查看文章

Governments and health agencies in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) have implemented changes to drug policy, regulation and/or legislation for reducing increasing rates of dependency, overdose and other harms associated with prescription and over-the-counter opioid drugs, and supporting their medicinal use. However, there has been no systematic evaluation of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the drug policy changes. A systematic review of studies was conducted to assess the evidence. Studies included peer-reviewed and grey literature. The findings of studies were synthesised to identify common features and outcomes of changes to drug policy, including reductions in overdose, death and other indicators of effectiveness. There were 21 studies that met review criteria, and were of changes that generally aimed to: increase access to treatment for issues with opioid drugs; or, restrict …