Details for LEADER Deliverable 2.1 Report on the impact of economic downturns on illegal drug use

This report examines the impact of economic recessions on substance use. We have performed a systematic literature review in which we aimed to  systematically identify empirical evidence of mechanisms that explain how economic recessions affect substance use. The primary aim is to describe how economic recessions affect use of illegal drugs. Because we found limited empirical evidence on the impact of economic recessions on use of illegal substances, we also examined the impact on two licit substances: tobacco and alcohol. Evidence on these two substances may give insight into mechanisms that are also relevant for illegal drugs and provide a way to cover the current gap in knowledge about illegal drugs.

In addition, we performed two smaller studies. A client reality check was undertaken to examine the perspective of illegal drug users receiving treatment in three different jurisdictions. This study focused on illegal drug use, but clients were also asked about their use of tobacco, alcohol, and new psychoactive drugs. Additionally, a regression analysis was undertaken to examine the macro-level relationships between economic recessions and deaths from substance use using routinely available data for 28 European countries. For the regression analyses, we only had data on alcohol and drugs.