The purpose of this study was to, through the life stories of four women and their experiences, thoughts and feelings according to a life in drug dependency reach an increased knowledge about how a dependency can arise, continue and be brought to an end. The question at issue were: How do a small amount of women describe and comprehend their experiences, thoughts and feelings according to their drug addiction seen through a process perspective. In order to answer that question three themes were investigated: the road into dependency, living as an addict and the road to recovery from dependency and the time that follows. The study followed a qualitative method and the theoretical approach was hermeneutic. The results were analysed through a process analyse perspective, from the view of the chosen theoretical perspectives, social constructivism, experience perspective and a psychodynamic perspective.

Transdermal drug delivery, besides painfulinjections with syringes, has long been associatedwith small size particle pharmaceuticals, which candiffuse through the skin. This method of drugadministration has only been applicable on a smallnumber of drugs, where active molecules are smalland delivery time should or can be long.Other drug delivery options are oral administrationand injection with hypodermic needles (ordinaryhospital syringes). In oral administration thestomach and liver tend to dissolve the drug and theeffect becomes more difficult to anticipate, anddrug delivery rates difficult to control. Hypodermicneedles are used as a mean of drug injectiondirectly into the bloodstream. This method ispainful and risks infection due to tissue damageand skin penetration.One way to get a painless non-damaging techniquewith high delivery rate that still can delivery largemolecules is to manufacture an array of microscopichollow needles and equip them with a pumping unitthat delivers the correct amount of drugs.This thesis shows the technique and possibility ofmanufacture micromachined needles using low costtechniques of Ion Track Technology (radiation ofheavy ions creates porous materials), electrolessdeposition (non-current activated wet chemistrymethod of depositing metal) and electroplating.

A qualitative interview study how the normative gender images affects on women, their roles and positions in a drug abuse. The purpose of this study aims to shed a light at the consequences that the normative gender scenario inflicts on women with drug abuse and how these prejudices affects these women. Based on interviews with four different women who all lived with a drug abuse we have problematized how the gender system and the normative gender images affected them. We have used gender perspectives and social constructivism theories while analyzing the empirical basis. More specifically we use the theories of Butler about how gender constructs through performative actions and Hirdmans theories of the gender system.

This thesis discusses the Swedish drug policy and its principle of prohibition. In the world of today there is an ongoing discussion about prohibition and the concept of harm reduction. This thesis is an analysis of Swedish drug policy and an investigation as to whether the prohibition concept is in a state of decline. It tries to answer the question; is the Swedish drug policy moving away from its prohibition principle towards a harm reduction principle? The recent debate, articles, documents and earlier research has been analyzed in order to find answers to my questions.

The aim of this study was to examine how the new established phenomenon of ?Internet drugs? causes challenges to organizations, both individually and in relation to collaboration. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with representatives from three organizations - one youth police unit, one medical addiction centre and four units working within social services. The theoretical approach that was used is theory about human service organizations, theory about collaboration and new institutional organizational theory. A conclusion is that the current drug classification is problematic and mainly challenging for the organizations that focus on prevention work and early interventions.

The study deals with the beliefs that relatives of alcohol and drug dependent persons, and representatives from social services have to the various forms of support available for the relatives. Those who participate in the study points out that there are many people who have a need for support as a relative of an alcohol or drug addicted individual, but that there are circumstances that make them choose not to seek assistance. The study shows that the relatives can experience a reluctance to seek support from social services because of how the organization looks like. The study is qualitative, where the collection of the empiric material has consisted in six semi-structured interviews. Three of them have been with relatives of alcohol-or drug-dependent persons and three have been with social workers in various professions, whose work consists of helping both the relatives of people with alcohol and drug dependence as well as people who are dependent.

About 35 years ago the WHO advocated that countries with injecting drug users should introduce the so-called needle exchange programs (NEP) to curb the spread of infection by blood-borne diseases. In Sweden the first NEP started 1985 in Lund, but the program was extremely controversial in a country with such a restrictive drug policy like Sweden.The study you are about to read shall process this controversy, when a NEP opened in Stockholm, by analyzing the articles published in the newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. By using discourse analysis as a processing tool we?ll try to see the difference between the two chosen newspapers. We will identify and analyze the different participant?s, such as doctors, politicians, user associations and media, arguments in the needle exchange issue.

The purpose of this study is to understand and analyze why individuals develop and manage to leave drug abuse. The material consists of interviews with eight individuals who have gone through a life of addiction and managed to change their lifestyle. We contacted the participants through the organization called KRIS (Criminals Redress with Society). The results indicate that the participants have had a troublesome upbringing and been labeled by society as outsiders which have led them into addiction. The results also show that they have all gone through a social conversion from the life as an addict to become sober.

Working life is an arena that often reflects attitudes that already exist in our society. When alcohol- and drug abuse is detected among employees the employer has a statutory responsibility for rehabilitation. But the way how these employees gets to be treated is also influenced by attitudes. The purpose of this essay was to illustrate from a gender perspective how women's and men's alcohol- and drug abuse occur in working life and how the attitudes in our society towards their abuse reflect on trade life. Referring that, our intention was also to examine which consequences are given of how the individual is treated.

Phenylbutazone has been discussed in the world of the equestrian sport several times and different countries have diverse opinions on its use in competitions. The progressive list that permits phenylbutazone with plasma levels up to 8 µg/ml was presented at the FEI General Assembly in November 2009. The list was voted to be accepted, but later several countries realized the consequences and after protests the list was rejected and is going to be discussed again at the FEI General Assembly 2010. In this literature study I have studied the relationship between the concentrations of phenylbutazone in plasma and the effects on lameness. The purpose was to establish whether the limit of 8 µg/ml phenylbutazone in plasma affects the equestrian sport.

The purpose of this paper was to examine how people experience the practice of Cannabis in daily life. The study was based on interviews with five individuals who have experience with cannabis use. They do not represent a bigger population only themselves. We chose these particular individuals because all of them began using cannabis at a young age- everyone before they were twenty. But they have been using cannabis because of different reasons.

The aim of this study is to examine how young people look at and perceive drugs by studying how they discuss and reason about drugs. The essay's main interest is not whether young people use drugs or not. We are primarily interested in how young people talk about drugs. The questions that we want to get answered are:What are the beliefs that young people have about drugs, drug use and drug users? More specifically we seek answers to which images, symbols and attributes that young people links to drugs, drug use and drug users.What is important in young people's construction of beliefs about drugs and drug users? More specifically, which are the information sources and reference groups that young people assigns significance?We used focus group interviews as the research method.

The purpose of this thesis was to increase our understanding of how the social service in Sweden deals with reported incidents of addiction to medicines. Another purpose was to point out the different opinions concerning addiction to medicines amongst actors as well as possible ways to handle the problem.We have conducted a quantitative and qualitative e-mail survey targeting all communities in Sweden, with the ambition of gaining further knowledge about the role and responsibility of the social service concerning reports of addiction to medicines. Two quantitative questions were one asked about how many clients requested/were reported for needing help with their drug abuse alone, and the second question about how many clients needing help for drug abuse as a part of a wider addiction.The survey revealed that the social services judge their role/responsibility differently; some take the main responsibility while others think that drug abuse is created by the general health care and should be handled by this organization as well. In relation to the estimated amount of drug addicts in Sweden only a small part are in contact with the social service..

In this study the opioid buprenorphine was given to 8 clinically healthy goats. The pharmacokinetics and behavioral effects were studied. Injections of buprenorphine, 0.02 mg/kg body weight was given both intramuscularly (i.m.) and intravenously (i.v.) with a cross over design. The results showed a short half-life of the drug in the plasma, 65.9 ± 17.4 min (mean ± SD), after i.v. injection.

The purpose with our essay was to examine what favourable factors there are for women to get out of drug abuse and from a gender aspect interpret how these factors are used in the treatment of female drug-addicts, regarded from the treatment personnel view. The questions we have focused on are: What are the favourable factors for women in the way out of the addiction. How can the use of favourable factors be interpreted from a gender aspect. In what way is the knowledge about these favourable factors used in the drug abuse treatment.To fulfil the purpose whit our examination and to get answers to our questions we performed an explorative examination and applied a qualitative method in the form of a half structured interview with five persons.The main features of the results in our examination were that unisexual treatment, the group and the friendship between women, children and pregnancy and professional and private social network were considered as the favourable factors for the women out of their addiction. Certain factors were used in the treatment as a way to socialize or resocialize the female drug-addicts to predominant social models of how a woman should be like..