Weekly news - 14th August 2015 |
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In date order, Monday - Friday
DrugScope legacy site now live
Until March 2015, when we went into liquidation, DrugScope was the national ‘voice’ for the drug and alcohol sector and the UK’s leading independent centre of expertise on drugs and drug use. Despite our demise, we decided to develop a DrugScope legacy website to preserve the many reports and consultation documents published by DrugScope over its lifetime. In addition, the plan is to try and keep the, always popular, drug information sections up to date. We are grateful to SureScreen Diagnostics for supporting the launch of the new site, but we need help to keep it going. If you are interested in sponsoring or advertising on the site, or if you have any comments, please contact me at harryshapiro67@gmail.com or Jackie on Jackie@dsdaily.org.uk | Harry Shapiro, UK
National Assembly for Wales Health and Social Care Committee Alcohol and substance misuse (PDF)
During the course of our inquiry, we learned that patterns of alcohol consumption are changing, that increasing numbers of people are damaging their health through excessive drinking, and that there has been an associated rise in the prevalence of alcohol-related conditions. Although the purpose of the inquiry was to look at both drugs and alcohol, the vast majority of evidence concentrated on alcohol misuse | National Assembly Wales, UK
Alcohol brief interventions seem bargain for England
Implications of this simulation study for England are that health planners would be irrational not to get GP practices to screen every adult patient for hazardous drinking the next time they visit - but how solidly founded are the assumptions built in to the calculations? | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Jordan Blackburn issues photo of himself in induced coma to show dangers of legal highs
The 20-year-old had been hospitalised after taking legal highs at Kendal Calling – friend Christian Pay died | Independent, UK
Smoking in vehicles
Update on new law on smoking in cars and other vehicles with someone under 18 | DoH, UK
Motorists alerted over upcoming ban on smoking in cars to prevent surge in fines
Department of Health steps up publicity campaign seven weeks before smoking cigarettes in vehicles carrying under-18s is outlawed | Guardian, UK
Partner survey: New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) Resource Pack
The following survey about the NPS Resource Pack will help the Home Office evaluate its effectiveness and improve any future resources. Thank you for taking the time to respond, the survey should take no more than two minutes of your time | PHE, UK
NCA Intelligence Assessment: County Lines, Gangs, and Safeguarding
The Gang and Youth Violence team within the Home Office identified a growing body of intelligence, emerging in particular from London and the South East, that vulnerable young people are being exploited in order to facilitate the running of street level drug dealing within county lines. The purpose of this report is to present a baseline national assessment of the ‘County Lines’ criminal business model and raise awareness of the issue to front line practitioners. Press release | NCA, UK
City drug gangs are muscling into rural and coastal towns, says report
More than 180 gangs are dealing heroin and crack cocaine by telephone, often using children and vulnerable adults to deliver drugs and avoid police | Guardian, UK
Stopping smoking by using other sources of nicotine
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is calling for public confusion over nicotine to be addressed as a way of encouraging smokers to use safer forms of the substance. Tobacco contains nicotine along with many other chemicals, but nicotine by itself is fairly harmless | RSPH, UK
Promote e-cigarettes over harmful tobacco smoking, say experts
Royal Society for Public Health says health bosses should encourage people to quit tobacco for nicotine-only e-cigarettes and proposes licensing tobacco sellers | Guardian, UK
Mums have stricter views on drinking in pregnancy than the current guidance
New research from Drinkaware reveals that most new and expectant mums have stricter views on drinking in pregnancy than the current Government guidelines | DrinkAware, UK
Drug triples post-detox alcohol abstinence rate
From Germany the first trial to rigorously test high doses of the muscle relaxant baclofen for the treatment of dependent drinking found post-detoxification drinking reductions of a magnitude rarely seen | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Adfam Policy Briefing August 2015
Adfam's latest monthly update with the latest comment, reports, resources, policy and parliamentary news on families, drugs and alcohol | Adfam, UK
Stillbirths down since smoking ban, researchers say - video
Stillbirths have dropped by almost 8% since the introduction of the smoking ban, according to new research | BBC, UK
Prevention Update
Highlighting articles recently published on the Prevention Hub | Mentor, UK