title: Drug policies and harms: a conceptual framework.
abstract: Existing indicators of drug-related policies and harms - official statistics, treatment data, and so on - are difficult to interpret and to compare across jurisdictions. We propose a conceptual framework including key dimensions of policy and harm. The framework is designed to guide creation of a new dataset in which existing empirical data can be used to assign city-specific scores on policy and harm dimensions. By an interpretive process involving local experts and a coordinating body, we believe that existing data can be evaluated and synthesized to derive these scores. We also propose a cumulative case-study method of querying the dataset to test hypotheses regarding relationships between policies and harms.
authors.affiliation: Drug Policy Research Center, Rand, Santa Monica, Calif. 90405, USA. doug_longshore@rand.org
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Longshore
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reuter
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Derks
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grapendaal
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ebener
mesh_terms: D003415:Crime; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D011640:Public Policy; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012944:Social Support; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy