Daily news - 11th December 2017 |
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UK news
Tramadol: UK and Ireland DrugWatch Information Sheet
Tramadol is a centrally acting analgesic structurally related to codeine. It has multiple actions: after entering the body it breaks down (metabolises) mainly into O-desmethyltramadol which acts on opioid receptors and also affects levels of serotonin and noradrenaline. It is approximately as potent as codeine and used to treat both acute and chronic pain | DrugWatch, UK
Open consultation: Pregabalin and gabapentin: proposal to schedule under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001
This consultation seeks views on options whether, and how, to schedule pregabalin and gabapentin under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 following the recommendation by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) that these 2 drugs should be controlled as Class C drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (‘the 1971 Act’) and placed in Schedule 3 to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 | Home Office, UK
Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England: Consultation
NHS Digital is undertaking this consultation to find out if there are any improvements that can be made to the SDD survey and to support the design of future surveys | NHS Digital, UK
No clear role for medications in the treatment of less dependent drinkers
In 2013 nalmefene was authorised for moderating drinking among patients not in need of detoxification. Though uniquely authorised for this purpose, this review found other (and probably cheaper) drugs have been just as or possibly more effective, but for none was there high quality evidence, and for some substantial safety concerns | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Plymouth Pryzm nightclub deaths: Tributes paid to teenagers
Tributes have been paid to two 19-year-old men who died after apparently taking drugs at a nightclub | BBC, UK
Statistics on Women's Smoking Status at Time of Delivery: England Quarter 2, July 2017 to October 2017
Results and trends from the women's smoking status at time of delivery (SATOD) data collection in England | NHS Digital, UK
Drug safety YouTubers face a quiet crisis at the mercy of algorithms
Changes to YouTube's algorithms are affecting advertising revenue and view counts on drug harm reduction videos. In an area where official advice can be hard to find, the move is having unintended consequences | WIRED, UK
Alcohol Subsidy: Parliamentary Estate
What estimate the Commission has made of the level of financial subsidy on sales of alcohol on the parliamentary estate in each of the last three years | They work for you, UK
Editor's ChoiceDrugs: Education, Prevention & Policy
In celebration of the 25th Anniversary Volume, please enjoy free access to this Editor's Choice of the 2017 articles that best reflect different cultural, historical and theoretical approaches to the understanding of the drug and alcohol field and the development of policy and practice | Taylor Francis, UK
Events & dates 2017/2018 & Alcohol Research UK Research Innovation Grants programme
On 12 December 2017 an event 'Tackling alcohol and addictions through applied health research' is hosted by King's College London and NIHR CLAHRC South London | Alcohol Policy UK, UK
Teachers call for ban on energy drinks in schools
One of the UK's largest teaching unions is calling for schools to ban energy drinks from their premises | BBC, UK
An alcoholic tells us how he navigates Christmas parties
There’s no doubt about it: Christmas and booze go hand in hand | Metro, UK
Ho ho hold back … why you should go easy on the festive cheer this year
Christmas without a drink is a more or less unthinkable, but excess is a real danger. So how much alcohol is safe? And can it ever be good for you? | Guardian, UK
Rugby alcohol violence: 'No rise' in stadium ejections
The number of people ejected from the Principality Stadium did not rise during autumn internationals despite publicised incidents of bad behaviour, the Welsh Rugby Union has said | BBC, UK
Grooming gangs of Muslim men failed to integrate into British society
The failure of certain parts of the Asian community to integrate into British society has led to gangs of British Pakistani Muslim men targeting white women with drink and drugs before raping and sexually abusing them, an anti-extremism think tank claims | Telegraph, UK
Mohammed Abdallah: How an unemployed Manchester cannabis dealer became an Isis sniper in Syria
Abdallah was part of the same jihadi network that spawned Manchester bomber Salman Abedi | Independent, UK
International news
Massive cannabis cargo seized at sea - video
Tonnes of cannabis was found on a boat travelling between Cyprus and Malta | BBC, UK
Increasing Prescription Opioid and Heroin Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999–2014: An Age–Period–Cohort Analysis
To assess cohort effects in prescription opioid and heroin overdose mortality in the United States | AJPH, UK
Lil Peep cause of death revealed by coroner
The rapper overdosed on fentanyl and Xanax | Independent, UK
Death by disdain: the fate of drug users in Russian-occupied territories
With replacement therapy now illegal, drug users in Russian-occupied Crimea and the self-proclaimed republics of the Donbas are finding it hard to survive | Open Democracy, USA
How Uruguay made legal highs work
The South American country’s move to full legalisation of cannabis has so far proved a success, especially for its 17,391 users | Guardian, UK
Dying to get clean: is ibogaine the answer to heroin addiction?
Ibogaine is a drug harvested from the roots of a plant found in Gabon. When all else fails, some heroin addicts have used it to conquer their cravings. But is it effective and are the serious risks it carries worth it? | Guardian, UK
Peru captain Paolo Guerrero out of World Cup after testing positive for cocaine
Guerrero tested positive for "cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine," a banned stimulant, after a World Cup qualifying game in Argentina in October | Independent, UK
Arrest of Rio drug kingpin brings fear of power grab – and further violence
Rogério da Silva was caught in an operation involving 3,000 troops and police but residents of Rocinha, the favela he sought to control, remain on edge | Guardian, UK
Breath test could be possible for drugs and disease
Testing for drug use and disease in humans could soon be much simpler, thanks to new Swedish research | EurekAlert, USA
Expert discusses how the opioid epidemic spreads
The sale of prescription opioids has risen sharply since 1999, and the number of fatal drug overdoses attributed to the drugs has more than quadrupled. We asked Yale SOM's Marissa King, an expert in social networks who has studied the spread of drug addiction, what is driving the crisis and how it can be addressed | Medical Xpress, USA
From High School Dean To Opioid Addict: 'It Can Get Pretty Dark Before Anybody Notices'
Nicholas deSpoelberch had what looked from the outside to be a perfect life. He was the Dean of Students at a prestigious Manhattan high school, commuting in from his house in Darien, Connecticut, where he lived with his wife and infant child. Then one day a cop found him unconscious in his car, overdosed on heroin | Forbes, USA
Trust in E-cigarette safety varies by worldview, source of messaging
Public health messaging about the safety of e-cigarettes needs to account for the worldviews of the target audience, with different groups displaying varying levels of trust depending on the source of the message, according to a recent study by the School of Public Health at Georgia State University | Medical Xpress, USA
Brain scans may reveal most effective anti-drug messages
What if you could look into the brains of potential drug abusers and see what messages would be most likely to persuade them to "just say no?" | EurekAlert, USA
We can no longer divide the world between beer and wine drinkers, economists say
Though beer predates the modern nation-state by several millennia, its production and distribution has long been tied to political power and influence—from the medieval role of monasteries to the crucial role of taxation of commercial brewing in funding British imperialist conquests | Quartz, USA
Supplements Claiming to Ease Opioid Addiction Come Under Scrutiny
Chris Beekman, whose company sells the dietary supplement Opiate Detox Pro, does not understand what all the fuss is about. “If it works, it works,” Mr. Beekman, the owner of NutraCore Health Products, said in an interview | NYTimes, USA
Can Giving Ayahuasca to Prisoners Reduce Recidivism?
In 1953, long before shots of ayahuasca were paired with cacao elixirs at Burning Man Decompression parties, William Burroughs traveled around South America in search of the mystical beverage called yagé | Big Think, USA
California begins accepting permit applications for the sale of recreational marijuana
Just weeks before California begins issuing licenses to businesses to sell marijuana for recreational and medical use, the state on Friday began accepting applications electronically through a new online system | LATimes, USA
Alcohol-abuse drug Antabuse kills cancer cells
A new study in Nature by an international team including researchers from Karolinska Institutet, reports that the alcohol-abuse drug Antabuse is effective against cancer. The study also identifies a potential mechanism of action for the anti-tumour effect | Medical Xpress, USA
Figures show ACT has almost three times the rate of prisoners taking methadone
More than a quarter of ACT's prisoners are taking heroin and narcotic replacement methadone, almost three times the rate of other jurisdictions, amid calls for significant improvements of ACT's drug treatment programs | Canberra Times, Australia
Drug rehab centre plea from Broken Hill as it suffers with no facilities for hundreds of kilometres
For Broken Hill resident and Indigenous woman Julie Philp, getting her brother help with his addiction meant leaving him isolated and away from his family | ABC, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
Is Universal Credit a danger to people with substance misuse problems?
Universal Credit (UC) has been in the news continuously in recent months as parties debate the claimed benefits it brings and hardships it causes | CJA Blog, UK
Challenging Prohibition campaign launches
Today we are launching our Challenging Prohibition campaign to oppose vaping bans. Read on to find out why, and how you can help | NNA blog, UK
Giving young people an honest and balanced drug education is the best way to reduce harm [OPINION]
There is a lack of high-quality drug education in the UK. And if the government is serious about tackling substance abuse, it needs to focus on providing honest and balanced information on drugs | Canary, UK
Parliament’s palace of booze and sex seems bad, but it has been a lot worse
Modern Westminster might seem on the verge of moral and physical disaster. But to MPs of previous generations it would probably seem quite a sober place | Guardian opinion, UK
Portugal shows the way ahead on drugs policy
Yasmin Batliwala and Ian McCauley praise Portugal’s non-punitive approach to drug addiction | Guardian letters, UK
69 years later, we’re still arguing for the right to life
Alireza Madadpur, a young man with no criminal record from a poor family, was executed for drug offences in Iran last summer. Scraping to make ends meet, Alireza agreed to a cleaning job offered by an acquaintance. As he waited outside on his first day, police raided the house and found 990 grams of crystal meth. Although only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Alireza was arrested | Medium, USA
A tale of two drug wars
It seems compassion is an effective drug deterrent. Too bad there wasn't any during the crack epidemic | Pacific Standard, USA
Tobacco control policy should be based on science, not misconceptions
Despite hype to the contrary, science has nothing to do with tobacco-control policy. The goal of a “tobacco-free-society” that condemns all use of non-pharmaceutical nicotine products regardless of addictiveness or risk, considers the “tobacco industry” to be the enemy, and labels smoking a disease, is based on long-standing perceptions and beliefs within the tobacco-control community | The Hill opinion, USA