HLSC122 Semester 1 2019: Critical Appraisal of Drug Checking Research

This essay provides a critical appraisal of a research article focusing on drug checking services at music festivals and their impact on illicit drug use among young adults. The appraisal covers various aspects of the research, including authorship, research questions, design, methods, results, and limitations. It highlights the study's aim to evaluate attitudes toward drug checking and its potential influence on drug use behavior. The essay also addresses a case scenario involving a teenager attending a music festival with drug checking services, discussing the enablers and barriers to applying the research findings in practice. The analysis considers the potential for drug testing to reduce harm by educating young people about the risks associated with illicit drugs, while also acknowledging limitations such as sampling bias and self-reported data. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of considering these limitations when applying the research to real-world scenarios.

Running head: CRITICAL APPRAISAL ON DRUG CHECKING SERVICE
CRITICAL APPRAISAL ON DRUG CHECKING SERVICE
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

1CRITICAL APPRAISAL ON DRUG CHECKING SERVICE
Part A
Introduction
The aim of the paper is to critically appraise the article on drug checking service. The
essay highlights the critical appraisal of the article based on illicit drug testing at music festival.
Usage of illicit drug is increasing at an alarming rate among the young generation, thus the essay
focus on the finding of the paper and used to address the issue of exploitation of illicit drug.
Authorship
The authors of the article area affiliated from School of Medicine, University of Western
Sydney, Sydney, NSW; Australia University Centre for Rural Health, 61 Uralba Street, Lismore,
NSW, Australia; Harm Reduction and Health Promotion Programs, North Coast Public Health,
Mid North Coast Local Health District, PO Box 419, Lismore, NSW, Australia. The authors are
experienced in public health research and sophisticated data analysis. This experience of the
author is the principal strength. It is stated by the authors that there is no conflict of interest in the
paper.
Research question/aim/hypothesis
The major aim of the paper is to evaluate the behaviour of people towards drug checking
service which is conducted in a music festival. The study was conducted to understand the
influence of drug checking service among the population, and to evaluate the attitude of people
regarding usage of the drug. The study was done to check what the consequence of illicit drugs
is, and how it is affecting the behaviour of people. There is no such hypothesis stated by the

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author. The study is needed to check the purity of illicit drug for better public health (Day et al.,
2018).
Research design
The authors of the paper have used descriptive and correlational design to conduct their
study. The design was based on quantitative as well as qualitative data. The author has used
current status of the variables based on survey analysis. They have collected the observational
data. The analysis of data was done statistically. They have not taken the cause and effect of the
variable into the study. The primary strength of the study design is that it has made the result to
be more reliable and authentic (Fink, 2019). It is justified with the research question as study of
behaviour of person needs to be a descriptive and comparative analysis of expression of people
will give accurate and unbiased data.
Research methods
The research method used in the paper is based on qualitative data. Authors have
surveyed Australian music festivals. The general participant was selected for the study including
both male and female gender based on their age in the range of 18 to 30 years. The survey was
conducted by asking question about the usage of illicit drugs. Quantitative data was collected
from the study, and pilot testing was done to draw a conclusion. The data was analysed done
using SPSS. The primary strength of the above-stated research method is that, they gave
generalized result and purpose of the collection of information is cost-efficient (Lewis, 2015).
The limitation of the research method is that analyses of data may be challenging and biasness in
the data collection method might happen (Li et al., 2015).

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Result and limitation of the study
The result of the research conducted states that 86.5% of the participant was in favour of
drug checking and believe that it will help to reduce the harm and it should be combined with the
advice of harm reduction. 68.6% of people agree to use this service as quality control
mechanism. Only 32.7% of the people were in favour of drug checking service in the music
festival. Therefore, the study has explained the behaviour of different people. The result has also
given an insight into different illicit drugs and its impact on the health of peoples. It was found
that most of the people were not in agreement to use methamphetamine, ketamine, and para-
methoxyamphetamine drugs.
The major limitation of the study is that the participant is not the representative of the
general population. The female participant of the study does not correspond with the public
statement that male consume drugs more than female. The self-report of the study is another
limitation (Day et al., 2018). The sampling process may include biasness as missing of data can
happen in the study. Therefore, it will affect the result of the research. The primary strength of
the study is that it is first enormous survey which is conducted in the music festival which has
evaluated the behaviour of people towards illegal drug usage (Brace, 2018). Therefore, the study
has given a valuable idea about the population who is at risk of using illicit drugs.
Part B
In the case scenario, it is seen that Emily is going to attend a music festival in Melbourne
in the coming weekend. In the music festival, there is the provision of drug checking. However,
her mother is worried as because she doubts that, this may encourage her to use the illicit drugs
at the music festivals. I as a future health professional, interested in knowing whether drug

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testing at the music festival can promote their usage among the young teenager of the growing
population. After reading the article based on the usage of illicit drug, the behaviour of people
has been noted with different views and perspective. Based on the result I can say that drug
testing at the music festival will not influence the exploitation of drug among young peoples
(Day et al., 2018). The research finding can be used to draw this conclusion because the study
was conducted in the music festival itself where different people were involved. The finding of
the paper has revealed several idea and view by taking respective survey and investigating each
individual about drug usage. The drug testing, in fact, gives knowledge to the young people
about its related harm. I think the drug checking service will have good impact on the young
people (Butterfield et al., 2016).
It is understood that young teenagers are eager regarding trying new things and this may
lead to lethal and severe consequence to their health both physically and mentally (Yonker et al.,
2015). The major reason behind this is lack of knowledge. Drug usage is common in the growing
population (Sanders et al., 2016). Some do not have any practical knowledge, or some have, but
they are addicted to it (MacArthur et al., 2016). However, on critical analysis of the research
paper in the same account, it was noted that 86.5% of people felt that drug checking service
would help in reducing harm. The major reason behind this is drug testing checking service
provides education and knowledge about the illicit drugs (Brunt et al., 2017). It also helps in
knowing the different illegal chemical and its impact on health (Harpe, Powell & Pijl, 2017).The
major reason for the uptake of the research paper is that it is conducted in music festival by
taking the live investigation from the people present in the festivals.
The research paper was mostly based on female participant hence to understand the
influence of this service among female teenager has been highlighted. This enabler of the study

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will help to predict the behaviour of Emily in relation to drug usage. The research paper has also
found that drug checking service should be combined with the reduction of harm advice. Hence,
this finding enables them to predict what young people know about the related harm of using
illicit drugs; they will avoid being addicted to it (Sage, 2016).
Another significant finding of the research paper is related to the reason, for not
endeavouring to find the content and purity of drugs (Dilkes-Frayne, 2016). The highlighted
reasons are lack of concern, limited knowledge about the service of drug testing and most of the
people do not know that they are from reliable source or not (Barratt et al., 2018). Such
significant finding from the research paper can be used to study the case scenario of Emily.
In the research paper, the participant was asked about the usage of drug past 12 months
only, and they were not investigated about the frequency of using the drugs. If the author has
incorporated that information in their study, the result would have been more specific and
particular (Compton & Berning, 2015). Therefore, this is the other barrier in taking the research
paper for evaluation.
Conclusion
Lastly, it can be concluded that there is the chance that in the study of drug checking
service, there is some missing data (Campbell & Stanley, 2015). It is seen in the paper that,
question which is asked by the researcher is answered by the people based on their knowledge.
Lack of knowledge about the drugs will give irrelevant data (Frank et al., 2015). Therefore, the
finding of the paper may be the barrier regarding the uptake of it to study and evaluate the case
study of Emily.

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