ArticleBMC health services research2014
Pharmacies as providers of expanded health services for people who inject drugs: a review of laws, policies, and barriers in six countries.
Article in BMC health services research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Primary health care roles of community pharmacists in low- and middle-income countries: a mixed methods systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review of the distribution of take-home naloxone in low- and middle-income countries and barriers to the implementation of take-home naloxone programs.Harm reduction journal · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pharmacy-randomized intervention delivering HIV prevention services during the syringe sale to people who inject drugs in New York City.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2015Trial
- Sterile syringe availability in Georgia pharmacies remained rare, despite policy change permitting sales.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Implementation of harm reduction services for people who use drugs provided by pharmacy staff: a scoping review protocol.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Attitudes toward pharmacy-based HCV/HIV testing among people who use drugs in rural Kentucky.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2022Article
- Perspectives of Stakeholders of Equitable Access to Community Naloxone Programs: A Literature Review.Cureus · 2022Review
- Assessing the relationship between syringe exchange, pharmacy, and street sources of accessing syringes and injection drug use behavior in a pooled nationally representative sample of people who inject drugs in the United States from 2002 to 2019.Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- Pharmacist attitudes and provision of harm reduction services in North Carolina: an exploratory study.Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- Australian Community Pharmacy Harm-Minimisation Services: Scope for Service Expansion to Improve Healthcare Access.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- What Is Known about Community Pharmacy-Based Take-Home Naloxone Programs and Program Interventions? A Scoping Review.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Estimated effect of US state syringe sale policy on source of last-used injection equipment.The International journal on drug policy · 2020Article
- Predicting Pharmacist Dispensing Practices and Comfort Related to Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention (PrEP).AIDS and behavior · 2019Article
- Substance Use Stigma and Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence Among a Drug-Using Population Living with HIV.AIDS patient care and STDs · 2019Article
- Implementing a clozapine supply service in Australian community pharmacies: barriers and facilitators.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2019Article
- Article
- Predicting pharmacy naloxone stocking and dispensing following a statewide standing order, Indiana 2016.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2018Article
- Geo-spatial analysis of individual-level needle and syringe coverage in Melbourne, Australia.PloS one · 2018Article
- Intravenous heroin use in Haiphong, Vietnam: Need for comprehensive care including methamphetamine use-related interventions.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPeople who inject drugs (PWID) are underserved by health providers but pharmacies may be their most accessible care settings.
methodsStudies in the U.S., Russia, Vietnam, China, Canada and Mexico employed a three-level (macro-, meso-, and micro-) model to assess feasibility of expanded pharmacy services for PWID. Studies employed qualitative and quantitative interviews, review of legal and policy documents, and information on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of key stakeholders.
resultsStudies produced a mixed assessment of feasibility. Provision of information and referrals by pharmacies is permissible in all study sites and sale and safe disposal of needles/syringes by pharmacies is legal in almost all sites, although needle/syringe sales face challenges related to attitudes and practices of pharmacists, police, and other actors. Pharmacy provision of HIV testing, hepatitis vaccination, opioid substitution treatment, provision of naloxone for drug overdose, and abscess treatment, face more serious legal and policy barriers. DISCUSSION: Challenges to expanded services for drug users in pharmacies exist at all three levels, especially the macro-level characterized by legal barriers and persistent stigmatization of PWID. Where deficiencies in laws, policies, and community attitudes block implementation, stakeholders should advocate for needed legal and policy changes and work to address community stigma and resistance. Laws and policies are only as good as their implementation, so attention is also needed to meso- and micro- levels. Policies, attitudes, and practices of police departments and pharmacy chains as well as knowledge, attitudes, and practices of individual PWID, individual pharmacies, and police officers should support rather than undermine positive laws and expanded services. Despite the challenges, pharmacies remain potentially important venues for delivering health services to PWID.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.