Thai War on drugs: Measuring changes in methamphetamine and other substance use by school students through matched cross sectional surveys
Thai War on drugs: Measuring changes in methamphetamine and other substance use by school students through matched cross sectional surveys
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DOI：
10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.12.002
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发表时间：
2007-08-01
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
Syed, Qutub
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Daosodsai, Paiboon;Bellis, Mark A.;Syed, Qutub
2003年，泰国政府宣布彻底改变毒品政策，实施禁毒战争。虽然这一有争议的措施的后果（如毒贩死亡）受到了广泛关注，但评价药物使用变化的工作相对较少。我们使用了两个匿名的中学生代表性样本，比较药物使用在泰国东北部之前（1998年; n = 4217）和之后（2004/5; n=3489）的毒品战争。结果表明，1998年至2004/2005年期间，报告的当前非法药物使用水平大幅下降（甲基苯丙胺从4.2%降至0.9%）。通过研究第一次使用甲基苯丙胺的年份的趋势，我们发现，观察到的药物开始减少在时间上与毒品战争是一致的。然而，虽然饮酒的流行率也有所下降，但每日饮酒量却增加了三倍。我们认为，这种上升，加上对毒品的“战争”的其他负面影响，意味着毒品控制需要一个公共卫生的角度，将消除毒品使用视为更广泛的战略的一部分，改善人口健康，而不仅仅是毒品预防，作为其核心目标。(c)2006爱思唯尔有限公司保留所有权利。
In 2003 the Thai government announced a radical shift in drug policy with the implementation of a War on Drugs. Although consequences of this controversial measure (e.g. drug dealer deaths) have received widespread attention relatively little work has evaluated changes in substance use. We used two anonymous representative samples of secondary school students to compare drug use in Northeast Thailand before (1998; n = 4217) and after (2004/5; n=3489) the War on Drugs. Results indicate that reported levels of current illicit drug use reduced significantly between 1998 and 2004/5 (for methamphetamine from 4.2% to 0.9%). By examining trends in year of first methamphetamine use we identify that observed reductions in drug initiation are temporally consistent with the War on Drugs. However, while prevalence of alcohol use has also fallen, there was a three-fold increase in daily alcohol use. We suggest that this rise, combined with other negative impacts of 'wars' on drugs, means drug control requires a public health perspective that sees eliminating drug use as part of a wider strategy that has improvement in population health, not just drug prevention, as its core objective. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.