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The 3,4-methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA) content in ecstasy tablets has increased enormously throughout Europe across the past decade. This study aims to determine whether this is caused by the production of “stronger” tablets (more mg MDMA per mg of tablet), or if tablets have simply been getting larger and heavier (more mg of tablet in total).

A data set of 31,716 ecstasy tablets obtained in 2012–2021 by 10 members of the Trans European Drug Information (TEDI) network was analysed.

The MDMA mass fraction in ecstasy tablets has remained virtually unchanged over the past 10 years, with increased MDMA contents being attributed almost exclusively to increased tablet weight. These trends seem to be uniform across Europe, despite varying sampling and analytical techniques being used by the TEDI participants. The study also shows that while tablet weight correlates perfectly with MDMA content on a yearly basis, wide variations in the MDMA mass fraction make such relations irrelevant for determining the MDMA content of individual tablets.

These results provide new opportunities for harm reduction, given that size is a tangible and apparently accurate characteristic to emphasise that one tablet does not simply equate to one dose. This is particularly useful for harm reduction services without the resources for in-house quantification of large numbers of ecstasy tablets, although the results of this study also show that chemical analysis remains crucial for accurate personalised harm reduction.

The findings are both new and pertinent, providing a novel insight into the market dynamics of ecstasy tablet production at a transnational level.

The purpose of this paper is to present some of the continued resistance and challenges faced by drug checking services (DCS) and review how the existing literature and the contributions to the special issue address them, with a view to making recommendations.

The existing literature and the contributions to the special issue are reviewed.

Drug checking cannot be equated with quality control. With the appropriate equipment and chemistry staff, DCS can provide quantitative analysis and reliable results. When the product does not match expectations, service users discard the tested substance of concern. To more easily compare the results of different studies and better evaluate drug checking, standardisation of measures is desirable. Uptake of drug checking, notably in festivals, is low and depends in part on the capacity of DCS. Drug checking has added value in monitoring drug markets and is complementary with chemical (forensic) analysis.

This paper interrogates in a relatively comprehensive way the continued resistance to drug checking in light of theoretical and empirical research to derive recommendations that are specific to drug checking and that are addressed to health professionals, researchers and also to policymakers.

Global/national policy planning is guided by economic methods and predictions of growth, where indicators of success are measured according to a dominant view of progress and sustainable development. Yet, despite widespread ratification of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples remain unrepresented in this dominant view. The structural and historical forces informing global policy thus inadvertently produce a pathway of development that is characterized by political, economic, and social exclusion where Indigenous Peoples’ agency, heritage, and culture remain marginalized. I argue that socio-cultural nuance (“the complete story”) is critical to policy planning if we are to honor the principal aim of the Sustainable Development Goals – “leave no-one behind”. This and other policy frameworks need an approach that is neither framed by Eurocentric objectives nor bound by measurable indicators. This requires consideration of Indigenous Worldviews in a way that mediates diverse social, economic, and political factors. In this chapter, I examine the limitations in current policy consultation practice, with a specific focus on the extractive industries sector, and examine the ways in which engagement with Indigenous Peoples’ “complete story” might inform policy in the pursuit of a sustainable development that leaves no-one behind and creates a bridge between dominant and marginalized forms of knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to contrast the business risks of seeking to hide “questionable” corporate activities with the benefits of achieving high levels of corporate transparency.

The paper summarises three well‐documented cases of corporate malfeasance, simply and sequentially. Each is analysed separately.

The paper finds, in each case, that once the concealed “truth” comes out, the companies are in a much worse position than if they had come clean when initially challenged. The generalised finding is that once pressures mount, what is intentionally concealed tends to become exposed, with unanticipated and powerful negative consequences.

To minimise business risk, managers are well advised to refrain from doing things behind a veil of secrecy and, instead, opt for greater transparency. Since what is hidden seldom remains hidden, a “policy” of corporate transparency is often in their interest. The lesson is that when under public pressure, for whatever reason, facts, risks and relationships will out.

This paper demonstrates how openness rather than secrecy can reduce business risk and raise ethical standards at the same time.

The recent influx of interest in and the changing status of drug checking has led us to reconsider some fundamental questions about drug checking. This commentary aims to define drug checking. It proceeds in three parts: terminology, definitions and programmes that are excluded from the definition of drug checking that still have value for harm reduction.

To inform the commentary, an informal review of pertinent publications on the topic was conducted to extract relevant definitions and terminology.

Drug checking services (DCS) have five necessary features: (1) aim of reducing harm; (2) analyse samples directly from the public; (3) return results to the service user; (4) involve information exchange between service user and DCS; and (5) conduct a tailored intervention with the service user. Variable features include the populations served, setting, analysis methods, immediacy of results, nature of intervention, levels of engagement with other stakeholder groups, funding models, legal status and staff skillsets. Programmes that are not DCS but have some similarities to DCS include non-publicly accessible testing of drugs as well as testing of bodily fluids where results may inform drug alerts.

Drug checking remains a legally, politically and commercially sensitive health service. Reflecting on the history and evolution of drug checking, both as a term and as a harm reduction service, helps provide clarity in terms of what drug checking is and what it is not. This facilitates more effective framing of evaluations, in terms of what DCS aim to do and achieve.

The purpose of this paper is to compare supply network strategies of district firms (from now on ID) and non‐district (non‐ID) firms with the aim of outlining emerging strategies as well as identifying similarities and differences between business models.

The analysis is based on a quantitative approach: the TeDIS survey focuses on 45 leading Italian districts and SMEs located outside districts (Made in Italy sectors). Results refer to 630 Italian firms.

There are more similarities than differences between the approach of ID and non‐ID companies to supply networks. ID firms rely more on local systems in terms of supply networks, while non‐ID firms have also invested at national level (subcontracting networks). The global geographical extension of supply networks stresses the ID companies' search for efficiency in addition to value‐added competences. Non‐ID firms have a more hierarchical approach to internationalization than ID firms, but differences decrease as the size of the companies increases.

The study is still preliminary. Future research should explore the relationships between the strategic approach to supply networks of district firms and non‐ID firms in terms of characteristics of the relationship management and aims of relationships, also with a focus on the size of these firms.

Within the existing literature, the original contribution of the paper lies in its comparison of supply network strategies in ID and non‐ID firms based on a significant quantitative analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore economic conditions of contemporary society to provide insight into the ways in which the consequences of disaster, including environmental migration, are accentuated.

This research draws on Zygmunt Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity and notions of development to analyse disaster. From the analysis, a new concept, liquid development, is proposed and critiqued as a contributing factor leading to severe contemporary disaster.

Liquid development provides a new way of making sense of the conditions and consequences of economic growth and a business as usual attitude. It further provides a framework to explore the potential disaster of environmental migration in the Pacific Islands arising from liquid development driven climate change-induced sea level rise.

Analysing these conditions provides greater understanding of the resulting impact of disaster, creating awareness and informing the need for accountability and social policy. This study aims to contribute to further practical and research enquiry that will challenge liquid developers to reconsider their impact and to accept responsibility for vulnerable members of society as part of their business as usual structure.

This paper adds to Bauman’s understanding of the consequences of globalisation through the construct of liquid development. It also continues his debate by giving awareness to the global issue of environmental migration.

In the continuing endeavour to work towards ever better management, the project manager has a crucial role to play. This monograph assesses the requirements of project management in terms of training and experience, demonstrates what sort of person the project manager should be, and also the role that should be played by the project team. In order to illustrate the manner in which the essential qualities in both the project manager and his team are displayed in action a number of completed projects worldwide are reviewed. Both successful projects and disastrous projects are used to demonstrate the way in which the problems encountered in real life can be met and overcome. In conclusion both the prospects and the problems that the future may hold for the project manager are assessed.