The supply of steroids and other performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs) in one English city: Fakes, counterfeits, supplier trust, common beliefs and access

As with other illicit drugs, such as heroin or cocaine, illicit steroids and other performance and image enhancing drugs (PIED) have for some time been assumed to involve an inherent degree of danger and risk. This is due to the unknown and potentially dangerous substances present in them; fakes and counterfeits are of particular concern. Many of these ‘risks’ are unknown and unproven. In addition, a tendency to abstract these risks by reference to forensic data tends to negate the specific risks related to local PIED markets, and this in turn has led to much being missed regarding the broader nature of those markets and how buyers and suppliers interact and are situated within them. This article reports on research that sought to explore each of these issues in one mid-sized city in South West England. A snapshot image is provided of what the steroids and other image or performance enhancing drugs market ‘looked like’ in this particular city in 2013: how it operated; how different users sought out and purchased their PIED; the beliefs they held about the PIED they sourced; and the methods they employed to feel confident in the authenticity of their purchases. A forensic analysis was undertaken of a sample of user-sourced PIED as a complementary approach. The results showed almost all of these drugs to be poor-quality fakes and/or counterfeits. The level of risk cannot be ‘read off’ from forensic findings, and poor-quality fakes/counterfeits cannot simply be considered an attempt to defraud. Users believed they had received genuine PIED that were efficacious, and employed a range of basic approaches to try to ensure genuine purchases. Many, if not most, transactions at the ‘street’ level were akin to ‘social supply’ rather than commercial in nature.Arts, Education & Law Group, Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and GovernanceFull Tex

Dartmoor Dialogues: An exploration of HMP Dartmoor’s Journey Towards Becoming an Integrated Prison Underpinned by Restorative Practices

Recent research and prison inspections have argued that prisons in England and Wales are in a state of crisis with repeated accounts of overcrowding, rising levels of violence and selfharm, and concerns about safety, substance misuse, deteriorating physical conditions and poor-quality resettlement provision. This has been during an era of significant cuts in prison budgets and staffing levels (HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 2019; House of Commons Justice Committee [HCJC], 2019a and b; Prison Reform Trust, 2019). Amidst this crisis the HCJC (2019a) has called for a prison policy that aims to reform and to rehabilitate offenders as well as punish. In early 2017 academics from the School of Law, Criminology and Government at the University of Plymouth were invited by the Governor of HMP Dartmoor to research how the rehabilitation environment in the prison could be strengthened. In 2015 HMP Dartmoor established itself as an integrated prison. This set in place a series of changes described by the Governor as the ‘Dartmoor Journey’. Since 2017, as part of these changes, the ‘Dialogue Road Map’ (DRM) model of conflict resolution and non-violent communication has been progressively introduced. This involved training prisoners and prison officers as facilitators to support non-violent conflict resolution. Ultimately, the DRM project at Dartmoor seeks to build a whole-prison approach which improves mental health with fewer incidents of self-harm and suicide and leads to less violence and safer custody in prison. The achievement of such goals is expected to create an ‘enabling environment’ in the prison for rehabilitation to flourish and so reduce rates of reoffending. The DRM model has so far been implemented in two wings of the prison

Support for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: A Systematic Scoping Review into what they want and what they access.

BACKGROUND: Since there is a paucity of research on support for people using Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS), we aimed to identify and synthesise the available evidence in this field. Gaining an understanding of the support both accessed and wanted by recreational AAS users will be of use to professionals who provide services to intravenous substance users and also to those working in the fields of public health and social care, with the aim to increase engagement of those using AAS. METHODS: A systematic scoping review of the literature to explore and identify the nature and scope of information and support both accessed and wanted by non-prescribed AAS users. Any support services or information designed to help people who use AAS were considered. RESULTS: We identified 23 papers and one report for review, which indicated that AAS users access a range of sources of information on: how to inject, substance effectiveness, dosages and side effects, suggesting this is the type of information users want. AAS users sought support from a range of sources including medical professionals, needle and syringe programmes, friends, dealers, and via the internet, suggesting that, different sources were used dependent on the information or support sought. DISCUSSION: AAS users tended to prefer peer advice and support over that of professionals, and access information online via specialist forums, reflecting the stigma that is experienced by AAS users. These tendencies can act as barriers to accessing services provided by professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Support needs to be specific and targeted towards AAS users. Sensitivity to their perceptions of their drug-use and the associated stigma of being classified in the same sub-set as other illicit drug users is relevant to facilitating successful engagement