Big events, substance use and interventions : A global perspective

The journal Substance Use and Misuse is soliciting abstracts for a special issue exploring Big Events, Substance Use and Interventions: A Global Perspective. The term “big events” is sometimes called “complex emergencies.” It refers to economic crises like those taking place in US and most European Union countries, economic depressions like the ones occurring in Greece and Romania; and economic transformations like the one happening in China. It also refers to political transitions like those that have come about, and are currently occurring in different Arab or Latin American countries; as well as wars or expanded violent conflicts like the ones in Syria or Sudan. The Big Events concept can also include a range of socially-disruptive mega-epidemics or perhaps some natural disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, famines, droughts, or floods.

The focus of this Special Issue is to explore and analyze conditions, whether internal or external, at micro to macro levels of analysis, that might create social and other changes that may in turn create different forms of substance use and drug use-related harm. Papers that are primarily theoretical as well as those primarily empirical are welcome.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the examination of local or regional Big Events and changes in the functions of substance use, patterns and manner of use, meanings attributed to use, or harms related to use, global and historical descriptions of those changes, contexts and situations in which the Big Event led to a range of drug uses of both licit and illicit substances, as well as those Big Events in which this did not occur. We are also interested in papers examining types of interventions and their outcomes, whether these succeeded, failed, “boomeranged” or were irrelevant in taking care of the consequences of Big Events regarding drug use patterns and associated problems.

Abstracts of no more than 100 words will be due June 1, 2013 and are to be sent to Diana Rossi.

First drafts of papers will be due 1 month after the Abstract has been accepted. All submissions will be peer reviewed.

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