Cross-country Comparison of Treatment Policies Facing the Drug Abuse in Five Selected Countries

Abstract

<span><strong>Background: </strong><span>Drug abuse is one of the main problems of human's life; thus communities have been thinking<br /><span>about the solution of this problem. The present study aimed to compare the general features of drug abuse<br /><span>treatment policies, war on drugs (WOD), and harm reduction (HR), in the selected countries.<br /><span><strong>Methods: </strong><span>The present study was a comparative and desk research that sought to compare context,<br /><span>stewardship, financing, type of substance abuse treatment services, reasons of paradigm shift, and executive<br /><span>challenges of treatment policies in the selected countries (China, Malaysia, Germany, Netherland, and Iran).<br /><span>The necessary data for comparison of the countries were collected through valid databases, review of<br /><span>documents, and reports of international organizations.<br /><span><strong>Findings: </strong><span>Context conditions were better in the HR countries. In most countries, the central government<br /><span>played a key role in the stewardship, financing, and service providing. In WOD countries, the presence of<br /><span>judicial structure was higher in the treatment of drug abuse. The policy-making approach was ideological in<br /><span>WOD countries, but evidence-based in HR countries.<br /><span><strong>Conclusion: </strong><span>It seems that performance of HR countries is better than WOD countries.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span></span></span></span></span>