Ecstasy (MDMA) deaths in New York City: a case series and review of the literature

MDMA ("ecstasy") has gained renewed popularity as a drug of abuse. To access the epidemiology and causes of death of MDMA-positive fatalities, all deaths investigated by the OCME that tested positive for MDMA (22 deaths) between January 1997 and June 2000 were reviewed. There were three deaths in each 1997 and 1998, eleven in 1999, and five in the first part of 2000. Of these 22 deaths, 13 were due to acute drug intoxications, 7 due to mechanical injury (blunt trauma, gunshot wounds), and 2 due to a combination of natural disease and acute drug intoxication. Evidence of recent opiate and/or cocaine use was found in 7 of the acute intoxication deaths and in none of the traumatic or combination natural/intoxication deaths. The race of all decedents was White between the ages of 17-41 years, and 18 of 22 were men.     

The happy land homicides: 87 deaths due to smoke inhalation

We reviewed all 87 deaths from the Happy Land Social Club fire. All deaths were due to smoke inhalation. The carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) concentrations ranged from 37 to 93% with a mean of 76.5%. The vast majority (97%) of the decedents had a COHb concentration over 50%. Cyanide blood concentrations ranged from 0 to 5.5 mg/L with a mean of 2.2 mg/L. Nine decedents had no cyanide detected, and seven had cyanide concentrations of less than 1 mg/L. Fewer than one third of the decedents had thermal injuries, and most were partial thickness burns involving less than 20% body surface area. Ethanol was detected in 72% of decedents with a range of 0.01 to 0.29 g% and a mean blood concentration of 0.11 g%. Cocaine or cannabinoid use was identified in 9% of the decedents. All decedents were visually identified, and all had soot in the airway extending to the major bronchi. Carboxyhemoglobin concentrations corresponded well with deaths from smoke inhalation. Cyanide concentrations did not correspond with the extent of smoke inhalation, and the role of cyanide in contributing to these deaths is doubtful. Hydrogen chloride inhalation, as evidenced by comparison of the pH of tracheal mucosa to controls, was not a factor.     

Charitable giving and the future of NGOs in Russia: what can we learn from individual data?

This study seeks to discuss the survivability of charitable nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia without foreign funding. We use cross-sectional data from a quantitative household survey conducted in April 2016 to investigate common giving patterns of Russians. We find that Russians prefer to give directly to people in need rather than to NGOs; the donations are small, spontaneous, and irregular; they are mainly targeted to supporting the poor and the sick. Involvement in religious activities and higher self-assessed income are two factors that contribute most to the probability of donating. Educated and younger donors are more likely to donate to NGOs compared to donating to particular people/families. The study suggests that private donations to NGOs will decline if no changes in public policy are made. NGOs supporting education, environment, culture, or civil organizations seem to be worst hit.     

Bringing the Past Back in: How Attitudes towards the Democratic Transition Influence the Portuguese Voter

Abstract

This article analyses the way in which attitudes towards the transition to democracy explain party identification and ideology in Portugal. This question is important because the transition to democracy in Portugal was a turbulent process marked by a rupture with the past and institutional fluidity. It has also conditioned the main political parties’ relationships with the electorate and each other since 1974. I compare the same explanatory model results from two surveys, conducted in 2004 and 2014, respectively, to understand the extent to which perceptions about the transition help characterise the Portuguese voter over the last decade.     

Aspects of the evolution of extra-legal protection in Bulgaria (1989–1999)

In this paper I look at the interplay between organised crime, law, and the state and argue that the evolution of organised crime organisations in Bulgaria was shaped by the dynamic transformation of the legal and economic environment during the 90s, by policies of the state, such as, for example, the regulation of the private security and insurance industries (in 1994 and 1998 respectively), which mafia-like organisations used as fronts for their activities during the 90s and by the ability of organised crime organisations to adapt to the constantly changing conditions. In the first section of the paper I look at the emergence of the private security and private protection industries in Bulgaria with an emphasis on the development of organisations using the threat of violence to settle disputes, discourage competition, retrieve stolen property and collect debts. In the second section of the paper, I follow the transformation of certain type of private security companies into insurance companies, which directed their activities at properties liable to risk, for instance cars and small shops. They enjoyed an advantage over ordinary insurance companies because they possessed greater information about the risks, which could affect the property of their clients, for example theft (car theft in particular). The concluding section discusses the development of silovi grupirovki (the Bulgarian name for organised crime organisations) after 1998 when a very strict licensing regime for insurance companies was introduced and alleged to be mafia-like organisations were removed from the insurance market.

Prime ministers in the age of austerity: an increase in the personalisation of voting behaviour

This article tests the personalisation thesis in Portugal (2002–2015), as well as its causes, focusing on changes in the level of party identification and perceptions of the economy. Portugal is an interesting example given its recent experience of a harsh economic crisis, as well as a decline in party identification. Results confirm a growing exogenous impact of leader evaluations on voting over the period but not in a linear fashion. During the crisis, the growing trend of leader effects for the incumbent party continues for those voters who have a positive perception of the economy. Conversely, for the main opposition party, leader effects are greater for those who perceive the economy as being worse. Thus the crisis operates as a catalyst for leader effects. The impact of leaders is also greater among the de-aligned, the numbers of which rise considerably during the period under analysis. It is voters with no party identification, who use leaders as proxies to a greater extent. These conclusions may extend to further studies on leader effects in Western democracies and help to shed light on the process through which leaders are becoming more relevant in voting decisions.     

Citizens' Attitudes Towards Municipal Mergers – Individual-level Explanations

Municipal mergers are one of the most common reforms of jurisdiction size. While there are many studies of municipal mergers at the contextual level and some about how mergers affect opinions, studies of how individual citizens regard prospective mergers are still scarce. Thus, we study why citizens have different opinions on prospective mergers that are yet to be decided on. Specifically, the factors of main interest in this study are political efficacy and political trust since these relate to how citizens make sense of the complex and uncertain reforms that municipal mergers are. To study this, we disseminated a population survey (N = 6,686) in the Finnish municipality of Korsholm in 2018. At that time, a merger was planned with the neighboring city of Vaasa. This merger was surrounded by a very heated debate, mainly due to the fact that the merger would have affected the position of language minorities (a very salient issue in bilingual Finland) whereby the Swedish-speaking majority in Korsholm would become a minority in a merged new municipality. Using regression analyses where internal- and external political efficacy and political trust are tested as predictors of opinions on this proposed merger, with control for demographic, socio-economic and social factors, the study demonstrates that external efficacy and political trust have independent significant impact on citizens' opinions on mergers. The findings also show that salient issues connected to mergers are important factors as are social factors.     

Deported before experiencing the good sides of migration: Ethiopians returning from Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

In the period November 2013–April 2014 more than 160,000 Ethiopians were deported from Saudi Arabia after a seven months amnesty period for undocumented migrants came to an end. This large-scale regularization campaign of the Saudi government must be seen in light of the ‘Arab Spring’, when popular uprisings in the Middle East were threatening dictatorial regimes. The effect of the Arab Spring was felt globally; the uprisings impacted upon migrants living in countries in the Middle East and on their countries of origin. This paper looks into the experiences of Ethiopian deportees prior, during and after their forced return. We argue that the fact that the migrants were not prepared for their sudden return affected their economic, social network and psychosocial embeddedness back in Ethiopia. In addition, the Ethiopian government has not been able to improve the returnees’ economic embeddedness, which has affected their social and psychological status negatively.