Daily news - 6th June 2016 |
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UK news
Interesting things about alcohol and other drugs, June 2016
Andrew Brown (@andrewbrown365) summarises new evidence on drug and alcohol issues, including data from the Scottish Prison Service Prisoners Survey | MEAM, UK
What drugs are on the rise in Britain?
After annual survey finds MDMA is making a comeback, we ask drug counsellors about other substances – and what can be done | Guardian, UK
Woman dies after taking clubbing drug MDMA
Cheshire Police believe the 22-year-old suffered an adverse reaction after taking MDMA while at The Box nightclub in Crewe | BBC, UK
Minimum pricing for alcohol targets harm better than tax rises
Whether alcohol tax rises would be an acceptable and effective alternative could determine the legality under EU law of Scotland’s law permitting a minimum unit price for alcohol. This analysis predicts tax rises would curb consumption and save lives, but not without perhaps unacceptably hitting the pockets of non-harmful drinkers | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
The Opiate Epidemic - Free Access Article Collection
Taylor & Francis presents a FREE ACCESS article collection centered on the growing epidemic of opiate use. The abuse of prescription and non-prescription opioids is rampant across the globe. This collection aims to highlight various issues within the subject of opiate abuse | Taylor & Francis, UK
Kids and young adults do not view vaping e-cigarettes as smoking, Durham University study finds
Only 28% of vapers aged between 18 and 25 used e-cigarettes to try and kick tobacco so health warnings should be tailored, the research says | Chronicle, UK
Police Scotland Launch Summer Crackdown on Drink Drivers
Police Scotland has launched its annual summer drink/drug drive campaign on Friday 3rd June 2016 | Police Scotland, UK
How Your Low-Key Cocaine Habit Actually Affects Your Body
It's Friday night, the pub's just closed and you're back at someone's flat, five pints deep with a blue bag of tins in your hand. "Is anyone gonna put the call in?" grins one of your friends | VICE, UK
Drugs gang jailed after targeting Preston with heroin and cocaine - video
15 men are starting jail sentences tonight for their part in an intricate drugs plot that targeted the city of Preston. The men made more than a million pounds in less than a year one by dealing heroin and crack cocaine that was brought in from Liverpool | ITV, UK
Four Essex men jailed after £50m cocaine taxi find
Four men have been jailed after cocaine with a street value of about £50m was found in a taxi in Essex | BBC, UK
International news
What is fentanyl? The little-known but deadly drug that killed Prince
One of the most dangerous drugs is a synthetic opioid ‘so potent and that even a microgram amount can kill’ – and it’s up to 50 times more powerful than heroin | Guardian, UK
Philippine president-elect promises 'a medal' to anyone who shoots a drug dealer
Rodrigo Duterte advised members of the public to 'do it yourself, if you have the gun' | Independent, UK
Dutch smugglers jailed for sailing drugs worth £120m across Atlantic
UK authorities arrested the two men after yacht that set sail from Curaçao was intercepted off East Sussex coast | Guardian, UK
Bundles of cocaine wash ashore on Marshall Islands
Several packages of cocaine have washed ashore on a Marshall Islands atoll in the western Pacific, police said on Sunday, the latest shipment of drugs to pitch up on the remote archipelago's coast | Telegraph, UK
Cocaine currency: Colombian farmers barter coca paste for groceries
As Colombia nears a peace deal with the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), authorities are struggling to tame an increase in farming of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine. The most recent United Nations figures showed an increase of 44% in coca cultivation in 2014 in Colombia to 69,000 hectares. The United States government estimates there are 159,000 hectares of coca farming | IBTimes, USA
The DRAM, Vol. 12(6) - The reality of Alcohol Dependence: The complex case is the norm, not the exception
For many, alcohol dependence (AD) is a multi-layered disorder. For these individuals, AD might co-occur with other mental health and/or substance use problems, such as opioid dependence. Research has shown that among people with AD, additional mental health and substance use problems likely contribute to risky behavior like driving under the influence | BASIS, USA
Heroin, painkiller overdose antidote getting easier to buy
It is becoming easier for friends and family of heroin users or patients taking strong painkillers to buy an antidote that can reverse the effect of an overdose, as policymakers look for ways to fight a growing epidemic | Medical Xpress, USA
Many addicts going without meds that curb opioid abuse
The United States is in the grip of an epidemic of opioid abuse. However, new research suggests that drugs that help addicts kick their habit after hospitalization are too seldom used | Medical Xpress, USA
'Deaths of despair' drag life expectancy lower for whites
Rising drug and alcohol overdoses, suicides, and disease from chronic alcoholism—labeled "deaths of despair" by one expert—are cutting the lives of white Americans short by nearly a half a year on average | Medical Xpress, USA
Alcohol’s rewarding effects can enhance memories of environmental stimuli
Drug-cue associations can have a powerful influence over individuals with drug and alcohol use disorders, often leading to relapse in those attempting to stay abstinent. Few studies have investigated how drugs affect learning or memory for drug-associated stimuli in humans | Science Daily, USA
The Human Brain, Hijacked: How Drug Addiction Affects Brain Chemistry
In the late 1990s, a team of doctors and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia ran a study that detected nerve cell activity in the brains of cocaine addicts whenever they viewed cocaine-related cues. These cues, mere blips buried in a film, showed cocaine and cocaine-use. And although most of the cues would go undetected by other people, results showed the reward pathways in subjects’ brains lighting up with activity | Medical Daily, USA
Needle stealing highlights issue tracking health workers
The latest public health scare involving a Colorado surgical technician has revealed states have more work ahead in trying to prevent needle-stealing hospital workers from getting hired | Medical Xpress, USA
Can an App Detect a Heroin Overdose?
Reemote Egg Timer will alert emergency contacts if it detects a user has overdosed. It’s part of a growing harm reduction movement, to keep addicts as safe as possible | Daily Beast, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
Spice: ‘the biggest health problem facing prisons’
An NHS-commissioned report has raised fears of an ever-worsening epidemic of ‘legal highs’. An ex-offenders’ organisation, User Voice, spoke directly to current prisoners in nine jails across England and found these prisons were ‘awash‘ with Spice, a synthetic cannabinoid which is highly addictive and has relatively unknown health effects but which has been linked to 39 deaths in prison | Jutice Gap, UK
Why Naloxone Should Be Accessible For Everyone
A medical examiner has confirmed that musician Prince died of an overdose on fentanyl, a powerful opioid. This high-profile case illustrates why governments must embrace naloxone: a safe and affordable medicine that prevents deadly opioid overdoses | Talking Drugs Blog, UK
Drugs should be moderated, not banned – the new ban will fuel hard drug use
Prohibition has not made drugs disappear. Demand for drugs is irrepressible: governments must focus instead on minimising their risks, as opposed to implementing legislation like the Psychoactive Substances Act | Independent Voices, UK
Trying to enforce our drug laws is like catching smoke
We can often mistake drug law reform as being a simplistic issue, one in which we base arguments on the rights and wrongs of ingesting a drug. There’s a linear logic: a harmful substance should be kept as ‘illegal’ because, by doing so, it creates a layer of protection to society | Justice Gap, UK
Europeans using more, stronger drugs
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction has just (31 May 2016) published its annual report on the state of drugs in Europe. This report is unique in bringing together an up-to-date and top-level overview of drug use, drug problems and drug markets, and integrating this situational analysis with information on drug policies and practice | Russell Webster, UK
Charging Paul Gascoigne with racial abuse for a joke is a wilful act of cruelty toward a struggling alcoholic
In what surreal madhouse is an offensive joke automatically conflated with a criminal offence? | Independent Voices, UK
How other primates self-medicate – and what they could teach us
Many species including chimpanzees make use of the natural resources in their habitats to self-medicate and improve their own health. This behaviour, known as zoopharmacognosy, typically involves ingestion or topical application of plants, soils, insects or even psychoactive drugs in order to treat and prevent diseases | Conversation, UK
Refreshing perspectives: peer research with people who have multiple needs
New research from Revolving Doors sheds light on the practicalities, ethics and opportunities presented by peer research | Homeless Link Blog, UK
Prince’s death from fentanyl is only the tip of the global overdose iceberg
A United States medical examiner has reported that musician Prince diedfrom an overdose of fentanyl, a powerful pain killer and synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than morphine | Conversation, USA
The Medical Report Shows Fentanyl—And That Media Narratives Around Prince’s Death Are Deadly
The medical examiner’s report released yesterday said that Prince died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl. Prince was unlikely to have been prescribed fentanyl, a very powerful synthetic opioid originally created for palliative care (an investigation into how he obtained it is ongoing) | The influence Opinion, USA
Are opioids the next antidepressant?
One of the most painful experiences of being a psychiatrist is having a patient for whom none of the available therapies or medications work | NY Times Opinion, USA
Legalizing marijuana is a hazy question once you've seen addiction up close
I've spilt more than you’ve smoked,” my brother-in-law, let’s call him Marty, bragged to my husband in the throes of his addiction | LA Times, Opinion, USA
Op-Ed: How to treat a drug-addicted doctor
It wasn’t until the state police and the DEA were sitting in my primary care office that I finally stopped denying that I was hopelessly addicted to prescription opiates. The DEA agent said, “Doc, cut the crap, we know you’ve been writing bad scrips.” The windows in my office didn’t open, otherwise I might have jumped out and fled. As it was, I was charged with three felony counts of fraudulent prescribing | LATimes Opinion, USA
Fiona Patten: Why the back-pedalling on medical marijuana?
I think I am the only member of parliament in Australia to acknowledge my recreational use of cannabis. In fact, I have enjoyed the many blessings that cannabis can bestow for a lot of my adult life and have not lost my mind or become a serial killer | Age comment, Australia