Daily news - 1st December 2021

UK news

Inclusion health monitoring system survey
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) is seeking views on a planned Inclusion Health Monitoring System. The survey should take 5-10 minutes to complete and close at 23:59pm on 17th December 2021. OHID’s Inclusion Health analytical team is working to improve monitoring of the health outcomes of inclusion health groups and as part of this, are proposing a publicly-available, interactive monitoring system. Inclusion health is a ‘catch-all’ term used to describe people who are socially excluded. People belonging to inclusion health groups are not consistently accounted for in electronic records which makes them effectively invisible for policy and service planning purposes. OHID want to address this inequity in health intelligence and enable providers of services to better meet the needs of these individuals. Please pass on the survey to people in your networks so that OHID hear from as many relevant stakeholders as possible.

Tobacco: preventing uptake, promoting quitting and treating dependence

This guideline covers support to stop smoking for everyone aged 12 and over, and help to reduce people's harm from smoking if they are not ready to stop in one go. It also covers ways to prevent children, young people and young adults aged 24 and under from taking up smoking | NICE, UK

Residential rehabilitation: Interim monitoring report on statutory funded residential rehabilitation placements

This is the first report on Residential Rehabilitation within the Monitoring and Evaluation Programme led by Public Health Scotland. The report presents information on the number of Alcohol and Drug Partnership statutory funded placements, with estimated costs, that were approved between 1st April 2021 and 30th September 2021 | Public Health Scotland, UK

Expanding access to Residential Rehabilitation in Scotland

More than £11 million has been awarded to two drugs projects to enable them to expand their residential rehabilitation service as part of a commitment to increase the number of beds in Scotland by 50% to 650 by 2026 | Scottish Government, UK

Pathways into, through and out of Residential Rehabilitation in Scotland: Results from the Residential Rehabilitation Providers Survey (PDF)

In 2019/20 and 2020/21, there were an approximate total of 1,601 and 1,164 individual placements, respectively, across the 20 residential rehabilitation providers in Scotland identified by previous Scottish Government Mapping and Capacity Reports | Scottish Government, UK

Assessing the impact of funding cuts to local housing services on drug and alcohol related mortality: a longitudinal study using area-level data in England

Since 2010 there have been large reductions in funding for local government services in England. This has led to reduced income to fund services, such as housing services, that potentially promote health. Housing services expenditure includes spending on housing advice services, homelessness relief and provision of temporary accommodation | International Journal of Housing Policy, UK

Children exposed to poverty and family adversities including domestic violence, parental mental ill health and parental alcohol misuse may experience poor outcomes across the life course. However, the complex interrelationships between these exposures in childhood are unclear. We therefore assessed the clustering of trajectories of household poverty and family adversities and their impacts on adolescent health outcomes | Lancet Regional Health, UK

No escape: How alcohol advertising preys on children and vulnerable people (PDF)

This report focuses on people’s experience of alcohol marketing. It explores what alcohol marketing is and where we come across it, what role it plays in contributing to alcohol harm and what can be done to reduce it | AHA, UK

NHS smoking cessation local delivery plan standard quarterly

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on NHS Stop Smoking Services in Scotland and their progress towards their Local Delivery Plan (LDP) Standard | Public Health Scotland, UK

Towards Zero: the HIV Action Plan for England - 2022 to 2025

The plan sets out how we will achieve an 80% reduction in new HIV infections in England by 2025 | DHSC, UK

Weston-super-Mare: Recovering drug addicts being trained to save lives

Recovering addicts are being trained in how to use medication which can save the lives of people who have overdosed. A group of volunteers are working with drug charity We Are With You in Weston-super-Mare | BBC, UK

Medical Cannabis Prescribing for GPs: in-person & live-streamed conference

Thu, 13 January 2022, 18:30 – 21:30 GMT. A one-off evening conference specifically targeted at UK-based GPs interested in learning more about medical cannabis prescribing | Drug Science, UK

Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund

The new Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund has been established with £15 million allocated to support mental health and wellbeing in communities across Scotland. The fund aims to support adult community-based initiatives to help address the impact of distress and mental ill health caused by social isolation and loneliness, as well as addressing the mental health inequalities exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic | TSI Scotland Network, UK

International news

Today is World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day takes place on 1 December each year. It’s an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day | National AIDS Trust, UK

IDPC progress report 2020-2021

"It is with great pleasure that I present this Progress Report in celebration of IDPC’s 15th anniversary.This report is structured around 15 critical lessons that we have learnt over the last 15 years and in parallel showcases highlights of our work in 2020-2021..." | IDPC, UK

Briton jailed in Dubai for possessing CBD vape oil has sentence reduced from 25 years to TEN - even though new laws in UAE mean he could have just been deported

It comes days after the UAE confirmed it would introduce new laws meaning foreigners found with drugs can be deported rather than jailed, provided it is their first offence | Mail Online, UK

New Zealand to enshrine protections for pill testing in ‘world first’

Advocates say the law, which will come into force next week, is the first to take drug checking out of a legal grey zone and protect the practice | Guardian, UK

Prickly present: dancing cactus toy that raps in Polish about cocaine goes viral

Walmart removes listing by third-party seller after Ontario woman discovers one of toy’s songs is about cocaine and hopelessness | Guardian, UK

EU4MD project advisory committee takes stock of results and outlines next steps

The EU4Monitoring Drugs project advisory committee held its third meeting today to take stock of results achieved to date and outline its next steps. The EU-funded project was launched in January 2019 for an initial period of three years and, following an extension of six months, will run until 30 June 2022 | EMCDDA, Portugal

Supervised Injection Sites for Drug Users to Open in New York City

[Limited number of free articles] The Manhattan facilities will provide clean needles, administer medication to reverse overdoses and provide users with options for addiction treatment | NYTimes, USA

The US Is Finally Getting a Safe Injection Site

The two sites will open in New York City and come as more than 100,000 Americans died in a one-year period due to fatal overdoses | VICE, USA

Sociodemographic Characteristics Associated With and Prevalence and Frequency of Cannabis Use Among Adults in the US

In this survey study including 387 157 US adults residing in 21 states conducted in 2016 through 2019, young, male, Black, and Native American individuals and individuals with low educational attainment and income were more likely to engage in higher frequency cannabis use | JAMA Network, USA

Opioid overdose: An opportune time to link individuals to treatment?

Active outreach to patients following an overdose might help to engage and retain individuals in treatment, which can ultimately help prevent further opioid-related overdose and fatality. The current study described initial outcomes of an assertive outreach method for opioid use disorder patients who had a recent nonfatal overdose, revealing its potential for enhancing treatment engagement and retention | Recovery Research Institute, USA

New Zealand Becomes First Country in the World To Fully Legalise Drug Checking

New legislation will allow people to test illicit substances at music festivals and beyond. Experts say it will save lives | VICE, USA

172 drug-related hospitalisations [per day] in Australia in 2019-20

There were 62,757 drug-related hospitalisations (172 per day) among Australians in 2019-20, equivalent to 0.56 per cent of all hospitalisations in Australia, a new report has found | NDARC, Australia

$50 million investment in support for HIV and blood borne viruses

The Australian Government is marking World AIDS Day by announcing over $50 million in new funding to extend access to HIV treatment in Australia | Department of Health, Australia

Blogs, comment and opinion

When It Comes to Drug Laws, Britain is a World Loser

Last week, Germany’s incoming government – a coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and the centre-right Free Democrat party – confirmed it plans to legalise the sale of recreational cannabis. With this decision, Germany is following the likes of Uruguay, Canada, Mexico, South Africa and a plethora of states in the US, which have made similar reforms since 2012 | Novaro Media, UK

The opioid crackdown leaves chronic pain patients in limbo

The opioid crisis, which began in the 1990s, is worse than ever. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for the 12 months ending in April 2021, there were over 100,000 overdose deaths, an increase of 28.5 percent over 2020 levels. Often lost in the understandable concern about these fatalities are millions of chronic pain patients who are unable to get adequate pain relief | The Hill opinion, USA

HOPP Interview—Mat Savelli, “Crafting the Modern Via Psychoactivity Advertisements”

In this article, we examine advertisements for psychoactive products sold in five different geo-political jurisdictions: Canada, Colombia, Yugoslavia, India, and Senegal. We compare products and marketing campaigns aimed at selling psychoactive substances to consumers in these places over the twentieth century | Points blog, USA

Touesnard, Sutherland and Richardson: Canada's new minister of mental health and addictions can end the overdose crisis. Here's how

A legal, regulated approach would divert costs from the criminal justice system. Those savings could be used for community health and harm reduction | Ottawa Citizen opinion, Canada

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