The research in this book on the geographical context of drug addiction contributes to better understanding the etiology of addiction, its diffusion, its interaction with geographically variable environmental, social, and economic factors, and the strategies for its treatment and prevention. This book explores links between geography and drug abuse and identifies research ideas, connections, and research pathways which point to some promising avenues for future work in this area.
The topics explored in Geography and Drug Addiction include:
Spatial patterns of drug use and addiction
Linking spatial models with drug abuse research
Interaction of social and environmental factors with biochemical processes of addiction
Locational analyses of drug addiction treatment and service delivery facilities
Neighborhood scale studies of geographic factors (including the built environment) and their interaction with drug addiction, treatment, or prevention
Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to better understanding and respond to drug addiction
Spatial diffusion modeling of addictive drug usage and its changing characteristics, including also predictive modeling
Social epidemiology and GIS
This book will serve as an excellent resource to geographers and drug abuse researchers, including sociologists, epidemiologists, social scientists in general and public health researchers, both in policy and academia.
Zusammenfassung
Making Connections: Geography and Drug Addiction Geography involves making connections connections in our world among people and places, cultures, human activities, and natural processes. It involves understa- ing the relationships and 'connections' between seemingly disparate or unrelated ideas and between what is and what might be. Geography also involves connecting with people. When I rst encountered an extraordinarily vibrant, intelligent, and socially engaged scientist at a private d- ner several years ago, I was immediately captivated by the intensity of her passion to understand how and why people become addicted to drugs, and what could be done to treat or prevent drug addiction. Fortunately, she was willing to think beyond the bounds of her own discipline in her search for answers. Our conversation that evening, which began with her research on fundamental biochemical processes of drug addiction in the human body, evolved inevitably to an exploration of the ways in which research on the geographical context of drug addiction might contribute to the better understanding of etiology of addiction, its diffusion, its interaction with geographically variable environmental, social, and economic factors, and the strategies for its treatment and prevention. This fascinating woman, I soon learned, was Nora Volkow, the Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse as well as the granddaughter of Leon Trotsky.
Inhalt
Placing Substance Abuse.- Integrating Geography and Social Epidemiology in Drug Abuse Research.- Integrating GIS into the Study of Contextual Factors Affecting Injection Drug Use Along the Mexico/US Border.- The Spatial Context of Adolescent Alcohol Use.- Migration Patterns and Substance Use among Young Homeless Travelers.- Residential Mobility and Drug Use Among Parolees in San Diego, California and Implications for Policy.- Social Disorganization, Alcohol, and Drug Markets and Violence.- Integrated Assessment of Addiction Epidemiology in Hong Kong, 1996-2005.- Residential Segregation and the Prevalence of Injection Drug Use among Black Adult Residents of US Metropolitan Areas.- The Relationship of Ecological Containment and Heroin Practices.- Comparing Unintentional Opioid Poisoning Mortality in Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Counties, United States, 1999-2003.- Spatial Patterns of Clandestine Methamphetamine Labs in Colorado Springs, Colorado.- A Therapeutic Landscape? Contextualizing Methamphetamine in North Dakota.- Are Spatial Variables Important? The Case of Markets for Multiple Drugs in British Bengal.- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection Rates and Heroin Trafficking: Fearful Symmetries.- Metropolitan Area Characteristics, Injection Drug Use and HIV Among Injectors.- Factors Influencing Drug Use and HIV Risk in Two Nicaraguan Cities.- Drug Use and HIV/AIDS: Risk Environments in Post-Soviet Russia.- Substance Abuse and HIV in China.- Placing the Dynamics of Syringe Exchange Programs in the United States.- The effect of individual, program, and neighborhood variables on continuity of treatment among dually diagnosed individuals.- Exploring the Reciprocal Effects of Substance Abuse Treatment Provision and Area Substance Abuse.- Using a GISFramework to Assess Hurricane Recovery Needs of Substance Abuse Center Clients in Katrina- and Rita-Affected Areas.- Using GIS to Identify Drug Markets and Reduce Drug-Related Violence.- Modeling the Spatial Patterns of Substance and Drug Abuse in the US.- Reconceptualizing Sociogeographic Context for the Study of Drug Use, Abuse, and Addiction.- Spatial Analytic Approaches to Explaining the Trends and Patterns of Drug Overdose Deaths.