Daily news - 20th December 2021 |
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UK news
ACMD advice on consumer cannabidiol (CBD) products
Report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) on consumer cannabidiol (CBD) products. The ACMD was commissioned in January 2021 to advise the government on establishing a legal framework for consumer CBD products. To respond to this commission, the ACMD formed a Working Group who have reviewed the literature, consulted with industry and analytical laboratories, issued a public call for evidence and sought information regarding testing from the Government Chemist’s Team and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, amongst others | ACMD, UK
Activist 'cannot support Right to Rehab Bill' in Scotland amid split between drug reform groups
Drugs campaigner Peter Krykant has told Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross he cannot support the party’s “Right to Recovery” Bill | Daily Record, UK
Norwich: Drug spiking test kits hit bars and clubs in pilot
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital set up the project due to the rise in reports of people being drugged and experiencing disorientating symptoms | BBC, UK
An Encounter With the Other: A Thematic and Content Analysis of DMT Experiences From a Naturalistic Field Study
The present study provides a systematic and in-depth analysis of the nuanced content of the otherworldly encounter within the breakthrough DMT experience... | Frontiers in Psychology, UK
EncroChat: Kirkby men jailed after police crack secret drugs network
Two men who used an encrypted phone network to supply drugs across Merseyside have been jailed | BBC, UK
Liverpool-based Albanian gang jailed over £1m cannabis seizure
Seven members of an Albanian gang who were linked to the production of £1m worth of cannabis have been jailed | BBC, UK
Police seize drugs worth £1.25m from lorry at Larne port
Class A and Class B drugs were found in a lorry in the Larne Harbour shortly just after 19:00 GMT on Friday 17 December | BBC, UK
International news
San Francisco mayor declares neighborhood state of emergency amid overdose deaths
London Breed’s plan increases police presence in the Tenderloin district, a strategy that is at odds with the progressive city’s stance | Guardian, UK
‘Weaponization of medicine’: police use of ketamine draws scrutiny after Elijah McClain’s death
The sedative is used more often on Black people – and justified after the fact with questionable claims of ‘excited delirium’ | Guardian, UK
Limerick 'drugs supermarket' back in action half an hour after Garda raids, TD claims
A meeting of the Limerick joint policing committee also heard that the number of incidents relating to domestic violence issues are up | Irish Examiner, Ireland
New EMCDDA miniguide on responding to opioid-related deaths highlights approaches and evidence that can help save lives
Health and social responses to opioid-related deaths are explored in a new EMCDDA miniguide launched today. The resource is the ninth in a series of miniguides, making up the agency’s latest overview of actions and interventions to respond to the consequences of illicit drug use | EMCDDA, Portugal
It's official: recreational cannabis reform is now law
Legal notice published, following president's signature | Times of Malta, Malta
Cannabinoid medicines have enormous therapeutic potential but reliable studies still lacking
For more than twenty years now, international research into the endocannabinoid system in the human body has been seeking to understand the mode of action of cannabis and its constituents | News Medical, Austria
New Opioids Called Nitazenes May Be 20 Times Stronger Than Fentanyl
In areas throughout the United States, a highly potent new synthetic opioid is starting to show up on the streets and is having devastating effects on its users. A class of opioids called ‘nitazenes’ has recently been found in syringes examined by scientists throughout the country | Healthline, USA
N,N-Dimethylpentylone
N,N-Dimethylpentylone is classified as a novel stimulant and substituted cathinone. Substituted cathinones are modified based on the structure of cathinone, an alkaloid found in the Khat plant. Novel stimulants have been reported to cause psychoactive effects similar to amphetamines | CFSRE, NPS Discovery, USA
Addiction relapse driven by drug-seeking habit, not just drug
Why are some individuals able to use recreational drugs in a controlled way, whereas others switch to the compulsive, relapsing drug-seeking and -taking habits | Medical Xpress, USA
No more doubts: e-cigs are less toxic than traditional cigarettes
International Replica project network validated the conclusion of the most important studies on e-cigs. It also confirmed the lower toxicity of aerosol produced by electronic cigarettes in comparison to conventional ones | Newswire, USA
Study of recovery community organization participants over time shows peer-based recovery support activities are associated with modest improvement in recovery capital
This study represents the first large-scale study to systematically collect electronic data from a national sample of recovery community organizations and to examine whether service utilization is associated with potential improvement in recovery capital over time | Recovery Research Institute, USA
Initial evaluation of a peer recovery coach program in a large hospital system
Recovery coaches are typically individuals with “lived experience” of substance use disorder (SUD) recovery who have specialized training to help peers navigate the challenges of early recovery. In this initial evaluation of a peer recovery coach program in a large hospital system, researchers compared how individuals fared clinically in the 6 months before and after meeting with a recovery coach | Recovery Research Institute, USA
“If You Could Wave a Magic Wand”: Treatment Barriers in the Rural Midwest
[Open access] The goal of this study was to assess opioid use disorder treatment barriers in order to increase access to evidence-based treatment, wrap around services, and harm reduction efforts to support the reintegration of persons with substance use disorder back into society and subsequently reduce opioid fatalities in a rural, medically underserved region of Ohio | Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment, USA
How companies like Puff Bar have avoided FDA regulation: "The industry can innovate around it"
Nearly two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration banned flavored e-cigarettes, like Juul, citing their popularity among teens. But some vaping products have managed to avoid regulation by the FDA even as they grow increasingly popular among kids | CBS News, USA
A Look Inside NYC’s Supervised Drug-Injection Sites, The First In The Nation
At 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, the drop-in center at New York Harm Reduction Educators’ East Harlem site was bustling. A few people lingered at the back of the room, asking a staffer when it would be their turn to go into a closed-off area where they could use drugs such as heroin or cocaine under staff supervision | Gothamist, USA
Myanmar’s Coup Has Opened the Floodgates of the Southeast Asian Drug Trade
Meth seizures out of the Golden Triangle are at an all-time high, as opportunistic drug lords threaten to turn the area into a narcostate | VICE, USA
University of Waterloo in Ontario part of global study on impact of e-cigarette rules
Ontario university team will work with other schools to study regulations in 7 countries | CBC News, Canada
Blogs, comment and opinion
New government strategies on substance misuse and criminal justice - MEAM Approach
Over the last fortnight, there have been a series of announcements around substance misuse and criminal justice. In this blog, we briefly look at the details of the announcements | MEAM blog, UK
Doing Dry January? Here’s how to maximise your chances of success
We all know New Year’s resolutions are easy to make and easy to break. Preparation is key to forgoing alcohol for a month | Independent voices, UK
SSA notes: MRC and NIHR guidance on evaluating complex interventions
The UK Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research have updated their framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions. The new version moves away from just focusing on whether an intervention is effective, and confronts issues of implementation, acceptability and cost-effectiveness | SSA, UK
Reflections in the New Recovery Advocacy Movement – An Interview with Mark Sanders On the Development of African American Recovery Communities
The first time I had heard about Mark Sanders was when I was preparing for Black History month in early 2013. I wanted to highlight the history of recovery within African American communities in our quarterly recovery newsletter. After initiating an internet search, I quickly found the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery which is curated by Mark Sanders | Recovery Review blog, USA