Daily news - 7th May 2019 |
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UK news
Guidance: Misuse of illicit drugs and medicines: applying All Our Health
Evidence and guidance to help health professionals identify, prevent or reduce drug-related harm | PHE, UK
Case study: Making substance misuse and mental health support more inclusive
How a service for young people in North Yorkshire works with other agencies to focus on all their emotional wellbeing, substance misuse and mental health needs | PHE, UK
Case study: Mental health and substance misuse: joined-up services
How joining up mental health, alcohol and drug misuse services in a Derby hospital provided better support for people with addiction and mental health problems | PHE, UK
Guidance: NDTMS: accreditation for software suppliers
Updated software supplier accreditation details | PHE, UK
Adverse childhood experiences and mental health are drivers of drug use, MPs told
Ahead of its first evidence session on drugs in Scotland, the Scottish Affairs Committee publishes written evidence from organisations such as NHS Health Scotland, Turning Point Scotland and the Glasgow City Alcohol and Drug Partnership, which highlights the drivers of problem drug use | Parliament.uk, UK
Mental illness and trauma blamed for rising drug deaths
High levels of drug misuse in Scotland have been linked to mental illness or childhood trauma, MPs investigating the problem have been told | BBC, UK
Older drug users on the rise, according to new analysis
Legacy of the drugs epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s partly to blame | i news, UK
Devolve drugs powers to Holyrood to save lives, MPs urged
Devolving drugs legislation to Holyrood would allow Scotland to tackle a rapidly developing set of challenges which has led to the highest rate of substance-related deaths in western Europe, it has been claimed | Scotsman, UK
Leading pathologist reports from frontline of Scotland’s drug wars as experts warn last year’s toll may have climbed over 1,200
With every day and every body, Marjorie Turner sees the human cost of Scotland’s escalating drugs crisis | Sunday Post, UK
Call for drug addicts to be given free bus passes
Giving people with drug addictions free bus passes would encourage them to undergo treatment, it has been claimed | Scotsman, UK
Prison officers who smuggle drugs targeted by new corruption unit
Counter-corruption teams set up to ‘stamp out criminality’ in prisons in England and Wales | Guardian, UK
Black people ‘40 times more likely’ to be stopped and searched in UK
Campaigners say controversial new powers are doing untold damage to communities’ trust | Guardian, UK
Opiate Addiction
To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made regarding the level of opiate addiction | They work for you, UK
Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the merits of the industry campaign One Too Many to educate passengers about the dangers of disruptive behaviour at airports | They work for you, UK
Submissions open for sixth Recovery Street Film Festival
This year’s competition theme ‘My Recovery Connections’ is encouraging people to look at how the individuals and communities around them supported their recovery journey. The organisers hope that this year amateur film makers will use their storytelling to help others see the world through their eyes, or even learn from their experiences | RSFF, UK
'Vicky saved my life' - Meet the woman who has helped HUNDREDS of Stoke-on-Trent addicts beat drink and drugs
Vicky Lomas of Stoke Recovery Service has been nominated for an Our Heroes award | Stoke Sentinel, UK
Brave dad battling brain tumour 'forced to break law or die' by taking cannabis oil
The 33-year-old says he plans to grow the drug in order to tackle the debilitating seizures he suffers from | Birmingham Mail, UK
CBD: a marijuana miracle or just another health fad?
The cannabis-derived compound is popping up in everything from mineral water to bath bombs. We ask experts and users if it actually works | Guardian, UK
Could cannabis be the UK’s next billion-dollar industry?
It might come as a surprise to many UK citizens to hear that the UK is already established as global player in the burgeoning legal cannabis market | Financial Director, UK
Carlisle son recruited father to deal heroin
A father and son have been jailed for dealing drugs in and out of prison | BBC, UK
'Family drugs gang' granny Angela Collingbourne jailed
A grandmother has been jailed for six years after becoming "second in command" to a drugs gang headed by her two sons | BBC, UK
Birmingham teen trafficked boy to sell drugs in Llanelli
A teenager who recruited a vulnerable boy to sell drugs by rewarding him with cannabis has been jailed | BBC, UK
Tairu Jallow: Four guilty of manslaughter of Kettering drug dealer
Four men have been found guilty of manslaughter after a cannabis dealer was stabbed to death in a "carefully planned and violent raid" | BBC, UK
International news
German arrests as police attack dark web drugs market
Police in western Germany have arrested three men suspected of running the world's second-largest dark net marketplace for illegal drugs, stolen data and malicious software | BBC, UK
You don’t actually like the taste of coffee and booze – this study proves it
It’s more about how they make you feel | Indy, UK
'It makes me enjoy playing with the kids': is microdosing mushrooms going mainstream?
Before the school run, or commuting to work, increasing numbers are taking tiny doses of psychedelic drugs in the UK. Why? | Guardian, UK
Pill testing: head of NSW inquiry into amphetamine use visits ACT trial
Commissioner Dan Howard attends Groovin the Moo trial despite Berejiklian government opposing the policy | Guardian, UK
Simon Harris says Ireland may own its own medicinal cannabis supply in the future
The legislation to underpin the medicinal cannabis scheme is due to be signed off on in the coming weeks | Journal, Ireland
Allowing Pharmacists to Directly Dispense Opioid Antidote Can Sharply Cut Opioid Overdose Deaths
Allowing pharmacists to dispense the opioid antidote naloxone without a physician's prescription can sharply reduce the incidence of fatal opioid-related overdoses, according to a new RAND Corporation study | RAND, USA
Study examines private insurance claims for naloxone prescriptions
A study based on a national database of private insurance claims suggests few patients at high risk of opioid overdose receive prescriptions for naloxone | EurekAlert, USA
Research on Reddit identifies opioid addiction self-treatment risks
Using advanced machine-learning techniques, Georgia Tech researchers have examined nearly 1.5 million Reddit posts to identify risks associated with several of the most common alternative - and unproven - "treatments" for opioid addiction | EurekAlert, USA
E-cigarettes used in 5 percent of U.S. homes with kids
As e-cigarettes gain fans, children may be losing out. New research suggests that vaping parents expose children to secondhand fumes that may be as harmful as tobacco smoke | Medical Xpress, USA
China Cashes in on the Cannabis Boom
China has made your iPhone, your Nikes and, chances are, the lights on your Christmas tree. Now, it wants to grow your cannabis | NYTimes, USA
Ancient hallucinogens found in 1,000-year-old shamanic pouch
The ritual container, made of three fox snouts, contains the earliest known evidence of ayahuasca preparation | National Geographic, USA
National Cannabis Survey, first quarter 2019
About 5.3 million or 18% of Canadians aged 15 years and older reported using cannabis in the last three months. This was higher than the 14% who reported using just one year earlier, before legalization | Statistics Canada, Canada
Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use
The Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (CCENDU) is a nation-wide CCENDUnetwork of community partners that informs Canadians about emerging drug use trends and associated issues | CCSA, Canada
Weed Is Legal But Its Dank Smell Is Still Under Attack
From condo developments to large legal grows, there’s a big push to eliminate the smell of weed in public | VICE, Canada
Healthy Harold Is Still Kicking, But Drug Experts Say He Needs To Go Harder
Here’s what the masterminds behind Healthy Harold want you to know: the world is changing, and Life Education Australia (LEA) is changing with it. That might please addiction experts, who have serious concerns the nation’s most popular drug education service doesn’t reach modern kids as effectively as it should | Pedestrian, Australia
New Zealanders to make the decision in cannabis referendum
The Government has announced details of how New Zealanders will choose whether or not to legalise and regulate cannabis, said Justice Minister Andrew Little | Beehive.govt.nz, New Zealand
Fighting the demon: Inside New Zealand's meth crsis
After failing to fix its 20-year methamphetamine crisis, New Zealand is gripped by the second wave of a devastating epidemic. The Herald spent six months with users, recovering addicts and those trying to save them. The documentary Fighting The Demon takes you inside their world | NZ Herald, New Zealand
Government recommends smokers dump the cigarettes and pick up the vape
Vaping is about to become a Government-recommended way for smokers to quit cigarettes | Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand
Blogs, comment and opinion
Radical new approach needed to get Scots drug users into recovery instead of court and prison
Andrew Horne, Director of Addaction in Scotland, gives his thoughts on how we can tackle Scotland's drug deaths | Daily Record, UK
Here's why moderate drinking is probably not good for you
People who drink one to two standard drinks a day are the healthiest overall. But moderate drinking isn’t an isolated behaviour | Guardian opinion, UK
My elderly wife's drinking is destroying our marriage
We are both 78 and every night she drinks quarter of a bottle of spirits. She says it calms her down, but instead it makes her aggressive and we end up rowing | Guardian, UK
FDA's best health move this year: Approving a new tobacco product
After two years of consideration, the FDA is finally allowing tobacco company Altria to begin selling IQOS, a product manufactured by its sister company Philip Morris International | Washington Examiner opinion, USA
What you will – and won’t – be voting for in next year’s cannabis referendum
The details for the 2021 referendum on legalising personal cannabis use have been published. What will the question be? Will there be legislation and can the government elected in 2020 change it? And are cannabis cafes on the horizon? | The Spinoff, New Zealand