TY - JOUR
T1 - What about drug checking? Systematic review and netnographic analysis of social media
AU - Guirguis, Amira
AU - Moosa, Isma
AU - Gittins, Rosalind
AU - Schifano, Fabrizio
N1 - Funding Information:
No funding to be declared. However, the project was supported by the University of Hertfordshire. The University of Hertfordshire had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Psychopharmacology, Drug Misuse, and Novel Psychoactive Substances Research Unit (University of Hertfordshire).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Bentham Science Publishers.
PY - 2020/11/4
Y1 - 2020/11/4
N2 - Drug checking services have been operating worldwide as a harm reduction tool in places like festivals and night clubs. A systematic review and netnographic analysis were conducted to explore the public’s perception of drug checking. Although public perceptions of drug checking had not previously been evaluated in the literature, some positive and negative perceptions were captured. From twitter, a total of 1316 tweets were initially identified. Following the removal of irrelevant tweets, 235 relevant tweets were identified, of which about 95% (n = 223) tweets were in favour, and about 5% (n = 12) were not in favour of drug checking as a harm reduction intervention. Tweets perceived the service as part of effective law reform, public health intervention that serves in raising awareness and countering the role of the internet, initiative to reduce drug related harms and/ or potentially deaths, help in identifying Novel drug trends related to drugs, enabling a scientific basis to capture data, reducing harm from risky drugs or risky consumption, reducing the economic and social burden on society and preventing young people from having criminal records and punitive fines. Drug checking was perceived to support engagement with treatment services and support individuals in making more informed decisions. Tweets against drug checking focussed on the concerns over the quality of drug checking, particularly with false-positive results, which may lead to punitive outcomes, discrimination, and prejudice. The present study showed that twitter can be a useful platform to capture people’s perceptions of drug checking.
AB - Drug checking services have been operating worldwide as a harm reduction tool in places like festivals and night clubs. A systematic review and netnographic analysis were conducted to explore the public’s perception of drug checking. Although public perceptions of drug checking had not previously been evaluated in the literature, some positive and negative perceptions were captured. From twitter, a total of 1316 tweets were initially identified. Following the removal of irrelevant tweets, 235 relevant tweets were identified, of which about 95% (n = 223) tweets were in favour, and about 5% (n = 12) were not in favour of drug checking as a harm reduction intervention. Tweets perceived the service as part of effective law reform, public health intervention that serves in raising awareness and countering the role of the internet, initiative to reduce drug related harms and/ or potentially deaths, help in identifying Novel drug trends related to drugs, enabling a scientific basis to capture data, reducing harm from risky drugs or risky consumption, reducing the economic and social burden on society and preventing young people from having criminal records and punitive fines. Drug checking was perceived to support engagement with treatment services and support individuals in making more informed decisions. Tweets against drug checking focussed on the concerns over the quality of drug checking, particularly with false-positive results, which may lead to punitive outcomes, discrimination, and prejudice. The present study showed that twitter can be a useful platform to capture people’s perceptions of drug checking.
KW - Drug checking
KW - Drug screening
KW - Drug testing
KW - Pill testing
KW - Harm Reduction
KW - Twitter
KW - Harm reduction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090891182&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2174/1570159X18666200413142632
DO - 10.2174/1570159X18666200413142632
M3 - Review article
SN - 1570-159X
VL - 18
SP - 906
EP - 917
JO - Current Neuropharmacology
JF - Current Neuropharmacology
IS - 10
M1 - CN-2020-0016.R2
ER -