The New Zealand drug harms ranking study: A multi-criteria decision analysis

Abstract

Aims: The harms arising from psychoactive drug use are complex, and harm reduction strategies should be informed by a detailed understanding of the extent and nature of that harm. Drug harm is also context specific, and so any comprehensive assessment of drug harm should be relevant to the characteristics of the population in question. This study aimed to evaluate and rank drug harms within Aotearoa New Zealand using a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework, and to separately consider harm within the total population, and among youth. Methods: Two facilitated workshops involved the separate ranking of harm for the total population, and then for youth aged 12–17, by two expert pane..