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This paper aims to describe the impact of the COVID-19 containment measures on the provision of drug treatment and harm reduction services in European prisons in15 countries during the early phase of the pandemic (March –June 2020).

The paper is based on a mixed method research approach that triangulates different data sources, including the results of an on-line survey, the outcome of a focus group and four national case studies.

The emergence of COVID-19 led to a disruption in prison drug markets and resulted in a number of challenges for the drug services provision inside prison. Challenges for health services included the need to maintain the provision of drug-related interventions inside prison, while introducing a range of COVID-19 containment measures. To reduce contacts between people, many countries introduced measures for early release, resulted in around a 10% reduction of the prison population in Europe. Concerns were expressed around reduction of drug-related interventions, including group activities, services by external agencies, interventions in preparation for release and continuity of care.

Innovations aimed at improving drug service provision included telemedicine, better partnership between security and health staff and an approach to drug treatment more individualised. Future developments must be closely monitored.

The paper provides a unique and timely overview of the main issues, challenges and initial adaptations implemented for drug services in European prisons in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article provides an overview of the opportunities enforcement has to undertake activities to reduce harms caused by drug markets. Four pathways are open to the police in relation to drug harm‐reduction: reducing the amount of drug use; reducing the harm that drug users experience; reducing the harms that drug users impose on others; and reducing the harms caused by drug markets. It is the latter pathway that is the main focus of this article, which draws on a range of international examples. After highlighting that ‘not all dealers are equally destructive’ it is argued that one aim for enforcement could be to shape the drug market by making the most noxious forms of selling uncompetitive relative to less harmful practices.

Institutional pharmaceutical services have widely evolved over the past 20‐30 years. Hospital pharmacy practice has changed from a profession concerned chiefly with the bulk preparation and distribution of drug products to one centred on ensuring optimal drug therapy. Whereas hospital pharmacists were charged with maintaining large drug stock on nursing units, many of them now provide individualised patient therapies. The practice of hospital pharmacy has therefore become one encompassing all aspects of drug therapy, from the procurement of drugs and drug delivery devices, their preparation and distribution, to their most appropriate selection and use for each patient. Hospital pharmacy services have traditionally had little involvement at the key stages in patients’ hospital care. This leads to the conclusion that the model of clinical pharmacy practice adopted by many pharmacy department hospitals is no longer appropriate for the demands of today’s health‐care services. Reviews many new models proposed for clinical pharmacy practice including an integrated model for providing a pharmaceutical care management approach in the health‐care system. This model is a response to the failures of traditional drug therapy. It is primarily an idea about how health professionals and patient should integrate their work to obtain outcomes important to patients and clinicians.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the health problems and treatment needs of drug‐misusing offenders and to draw out the implications of the findings for health education and prevention.

This analysis is based on data collected as part of the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (NEW‐ADAM) programme. The survey was based on interviews and urine sample collection with over 3,000 arrestees.

The research found that young arrestees experienced a wide range of drug‐related and general health problems. The implications of this are discussed in the context of programmes implemented as part of the government's drug strategy.

The NEW‐ADAM surveys provide an original source of information on the drug and general health needs of young people at the first point of entry in the criminal justice system.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the safety and efficiency of, and acceptance by, patients for an express refill service (ERS).

A pilot uncontrolled, cross-sectional, single-centred study was conducted at the outpatient pharmacy of a tertiary acute care hospital. Under ERS, prescriptions were dispensed without clinical review and counselling for patients refilling prescription medications. Efficiency was assessed by comparing processing times of ERS prescriptions with regular prescriptions. Safety was assessed by independent review of prescriptions by two pharmacists. Patient acceptance was assessed by a survey.

ERS reduced processing time of prescriptions by more than 30 per cent compared to the regular fill process. ERS was generally safe for patients, with drug-related problems identified in only one prescription which may have warranted closer monitoring. It was accepted by patients who opted for the service, as 91.4 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the service.

The study was conducted on a small convenience sample of patients in a single centre, with no control group.

Results showed that ERS was efficient, safe and well-accepted for select patients refilling their prescriptions. This leads to shorter waiting times and greater patient satisfaction.

This is the first published study that has explored the feasibility of an express prescription refill service. Despite some limitations, this study showed that omitting prospective clinical review and patient counselling for a defined population segment is safe, and can reduce processing time and improve patient satisfaction.

Improvement in Access to Treatment for People with Alcohol and Drug Related Problems (IATPAD) was a European study that detected barriers and facilitators to accessing treatment for patients with alcohol and drug‐related problems. This article seeks to compare the findings from a qualitative study with patients and staff in Catalunya (Spain).

The paper describes a multi‐centre, qualitative study. A purposive sample of 47 staff, from a randomly selected sample of the three main entrance points to treatment for patients with alcohol and drug problems in Catalunya, were recruited from: Out‐patient General Psychiatry Centres (CSMA); Out‐patient Addiction Centres (CAS); and Primary Care Centres (CAP). In addition, open‐ended responses were collated from 142 additional staff on barriers and facilitators to accessing treatment for patients with alcohol and drug problems and how these barriers could be improved. A total of 25 patients from two CAS were interviewed in‐depth. The framework approach was used to interpret qualitative interviews.

The main barriers and facilitators to accessing treatment identified by staff and patients were patients' motivation, centres' opening hours, staff attitudes, the provision of information about services, and the co‐ordination and integration of different services – mainly the mental health and addiction sectors.

This paper describes and compares the main barriers and facilitators to accessing treatment from both staff and patients' point of view. Recommendations are made in order to improve service accessibility for patients with addiction problems and those with a dual diagnosis.

Problematic drug use in prison remains a pervasive and increasing concern throughout the European Union (EU) in terms of costs to the individual, community and the state. Drug‐related problems in prison seem to be more prominent among female prisoners, as a high proportion of them are problematic drug users whose use continues in prison. Assuming that women’s drug use is an indication of need for treatment and health care, it becomes increasingly interesting how the European penal institutions differ in their response to this need. For this reason, a survey of the prison drug services for adult female drug users has been carried out among the Ministries of Justice of all 25 EU member states. The main purpose of the survey was to gain comprehensive and systematic information on the prevalence of female problematic drug users in European prisons and the availability of treatment and healthcare services. Altogether, 27 European countries and autonomous regions completed the questionnaire developed for this survey. The results of the data analyses indicate that there is poor availability and quality of data relating to the extent of problematic drug use in women’s prisons and, where it is available, it seems to underestimate the proportion of female problematic drug users in prisons. However, most of the European countries provide a range of different harm‐reduction and drug treatment services to respond to the reported health and rehabilitation problems of female problematic drug users. At the same time, however, it is evident that there is a need for further action in some countries, due to their low provision of prison drug treatment and healthcare services for this group. This article is based upon the European research project ‘Female drug users in European prisons’, which was conducted between 2003 and 2004 and funded by the AGIS Programme, Directorate General Justice and Home Affairs, of the European Commission.

The success ofIn recent years, there has been significant interest in the application of continuous quality improvement (CQI) and total quality management (TQM), and patient‐focused care (PFC) in health care organisations around the globe. The hospital industry has substantially embraced the concepts of CQI and TQM with the belief that these concepts and programmes will lead to an improvement in both the quality and efficiency with which health services are delivered. The objective of this article is to achieve better outcomes in health care services with fewer resources by studying the implementation of patient‐focused care in the health care provision context and particularly in the area of pharmaceutical care management as an integrated process in the delivery of health care in a hospital setting. The changes in health care provision have in many instances meant that the provision of pharmaceutical services needed re‐assessing.

The purpose of this paper is to present evaluation results of Operation Galley, an intelligence-led policing (ILP) intervention that sought to proactively address the problem of drug dealing from hotel rooms by engaging hoteliers as crime control partners with the Queensland Police Service.

Operation Galley, a randomized control field trial, rank ordered and matched 120 hotels on size, star rating, location and estimated degree of suspicious behaviour. Hotels were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Operation Galley hotels who received a procedurally just letter, followed by a personal visit with detectives; the letter-only hotels who received the procedurally just letter; and the business as usual hotels.

Using repeated measures ANOVA and general linear models, results of the 12-month trial indicate that the Operation Galley condition led to an increase in police engagement with hoteliers, increasing the recognition, reporting and police enforcement of drug offenders.

The Operation Galley trial demonstrates that the ILP approach helped foster positive engagement between hoteliers and detectives. The approach cultivated hoteliers as crime control partners and thereby increased the flow of human source intelligence, helping police to better target and respond to drug dealing problems in hotel rooms.

Results of the Operation Galley trial demonstrate that hoteliers can be leveraged as crime control partners, providing important human source intelligence about drug dealing and facilitating the capacity of police to better respond to drug problems in hotels.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss priorities for effective responses to illicit drugs in West Africa in a changing international policy environment.

The paper analyzes published research, technical papers and reports on drug use and policy responses in West Africa and opines on priorities for drug policy in the region within the post-United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) 2016 policy environment.

Drug use and related harms continue to increase in West African countries despite efforts to reduce drug trafficking and use through legal prohibition. The UNGASS 2016 outcome document enables flexibility in policy interpretation and implementation, which provides an opportunity for governments to prioritize national needs in drug policy. West African countries should prioritize and support research and data collection, prevention, treatment and harm reduction and sustainable livelihoods.

The paper emphasizes the need for West African countries to seize the opportunity created by the ineffectiveness and weakening of the prohibition regime as well as new treaty flexibility following UNGASS 2016 to reform drug policies to prioritize regional and national needs.