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An epidemiological evaluation of a public health measure aimed at reducing the availability of methylamphetamine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

R. de Alarcón
R. de Alarcón
Affiliation:
From the Medical Research Council Clinical Psychiatry Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, Sussex
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Synopsis

This paper attempts to show how a public health measure, by reducing production and withdrawing methylamphetamine (Methedrine) from retail pharmacists, dramatically affected the prevalence of its abuse in a provincial population. This measure coincided with the midpoint of a four-year survey into drug abuse which was being carried out in that area. This opportune timing created a natural experiment whereby it became possible to observe and measure the short- and long-term effects of a single social factor on one form of abnormal behaviour.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , August 1972 , pp. 293 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

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