Daily news - 9th December 2020 |
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UK news
Statistics on Smoking, England 2020
There were 74,600 deaths attributable to smoking. Decrease of 3% from 2018 (77,000) and 9% from 2009 (82,000) | NHS Digital, UK
Statistics on Smoking 2020: Data tables
Contains tables for smoking-related hospital admissions, smoking-related deaths, prescriptions to help people quit smoking and tobacco affordability and expenditure on tobacco | NHS Digital, UK
Deaths of despair: cause-specific mortality and socioeconomic inequalities in cause-specific mortality among young men in Scotland
Increasing mortality among men from drugs, alcohol and suicides is a growing public health concern in many countries. Collectively known as “deaths of despair”, they are seen to stem from unprecedented economic pressures and a breakdown in social support structures | International Journal for Equity in Health, UK
Trains need temporary booze ban during Christmas travel period, says former WHO advisor
[Limited number of free articles per week] Prof Paul Hunter said drunk passengers were more likely to break distancing rules and speak loudly, increasing risk for people around them | Telegraph, UK
Take Drugs Seriously Webinars
To take us through the last few weeks of 2020, we’ve put together a series of webinars focusing on what you need to know about cocaine, MDMA, cannabis and benzos | CREW, UK
Recovery Cymru Celebrates 10 Years of Leading Peer Led Support with Prestigious Event (MS Mark Drakeford Guest Speaking)- email link
People can register by emailing info@recoverycymru.org.uk and they ill be sent a zoom link. Minister For Wales Mark Drakeford, Government Recovery Champion Dr.Edward Day and the Principal Investigator on a European project for recovery models David Best PhD, will be guest speaking alongside Recovery Cymru’s founder and director, Sarah Vaile as they celebrate their 10th year in peer led support, and focus on the future of recovery as they adapt to a world with and post COVID-19 | Recovery Cymru, UK
Consider the Dealer: Supplying Drugs And Harm Reduction In The UK
As an “Old Timer” in the field, I remember the seismic shift that followed the emergence of “legal highs” with their focus on chemistry and technology | Talking Drugs, UK
Cocaine worth £15k found by South Shields meter workman
A workman found £15,000 worth of cocaine inside a house while installing an electricity meter, police have said | BBC, UK
Penzance overdose victim 'hidden in improvised body bag'
A drug dealer injected his girlfriend with a cocktail of heroin and cocaine and then hid her body after she died of an overdose, a court has heard | BBC, UK
International news
Gandhi tries to get colonial Britain to ban opium in India – archive, 1926
9 December 1926: Addiction, particularly among the poor, has become a serious problem | Guardian archive, UK
Ireland and Spain: Is Cannabis Reform on the 2021 Horizon? free event
Thu, 17 December 2020. 16:00 – 18:00 GMT. The European Cannabis Advocacy Network launches our first public event, featuring speakers from Spain & Ireland | ECAN, UK
Justice Programme Drugs Policy Initiatives Call for proposals 2020
The aim of this call is to contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU law and to support development of new approaches in the area of drugs, to support initiatives in the field of drugs policy as regards judicial cooperation and crime prevention aspects closely linked to the general objective of the Programme | European Commission, Belgium
WHO launches year-long campaign to help 100 million people quit tobacco
WHO today launches a year-long global campaign for World No Tobacco Day 2021 - “Commit to Quit." The new WHO Quit Challenge on WhatsApp and publication “More than 100 reasons to quit tobacco" are being released today to mark the start of the campaign | WHO, Switzerland
All-drug overdoses rising in children aged 0 to 10, 11 to 14
From April 2016 through September 2019, suspected all-drug overdoses increased among those aged 0 to 10 and 11 to 14 years, while there was a decrease seen in suspected heroin overdoses among youth aged 15 to 24 years, according to a study published online Dec. 7 in Pediatrics | Medical Xpress, USA
Tagging vaping-related influencer Instagram posts is effective to discourage young people
Social media influencers vaping glamorously into their social media feeds are often not doing so for free. And new research suggests that calling out their pay-to-play posts as advertisements in a plain, obvious way might have an impact on young people | News Medical, USA
What can wastewater teach us about substance use? Measuring alcohol, nicotine and caffeine consumption on a college campus
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have sought to better understand how the virus has spread and which communities might be particularly at risk | BASIS, USA
Rowan researcher explores new medications targeting addiction
More than 2 million Americans older than 12 abused cocaine and more than 11 million abused opioids in 2017, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. This growing epidemic carries devastating consequences, but a Rowan researcher is exploring potential solutions | Rowan University, USA
Untangling the role of medical cannabis in surgical care
Medical cannabis was legalized in Colorado in 2000, but 20 years later, Camille Stewart, MD, isn't able to prescribe it to her patients. Nor is she able to dictate the dosage or frequency with which patients take the drug | News Medical, USA
Pandemic Is Making Overdoses Deadlier, Research Shows
Nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the first available research has finally measured what harm reductionists have known and feared since the beginning of the crisis—fatal overdose has spiked, significantly, nationwide | Filter Magazine, USA
N.J. bill to lessen jail time for ‘magic’ mushrooms moves forward
Lawmakers took a step Monday to reduce penalties for possession of magic mushrooms, a criminal justice reform move that also brings them closer to passing a bill to guide the marijuana industry in New Jersey | Nj.com, USA
70% in U.S. Support Expunging Marijuana Convictions After Vote to Decriminalize Weed: Poll
As momentum for the pro-cannabis movement continues to grow, a new poll found an overwhelming majority of Americans support wiping the slate clean for those with past drug arrests | Newsweek, USA
How court-ordered drug testing poses impossible choices
On a cold, rainy day in early 2019, Frank Cobb was working at a Google data center in Bridgeport, a small town in northeast Alabama, when his color was called. That meant he had to leave his job to take a drug test at a testing facility in Scottsboro, more than 25 miles away | PBS, USA
SHPA has released a practice update to support safe, immediate use of naloxone
The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia notes that the opioid toxicity antidote is now more readily available through the Australian Government’s Take home naloxone pilot program | AJP, Australia
S05, Ep9: Family Matters in the Context of BBVs - podcast
To coincide with the release of their ground-breaking new report, in this our second to last episode of SpeakEasy for 2020, Carla and Annie speak with the totally amazing Assoc. Profs Christy Newman and Myra Hamilton about their work on the 'my health, our family' project – an ambitious and important multi-year research project documenting stories of family life in the context of HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C | UNSW, Australia
Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill
This omnibus bill amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 to try to minimise drug and substance harm by allowing drug and substance checking services to operate legally in New Zealand | New Zealand Parliament, New Zealand
State of the Nation 2020: A stocktake of how New Zealand is dealing with the issue of drugs
Rates of harmful alcohol use remain of concern in New Zealand, and cannabis use is rising - but tobacco use is going down. Methamphetamine use remained relatively steady across the population as a whole last year, though huge increases in border seizures in 2019 were cause for concern. It's also noteworthy that waste-water testing showed a substantial increase in the quantity of MDMA consumed in New Zealand during 2019 | NZDF, New Zealand
Not enough drug treatment services available during pandemic, says Drug Foundation report
Some Kiwis are missing out on drug treatment thanks to a spike in Covid-19-fuelled demand, with one provider reporting a 300 per cent increase in referrals | NZ Herald, New Zealand
Blogs, comment and opinion
Residential rehabilitation in Scotland: what’s going on?
For a significant number of people in recovery, rehab has been part of their journey, yet the truth is that we know very little about residential rehabilitation in Scotland | Recovery Review blog, UK
Treatment in England: positive, interesting and alarming
Public Health England (PHE) recently published their summary of what’s going on in substance use disorder treatment in England over 2019-20. Despite the shared culture and proximity of Scotland and England, there’s been a significant divergence in drug and alcohol policy and treatment delivery over the years | Recovery Review blog, UK
The UK's gambling review has to be free of industry influence and political dithering
This review can learn from the mistakes of the past 15 years and help to prevent harm to people around the country | Guardian, UK
Craft Weed offers clear-eyed optimism on cannabis farming, regulation
In his 2018 book Craft Weed: Family Farming and the Future of the Marijuana Industry, Ryan Stoa, visiting professor at Louisiana’s Southern University Law Center, aims to put cannabis agriculture at center-stage in the legalization movement | Points blog, USA
Opioids killed my sister. How many more have to die this way in Saskatchewan?
Rachel was a quiet, blonde computer-science major. She liked video games, anything to do with technology, late night breakfasts and spontaneous road trips. To many, she was the introverted, bright-eyed blonde in their class, eager to hit the computer labs or the yearbook room | CBC News, Canada
Nationals against drug reform are out of step with rural communities
Recent statements to the Sydney media by National Party MPs opposing a policy for modest drug law reform are political posturing and do not reflect community sentiment in their own electorates | SMH, Australia