Background: Deviant and health risk behaviors among young-adults are associated with many adverse outcomes. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate a broad variety of behaviors by gender differences and their contribution to predicting cannabis use in undergraduate students. Method: This research is based on a structured, self-reported anonymous questionnaire distributed to 1,432 young adult undergraduate students at an Israeli University, 533 males and 899 females (mean age 27.4; SD 6.01). Results: The findings demonstrate a significant proportion of sampled young adults reported to be involved in deviant and health risk behaviors and that all risky behaviors were more frequently significant in males than in females. Among drivers 72% reported speeding, 60% reported failure to keep distance, 44% reported being involved at a car accident as a driver, 40% reported not stopping at a stop sign, and quarter reported driving after drinking alcohol. These findings also expand how certain risk behaviors contribute to predicting cannabis use. Conclusions: The relatively high prevalence of some of these risky behaviors among normative young adults suggests that risky behaviors are considered as normative behavior for this group, especially among man, and therefore, policymakers need to consider prevention and harm reduction interventions relevant to this risk group.

Stressors caused by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) contribute to increased addictive behaviors in the general population worldwide. Little is known, however, about addictive behaviors of people who have recovered a long time ago, even years, from substance use disorder (SUD). The goal of the present research was to examine the craving for drug use and addictive behaviors (tobacco and alcohol consumption, viewing of pornography, gambling, and shopping online) of people who recovered from SUD, before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: During one week of isolation imposed in Israel following the outbreak of COVID-19 in April, 2020, a self-report questionnaire was distributed to a convenience sample of 113 people who had recovered from SUD, aged 22-69, 78% men. Results Fifty-one percent of participants reported craving drugs during the isolation period and engaging in addictive behaviors. Significant differences were found in tobacco and alcohol consumption, gambling, and viewing of pornography online, before and after the outbreak of the pandemic, especially in participants who reported having engaged in these addictive behaviors to some extent before the outbreak. A hierarchical linear regression showed a significant explained variance (R ²=44%, p<.001), with stronger feelings of loneliness and shorter length of time free from drug use being associated with stronger craving for drugs. Conclusions: The drug addiction treatment establishment should pay close attention and strengthen communication with people who recovered from SUD. It is necessary to develop real‐time anti-craving and anti-replacement addiction interventions to prevent relapses.

Aims: Only several empirical studies have examined substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic in general populations. Most of these studies compared self-reported substances use before the pandemic and during the pandemic's early stages. This study aims to identify the changes in substance use between the early and later waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey recruited 750 participants (ages 18–65) in two waves: (1) 427 during and following the first lockdown (April-mid-May, 2020); and (2) 323 following the second lockdown (from October to mid-November, 2020). Results: Participants who experienced two lockdowns reported more frequent consumption of all alcoholic beverages and cannabis in the last 30 days than those who experienced one lockdown. After controlling for demographic variables, significant differences were found between participants who experienced one lockdown and those who experienced two lockdowns in the consumption of alcoholic beverages (F(1, 742) = 6.90, p = .01, η² = .01). However, there was no significant association between pandemic duration and other illegal drug consumption. Conclusions: There is a significant association between pandemic duration and alcohol consumption. Policymakers and practitioners should develop national alcohol and cannabis use prevention and harm reduction interventions during pandemics with a focus on men, singles and youth.

In recent years, more countries have decriminalized and legalized cannabis, and have become cannabis tourism destinations. Little has been published about individuals with pre-existing mental health disorders who use cannabis during travel. Health professionals should pay greater attention to cannabis use among vulnerable travellers before, during, and after their travel.

The leading formal drug policy in Israel is the traditional approach of abstinence, probation, and punitive measures based on three main pillars: Enforcement, Treatment and Rehabilitation, and Prevention. However, under the treatment pillar, Israel has adopted a number of harm reduction services, focused mostly on people who use heroin and people who inject drugs. These include Methadone Maintenance Treatment, Buprenorphine Maintenance Treatment, and Needle and Syringe Exchange Programs. More specialized services are designated mostly for people who use drugs, who frequent the largest open drug scene in Tel-Aviv. These include a health clinic, an emergency apartment for female addict sex-workers, and a ‘First Step’ center. Even so, the harm reduction approach has remained controversial, stigmatized, and is considered a sub-category for total-abstinence treatment in Israel. This paper follows the evolution of harm reduction interventions in Israel among people who use drugs and sheds light on the lack of a comprehensive, well-planned, formal national harm reduction drug policy. Additionally, this article expresses concern over the uncertain future of Israel’s comprehensive and balanced drug treatment policies caused by the structural changes in abolishing the Israel Anti-Drug Authority, the statutory authority and central body in Israel that promoted and coordinated all national policies related to treatment and harm reduction. Conclusions: Although it is a major challenge to translate worldwide evidence and research findings into action and social change, recommendations are offered to implement a comprehensive harm reduction drug policy led by a multidisciplinary group of policy-makers across all areas of drug policy. These focus on expanding and developing more services for Opioid Maintenance Therapy patients and people who inject drugs as well as a national effort to reduce high levels of stigma and discrimination against them, encompassing other common substances and focusing on populations such as adolescents and young adults that engage in other types of substance use such as cannabis, amphetamine-type stimulants, and hallucinogens.