine bureaucracy' governing access to ART; a 'system Catch 22' created by an expectation that access to ART was conditional upon treated drug use in a setting of limited drug treatment opportunity; and 'system verticalization', where a lack of integration across HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and drug treatment compromised access to ART. Taken together, we find that systemic factors play a key role in shaping access to ART with the potential adverse effects of reproducing treatment initiation delay and disengagement from treatment. We argue that meso-level systemic factors affecting access to ART for PWID interact with wider macro-level structural forces, including those related to drug treatment policy and the social marginalization of PWID. We note the urgent need for systemic and structural changes to improve access to ART for PWID in this setting, including to simplify bureaucratic procedures, foster integrated HIV, TB and drug treatment services, and advocate for drug treatment policy reform.

Atmospheric pressure: Russian drug policy as a driver for violations of the UN Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

BACKGROUND: Responding to problematic drug use in Russia, the government promotes a policy of "zero tolerance" for drug use and "social pressure" against people who use drugs (PWUD), rejecting effective drug treatment and harm reduction measures. OBJECTIVE/METHODS: In order to assess Russian drug policy against the UN Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, we reviewed published data from government and non-governmental organizations, scientific publications, media reports, and interviews with PWUD. RESULTS: Drug-dependent people (DDP) are the most vulnerable group of PWUD. The state strictly controls all aspects of drug dependence. Against this background, the state promotes hatred towards PWUD via state-controlled media, corroding public perception of PWUD and of their entitlement to human rights. This vilification of PWUD is accompanied by their widespread ill-treatment in health care facilities, police detention, and prisons. DISCUSSION: In practice, zero tolerance for drug use translates to zero tolerance for PWUD. Through drug policy, the government deliberately amplifies harms associated with drug use by causing PWUD (especially DDP) additional pain and suffering. It exploits the particular vulnerability of DDP, subjecting them to unscientific and ideologically driven methods of drug prevention and treatment and denying access to essential medicines and services. State policy is to legitimize and encourage societal ill-treatment of PWUD. CONCLUSION: The government intentionally subjects approximately 1.7 million people to pain, suffering, and humiliation. Aimed at punishing people for using drugs and coercing people into abstinence, the official drug policy disregards the chronic nature of drug dependence. It also ignores the ineffectiveness of punitive measures in achieving the purposes for which they are officially used, that is, public safety and public health. Simultaneously, the government impedes measures that would eliminate the pain and suffering of DDP, prevent infectious diseases, and lower mortality, which amount to systematic violations of Russia's human rights obligations.

Drug treatment and the conditionality of HIV treatment access: a qualitative study in a Russian city.

AIMS: We explored social factors affecting access to antiretroviral HIV treatment (ART) among people who inject drugs (PWID) in a Russian city with a large HIV burden. DESIGN: Qualitative interview study. SETTING: Community settings in Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation. PARTICIPANTS: 42 PWID living with HIV and 11 health practitioners. MEASUREMENTS: Thematic analyses of in-depth qualitative interviews. FINDINGS: Access to ART was felt by participants to be contingent upon their capacity to demonstrate a commitment to becoming 'drug free'. We identify, across interview accounts, a treatment access narrative of 'treat drugs before HIV'. This narrative is upheld by ART providers' concerns to maximize clinical outcome in the face of adherence doubts, as well as by would-be patients' perceptions of expectations placed upon them by the treatment system and their own doubts regarding treatment engagement. This has the effect of reproducing a habit of ART delay and disengaging people from the treatment system. Difficulties accessing ART, and the perceived rationing of treatment on account of untreated drug use, were experienced as 'moral discipline' for falling short of treatment 'deservedness'. Participants describe a 'Catch 22' system, where they are invited to treat their drug use in a setting where effective drug treatment was perceived as unavailable. CONCLUSIONS: Inadequate drug treatment practices act as structural obstacles to realizing HIV treatment. Evidence internationally suggests that effective drug treatment, including opioid substitution therapy, improves access and adherence to antiretroviral treatment among people who inject drugs. Policy shifts are urgently needed in this setting to enable systemic improvements to drug treatment, especially given large HIV treatment demand.

Sex, drugs and economic behaviour in Russia: a study of socio-economic characteristics of high risk populations.

BACKGROUND: Russia faces a worsening IDU/HIV epidemic. This paper examines the social and economic characteristics of injecting drug users in two cities in Russia and compares this with the general population to explore their social and economic needs and the wider implications of the epidemic for the economy and society. METHODS: A cross sectional survey of 711 IDUs in two Russian cities (Volgograd and Barnaul) recruited by a modified chain referral sampling method. Respondents were asked about their education, work, living conditions, expenditure on goods and services and livelihoods. Their characteristics were compared with a random sample of the general population. RESULTS: There are a number of characteristics, in which IDUs do not differ systematically from the general population. They have general education; live in the towns where they were born; and their monthly income is comparable with the Russian average. However, IDUs are more likely to have a vocational qualification than a university degree; less likely to have a permanent job; and those employed are skilled manual rather than professional workers. IDUs are less likely to be officially married and more likely to be living with their parents or on their own. The majority rely on financial help from relatives or friends; and much of their income is from illegal or semi-legal activities. CONCLUSION: IDUs are not atypical or marginal to the Russian economy and society. However, their drug-dependency and related life-style make them particularly vulnerable to the impact of poverty, violence and social insecurity. A failure to effectively control the dual IDU/HIV epidemic can have a significant negative impact on the Russian labour force, health and social costs and overall economy.

Policing drug users in Russia: risk, fear, and structural violence.

We undertook qualitative interviews with 209 injecting drug users (IDUs) (primarily heroin) in three Russian cities: Moscow, Barnaul, and Volgograd. We explored IDU's accounts of HIV and health risk. Policing practices and how these violate health and self, emerged as a primary theme. Findings show that policing practices violate health and rights directly, but also indirectly, through the reproduction of social suffering. Extrajudicial policing practices produce fear and terror in the day-to-day lives of drug injectors, and ranged from the mundane (arrest without legal justification; the planting of evidence to expedite arrest or detainment; and the extortion of money or drugs for police gain) to the extreme (physical violence as a means of facilitating "confession" and as an act of "moral" punishment without legal cause or rationale; the use of methods of "torture"; and rape). We identify the concept of police bespredel-living with the sense that there are "no limits" to police power-as a key to perpetuating fear and terror, internalized stigma, and a sense of fatalist risk acceptance. Police besprediel is analyzed as a form of structural violence, contributing to "oppression illness." Yet, we also identify cases of resistance to such oppression, characterized by strategies to preserve dignity and hope. We identify hope for change as a resource of risk reduction as well as escape, if only temporarily, from the pervasiveness of social suffering. Future drug use(r)-related policies, and the state responses they sponsor, should set out to promote public health while protecting human rights, hope, and dignity.

Access to syringes in three Russian cities: implications for syringe distribution and coverage.

BACKGROUND: We report findings from a multi-method study investigating drug injectors' access to needles and syringes in three large Russian cities (Moscow, Volgograd, Barnaul). METHODS: We undertook 209 qualitative interviews among drug injectors, and supplemented these with baseline data from a community-recruited survey of 1473 drug injectors. FINDINGS: Almost all (93%; 1277) injectors used pharmacies as their main source of clean injecting equipment, and only 7% (105) reported ever having had contact with city syringe exchange projects. Good access to syringes has coincided with the expansion of private pharmacies. Key factors contributing to pharmacy access included: geographic proximity; low cost; and the restrictive policies of exchange instituted at local syringe exchanges. A fear of police interference surrounded the use of pharmacies and syringe exchanges, and fed a reluctance to carry used needles and syringes, which in turn acted as a disincentive to syringe exchange attendance. The perceived benefits of syringe exchanges over pharmacies included the additional health services on offer and the social support provided, but these benefits were over-shadowed by disadvantages. Multivariable analyses of survey data in two cities show no differences on account of risk behaviour among injectors sourcing equipment from pharmacies compared to syringe exchanges. CONCLUSIONS: HIV prevention coverage indicators need to include measures of pharmacy-based syringe distribution and not only measures of syringe exchange coverage. There is an urgent need to pilot pharmacy-based distribution and exchange projects in Russia as well as other forms of secondary syringe distribution. Alongside expanding the reach of dedicated syringe exchange projects, pharmacy-based syringe distribution, and exchange, may help improve coverage of cost effective HIV prevention measures targeting drug injectors.

Changes in HIV prevalence and risk among new injecting drug users in a Russian city of high HIV prevalence.

OBJECTIVE: To measure HIV prevalence and associated risk factors among recent initiates into drug injecting in 2001 and 2004 in Togliatti City, Russian Federation. DESIGN: Two unlinked, anonymous, cross-sectional, community-recruited surveys of injecting drug users (IDUs) with oral fluid samples for anti-HIV testing. METHODS: IDUs completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire, and oral fluid samples were tested for antibodies to HIV. Demographic characteristics and injecting risk behaviors were compared between subsamples of IDUs who reported injecting for 3 years or less in each of the survey years, 2001 (n = 138) and 2004 (n = 96). Univariable and multivariable analyses explored risk factors with anti-HIV among these new injectors. RESULTS: Among IDUs overall, although HIV prevalence was high, a lower prevalence was found in 2004 (38.5%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 34.1 to 42.9) than in 2001 (56%, 95% CI: 51.2 to 60.8). A significantly lower prevalence of HIV was found among new injectors in 2004 (11.5%, 95% CI: 5.0 to 17.9) than in 2001 (55.2%, 95% CI: 46.7 to 63.8). Proportionally, fewer new injectors reported injecting daily, injecting with used needles/syringes, and frontloading in 2004 compared with 2001. Decreased odds of anti-HIV were associated with being recruited in 2004 and with a history of drug treatment. Increased odds of HIV were associated with exchanging sex, duration of injection, and frontloading. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate a decrease in HIV prevalence among new injectors between 2001 and 2004 and emphasize the role of provision of needle/syringes through pharmacies and providing access to voluntary HIV testing. These findings have implications for other cities in which explosive HIV outbreaks have occurred.

Implementation of harm reduction in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Harm reduction (HR) interventions began in Central-Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the mid-1980s with the establishment of substitution treatment (ST) in Yugoslavia. In the mid-1990s, the first needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) opened in selected countries following the outbreaks of HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs). The number of NSPs continues to increase via a combination of international and state funding with large expansions made possible via the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. While ST is still unaccepted in several countries, others have made some progress which is especially visible in South Eastern and Central Europe and the Baltic States. Development of regional networking including Central and Eastern European HR Network and a number of national networks helped to coordinate joint advocacy effort and in some cases sustain HR services. Activism of drug users and people living with HIV (PLWH) increased in the region in the last several years and helped to better link HR with the affected communities. Still a number of challenges remain important for the movement today such as repressive drug policies; stigma and discrimination of IDUs, PLWH, sex workers and inmates, including poor access to prevention and treatment; lack of important components of HR work such as naloxone distribution and hepatitis B vaccination, prevention in prisons; issues of quality control; sustaining services after finishing of major international projects; reaching of adequate coverage and others.

Obstacles in provision of anti-retroviral treatment to drug users in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia: a regional overview.

Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia is currently the region with the fastest growing HIV epidemic, mainly among injecting drug users (IDUs). This study explored access to anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment among IDUs and evaluated obstacles to gaining access to treatment. Semi-structured questionnaires were collected from 21 countries from agencies which deliver services to IDUs (N=55), including AIDS centres, drug treatment institutions and Non-governmental Organisations. Results showed that there was poor access to ARV treatment for IDUs. The major obstacles reported were: limited range of institutions for the provision of ARVs, lack of treatment due to high cost of ARVs, lack of clear policies and regulations in providing treatment for IDUs, lack of infrastructure and trained staff to provide treatment, and in some countries, absence of mechanisms such as methadone substitution programmes to support IDUs receiving ARV. There is a need for human and capital resources to bring ARV treatment to IDU populations in the region. Regulations and treatment protocols need to be developed to address this particular group of HIV positive clients to insure better adherence and monitoring of clients with HCV co-infection. Integration of provision of ARV treatment with drug treatment and low-threshold services is advised. Substitution therapy should be advocated for in countries where it is not available or where access is limited. Finally, more research needs to be conducted to understand what will work best in each country, region or setting.

Drug injecting and syringe use in the HIV risk environment of Russian penitentiary institutions: Qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Evidence highlights the prison as a high risk environment in relation to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission associated with injecting drug use. METHODS: We undertook qualitative studies among 209 injecting drug users (IDUs) in three Russian cities: Moscow (n = 56), Volgograd (n = 83) and Barnaul in western Siberia (n = 70). RESULTS: Over three-quarters (77%) reported experience of police arrest related to their drug use, and 35% (55% of men) a history of imprisonment or detention. Findings emphasize the critical role that penitentiary institutions may play as a structural factor in the diffusion of HIV associated with drug injection in the Russian Federation. While drugs were perceived to be generally available in penitentiary institutions, sterile injection equipment was scarce and as a consequence routinely shared, including within large groups. Attempts to clean borrowed needles or syringes were inadequate, and risk reduction was severely constrained by a combination of lack of injecting equipment availability and punishment for its possession. Perceptions of relative safety were also found to be associated with assumptions of HIV negativity, resulting from a perception that all prisoners are HIV tested upon entry with those found HIV positive segregated. CONCLUSION: This study shows an urgent need for HIV prevention interventions in the Russian penitentiary system.

Methods to recruit hard-to-reach groups: comparing two chain referral sampling methods of recruiting injecting drug users across nine studies in Russia and Estonia.

Evidence suggests rapid diffusion of injecting drug use and associated outbreaks of HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs) in the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe. There remains a need for research among non-treatment and community-recruited samples of IDUs to better estimate the dynamics of HIV transmission and to improve treatment and health services access. We compare two sampling methodologies "respondent-driven sampling" (RDS) and chain referral sampling using "indigenous field workers" (IFS) to investigate the relative effectiveness of RDS to reach more marginal and hard-to-reach groups and perhaps to include those with the riskiest behaviour around HIV transmission. We evaluate the relative efficiency of RDS to recruit a lower cost sample in comparison to IFS. We also provide a theoretical comparison of the two approaches. We draw upon nine community-recruited surveys of IDUs undertaken in the Russian Federation and Estonia between 2001 and 2005 that used either IFS or RDS. Sampling effects on the demographic composition and injecting risk behaviours of the samples generated are compared using multivariate analysis. Our findings suggest that RDS does not appear to recruit more marginalised sections of the IDU community nor those engaging in riskier injecting behaviours in comparison with IFS. RDS appears to have practical advantages over IFS in the implementation of fieldwork in terms of greater recruitment efficiency and safety of field workers, but at a greater cost. Further research is needed to assess how the practicalities of implementing RDS in the field compromises the requirements mandated by the theoretical guidelines of RDS for adjusting the sample estimates to obtain estimates of the wider IDU population.

Street policing, injecting drug use and harm reduction in a Russian city: a qualitative study of police perspectives.

We undertook a qualitative exploration of police perspectives on injecting drug use and needle and syringe access among injecting drug users (IDUs) in a Russian city which has witnessed explosive spread of HIV associated with drug injecting. Twenty-seven in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted in May 2002 with police officers of varying rank who reported having regular contact with IDUs. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, translated and coded thematically. Accounts upheld an approach to policing which emphasised high street-based visibility and close surveillance of IDUs. IDUs were depicted as 'potential criminals' warranting a 'pre-emptive' approach to the prevention of drug-related crime. Street policing was described as a means of maintaining close surveillance leading to the official registration of persons suspected or proven to be users of illicit drugs. Such registration enabled further ongoing surveillance, including through stop and search procedures. While aware of drug users' reluctance to carry injecting equipment linked to their fears of detention or arrest, accounts suggested that the confiscation of previously used injecting equipment can constitute evidence in relation to drugs possession charges and that discovery of clean injecting equipment may be sufficient to raise suspicion and/or further investigation, including through stop and search or questioning. Our findings suggest an uneasy relationship between street policing and needle and syringe access, whereby policing strategies can undermine an HIV prevention ethos promoting needle and syringe accessibility among IDUs. We conclude that facilitating partnerships between policing agencies and HIV prevention initiatives are a critical feature of creating environments conducive for risk reduction.

Hepatitis C virus infection, HIV co-infection, and associated risk among injecting drug users in Togliatti, Russia.

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and co-infection with HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Togliatti City, Russia. Unlinked anonymous cross-sectional survey of IDUs recruited from community settings, with oral fluid sample collection for HCV and HIV antibody (anti-HCV, anti-HIV) testing, was carried out. The anti-HCV prevalence was 87% (357/411), anti-HIV prevalence 56% (234/418), and 93% (214/230) of HIV-positive IDUs were co-infected with HCV. Only 23% (94/411) of those HCV positive self-reported as such. In an adjusted model, increased odds of HCV positivity were associated with needle and syringe, as well as injecting paraphernalia sharing in the last four weeks. IDUs injecting more than once with the same needle also had raised odds. There were no marked associations between HCV positivity and the duration of injecting or age group. Almost all IDUs were HCV positive, and almost all HIV-positive IDUs were HCV co-infected. There is an urgent need to maximize syringe distribution coverage, develop health promotion targeting HCV prevention for IDUs, and improve access among IDUs to treatments for HIV and HCV infection.

Impact of gender and sex work on sexual and injecting risk behaviors and their association with HIV positivity among injecting drug users in an HIV epidemic in Togliatti City, Russian Federation.

OBJECTIVES: Togliatti City is witness to a large epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associated with injecting drug use (IDU). GOAL: This study sought to examine whether risk behaviors and risk factors associated with HIV differed across a sample IDUs by gender and sex work. STUDY: A sample of IDU (n = 423) comprising female sex workers (SWs) (n = 66), non-sex workers (nonSWs) (n = 89) and men (n = 268) were recruited by field workers in community settings. Behavioral and HIV prevalence data were collected. RESULTS: HIV prevalence did not differ across the groups ( approximately 56%), but gender adversely affected some risk factors. A comparison of risk behaviors indicated that SWs were more likely to engage in risky injecting behaviors than either men or nonSWs. They were also more likely to report a history of sexually transmitted infections. CONCLUSIONS: IDUs involved in sex work and IDU nonSWs require specific and targeted interventions to facilitate safer injecting and sexual behaviors.

Injecting equipment sharing among injecting drug users in Togliatti City, Russian Federation: maximizing the protective effects of syringe distribution.

OBJECTIVE: To compare risk factors for injecting equipment sharing among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Togliatti City, Russia. DESIGN: Unlinked, anonymous, cross-sectional community-recruited survey with oral fluid sample collection. METHODS: Between September and October 2001, 426 IDUs completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire and oral fluid samples were tested for HIV. Univariate and multivariate analyses compared potential risk factors for injecting equipment sharing. RESULTS: More than half (56% [234/418]) of the sample were positive for antibodies to HIV. A third (36%) had injected with used needles and syringes in the last 4 weeks. IDUs who reported syringe exchanges or outreach workers as their main sources of new needles and syringes in the last 4 weeks had 0.3 times the odds of sharing compared with those obtaining them from a pharmacy or shop, whereas those whose main source was buying them from the streets or obtaining them from friends, sexual partners, or other drug users had 12 times the odds of receptive needle and syringe sharing. IDUs who reported being last arrested or detained by the police for a drug-related offense had higher odds of sharing. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the delicate balance in HIV prevention between potentially competing strategies of law enforcement and syringe distribution.