Commentary
Post-war prevention: Emerging frameworks to prevent drug use after the War on Drugs

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Abstract

The prevention of drug use is one of the primary goals of the War on Drugs. However, despite investment in high-profile interventions such as social marketing campaigns and enforcement-based deterrence, these efforts have generally failed. With the emergence of novel policy frameworks to control and regulate drug use, a window of opportunity exists to test approaches to drug prevention that take into account existing evidence and the rights of individuals who use drugs. Specifically, there is a growing consensus that entry into drug use is a socially-defined event that individuals experience within particular socio-structural contexts. This understanding, coupled with a distinction between the value of preventing problematic drug use rather than all drug use, provides a useful framework within which to develop effective and rights-based approaches to drug prevention.

Section snippets

Funding

Dan Werb is supported by a US National Institute on Drug Abuse Avenir Award (DP2 DA040256-01) and a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The funders had no role in the decision to initiate the study; the design; analysis, and interpretation; and the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

Dan Werb declares no conflicts of interest.

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