Daily news - 7th December 2020 |
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UK news
Commissioner for Public Appointments’ decision notice: public body appointments process for Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, administered by Home Office (PDF)
The Public Appointments Order in Council (OIC) November 2019 states that the Commissioner for Public Appointments ‘may conduct an enquiry into the procedures and practices followed by an appointing authority in relation to any public appointment whether in response to a complaint or otherwise | Commissioner for Public Appointments, UK
Essays on alcohol-related harm and interventions
See five essays about alcohol-related harm and alcohol interventions from Drug and Alcohol Findings. These explain the background and evidence around topics that sometimes prompt heated debate, and are a popular way to get up to speed on the issues which matter in alcohol policy and practice | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
An unholy triangle? Evidence, politics and uncertainty in drug policy
Professor Nutt’s talk explores the contributions of politics and science to decision making about alcohol and other drugs. Professor Nutt reveals how evidential uncertainties are used to strengthen the political rhetoric and how this process has led to the denial of clinical research and utility to the great detriment of millions of people for many decades | Drug Science, UK
Clause 1 - Testing prisoners for psychoactive substances and other substances
Clause 1 allows Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service to test prisoners for all psychoactive substances, including any new compounds that emerge. It also allows prisoners to be tested for any controlled drug, pharmacy medicine and prescription-only medicine | They work for you, UK
Impact of Coronavirus on Drug Purchases Survey
The purpose of this survey is to monitor changes in the UK’s drug supply – and how people buy their drugs – that may arise following lockdown restrictions because of coronavirus, and moving forward, as lockdown lifts across most of UK. Even if you have filled this survey in before, we’d like to encourage you to fill it in again! | Release, UK
GM TRENDS - Key respondents survey
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has commissioned Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) to undertake research to monitor emerging substance use trends. This survey aims to gather up-to-date information on changing substance use trends in Greater Manchester | MMU, UK
Covid: Can people from Wales go for a drink in England?
It's the run up to a Christmas like no other and we are all trying to figure out what we can and cannot do to get ready, while keeping others safe | BBC, UK
Covid: Welsh Government pulls Christmas drinks TV advert
Drinks producers are calling on the Welsh Government to reverse a decision to pull a Christmas television advertising campaign for the industry | BBC, UK
‘It’s agony staying home’: Despair as Wales stops serving alcohol and shuts restaurants at 6pm
The Christmas run-up in Wales will be pintless – and publicans have been left feeling disappointed | Independent, UK
Wales alcohol restrictions: Temperance's long history
Pubs banned from serving alcohol! Pubs closing at 6pm! We're in the '20s - is this prohibition mark II 100 years on? | BBC, UK
First commercially printed Christmas card up for sale
177-year-old card believed to have gone on sale same year Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was published | Guardian, UK
Erlestoke Prison guard: Drug smuggler has jail term increased
A former prison guard who tried to smuggle crack cocaine into prison in her underwear has had her jail term increased by the Court of Appeal | BBC, UK
London Gateway: £100m cocaine stash hidden in banana pulp
Cocaine with an estimated value of £100m has been found in a banana pulp shipment, the Home Office has said | BBC, UK
International news
Why Europe's big cannabis route is so hard to shut
Now we're on their turf," says one of the three Greek drug enforcement officers, walking, guns at the ready and bloated in their bulletproof vests | BBC, UK
US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to decriminalise cannabis at the national level for the first time | BBC, UK
Binge drinking odds increase by a fifth for each week of lockdown, study suggests
[Limited number of free articles per week] The odds of increased alcohol intake for binge drinkers rose by 60 per cent in lockdown | Telegraph, UK
Darknet Drug Dealers Are Now Selling ‘Pfizer COVID Vaccines’
When we asked for proof, one replied with a stock image of a vial labelled “Coronavirus Vaccine” | VICE, UK
Why the NSW proposal to 'depenalise' drug possession has prompted such a vicious backlash
Government’s plan has been floated as a compromise to help placate reform advocates while keeping conservatives in check but it faces staunch opposition | Guardian, UK
Murder in Mexico: journalists caught in the crosshairs
The 2012 killing of Regina Martínez, who was investigating links between organised crime and politics, began a wave of violence in the most dangerous country to be a reporter | Guardian, UK
US: House Votes to End Marijuana Prohibition
The passage of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act) in the House of Representatives on December 4, 2020, is a landmark step toward a rights-respecting criminal legal system in the United States, while furthering racial justice, Human Rights Watch said today. The Senate should move swiftly to follow suit, and President-elect Joe Biden should commit to signing the bill into law | Human Rights Watch, USA
Engel Releases Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Report
“Billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have been spent on counternarcotics efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean, but the results have been few and far between,” said Chairman Engel. “The Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission’s report is a breath of fresh air, and I hope it will serve as a blueprint for the Biden-Harris Administration and the next Congress as they work to set our counternarcotics policies on a far better path.” | US House of Representatives, Foriegn Affairs, USA
Drinking blocks a chemical that promotes attention
In a new paper, researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) report brain chemistry that may contribute to why drinkers have difficulty paying attention while under the influence | Science Daily, USA
Patients with heart rhythm disorder warned against heavy alcohol consumption
Fourteen drinks a week is linked with a higher risk of health problems including stroke and embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation, according to research published in EP Europace, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology | Science Daily, USA
Leaked FBI Report: Drug Sellers Practice Harm Reduction
The recognition that people who sell drugs can play a crucial role in reducing the harms caused by drug criminalization is not limited to reformers, syringe service workers and researchers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also aware—although the evidence of this comes from a leaked intelligence report, rather than any public FBI acknowledgment | Filter Magazine, USA
The New Face of Drug Addiction in Afghanistan
The high number of opium-addicted Afghan women and children is a dramatic consequence of the war in that country. It painfully illustrates how foreign intervention has doomed generations of children to a miserable life | Counter Punch, USA
Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction
This monthly newsletter shares the latest news and updates from the UNSW | UNSW, Australia
Pharmacies accused of over-charging patients for medicinal cannabis
More and more people are turning to medicinal cannabis products, such as CBD oil for their ailments. But many are finding it unaffordable and sometimes that’s because of large mark-ups pharmacies are charging | Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand
Blogs, comment and opinion
Is a Scotch egg a meal? I investigated more than 300 council rulings to find out
England’s regional COVID restrictions pose a Scotch-egg shaped conundrum: where is the dividing line between a “table meal” and a mere snack? | Conversation, UK
Race and alcohol addiction treatment services
Black and Asian Cultural Identification of Narcotics (BAC-IN) is a Nottingham based, peer-led, abstinence-focused drug and alcohol recovery support service for individuals, families and young adults from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. We are an award winning, grassroots community service inspired and founded in 2003 by BAME individuals in recovery | AHA UK blog, UK
Humans have used drugs with sex for millennia – the reasons are much broader than you think
On their own, sex and drugs are cultural taboos. Combining them only adds to our reluctance to talk about them. But understanding how sex and drugs are connected isn’t something we should shy away from or perceive as deviant | Conversation, UK
The plight of pubs now facing last orders
Readers on the challenges faced by publicans, restarting businesses, the need for more support in Wales and the importance of Scotch eggs | Guardian, UK
We will save lives in regional Australia by treating drug use as a health issue, not a criminal one
Too many people who use drugs are made to live in the shadows and don’t seek help because of our current drug laws | Guardian, UK
The Pandemic Is Making Our Deadly Drug Policy Even More Lethal
As one of the worst health crises in a century intersects with sustained uprisings for racial justice, the United States is at a perilous crossroads—and it’s easy to be distracted by superficial solutions rather than digging deeper to address the underlying issues that created these conditions | Self.com, USA
'There is no stereotype': I became an ice addict at the age of 63
I have been the chief executive of several companies and before that was a general manager of the NSW Legal Aid Commission. I am blessed with good health, a loving wife, successful children and staggeringly beautiful grandchildren. And for a short time, from the age of 63, I was an ice addict | SMH opinion, Australia