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Daily news - 13th October 2022 |
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UK news
Scotland’s early warning surveillance system provides snapshot of drug use and trends
The newly operational Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) programme, led by Public Health Scotland (PHS), has published its first report, providing a snapshot of drug use and trends across Scotland. The publication presents a range of indicators from a variety of sources, which monitor changes in drug trends, testing and the use of services to inform actions that reduce drug-related harm. These include data on drug-related hospitalisations, suspected drug-related deaths, treatment referrals, toxicology results and more | Public Health Scotland, UK
Manchester Nightclub Warehouse Project launches app to keep clubbers safe and help find friends
A nightclub in Manchester has introduced an app to help keep clubbers safe. The Warehouse Project (WHP), which can accommodate up to 10,000 people, created the app which includes a map of the venue, and a way to contact security if you feel in danger, or if you get separated from your friends | ITV, UK
MAT Standard 1 - Towards Implementation: The MAT Standards Webinar Series - video
The effective implementation of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standards will transform treatment services and the experience of people in treatment. Delivering the National Mission to Reduce Drug Deaths and the treatment engagement target depends on this transformation being made. This webinar series will explore how progress with implementation is being made in settings across Scotland and the challenge that remains | SDF, UK
Liver Disease and Liver Cancer: Diagnosis
There are over 100 causes of liver disease, but the ones that contribute to the most cases are also factors much more likely to be present in poorer communities: alcohol misuse and obesity. In Scotland, 58% of liver disease deaths are alcohol related. Across the UK, alcohol-related liver disease accounts for 60% of diagnoses. Like most addictions, alcohol abuse is statistically higher in poorer communities and carries a heavy stigma: the resulting harm is seen as self-inflicted | They work for you, UK
Women’s Homelessness Statement – Autumn 2022
We are working together to improve to ensure that women receive effective and appropriate community and residential drug and alcohol treatment services | Phoenix Futures, UK
Gender and Alcohol - audio
Gender and alcohol - Laurie Taylor explores the male-dominated craft drink scene and finds out how young women and men feel about the ingredients of a 'proper night out' | BBC, UK
Psychedelic use predicts objective knowledge about climate change via increases in nature relatedness
Lifetime psychedelic substance use has previously been linked to nature relatedness and pro-environmental behaviour. Yet, participants’ responses to the self-report measures in these studies may have been affected by stereotypical associations or confirmation bias. We therefore re-examined this link by measuring three pro-environmental dependent variables: nature relatedness, concerns about climate change, and objective knowledge about climate change | Drug Science, UK
Addiction Journal - Key Findings
A quick summary of the main discovery for each research paper we have published in the October issue | SSA, UK
2022’s Small Grants Scheme awards announced
We are delighted to announce that we will be funding three projects led by early career researchers in the alcohol field through the second round of the IAS Small Grants Scheme | IAS blog, UK
Jeni Larmour: Student was given drugs that killed her - coroner
A high-achieving student died on her first night at university after taking drugs given to her "by another", a coroner has ruled | BBC, UK
Drugs seized and 19 arrested in Darlington county lines raid
Nineteen people have been arrested and tens of thousands of pounds worth of drugs have been seized in a police operation targeting county lines gangs | BBC, UK
International news
INTRAVENE Show
BFI London Film Festival: 5-16th October 2022. INTRAVENE is an immersive audio experience using binaural 360 degree sound to plunge listeners into the heart of the overdose crisis in Vancouver. It is a groundbreaking partnership of immersive and documentary experts and drug user activists: DARKFIELD, Crackdown and Brenda Longfellow. Book here | Darkfield Events, UK
Problematic opioid use in Ireland, 2015–2019
In this report, we present the results of a study that aimed to estimate the prevalence of problematic opioid use in Ireland from 2015 to 2019 using a four-source capture-recapture method. Three of the four data sources used for the analysis were derived from opioid substitution treatment records from the Central Treatment List (CTL) (clinics, general practitioners (GPs) and prisons) and the fourth data source was derived from the Probation Service | HRB, Ireland
Research finds that two out of five adults who use cigarettes smoke menthol
Menthol use has increased over the past decade among U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes, according to a study released by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and The City University of New York. Menthol use is much more common among adult smokers who are younger, from racial/ethnic minoritized groups and with mental health problems | Medical Xpress, USA
Use of and Retention on Video, Telephone, and In-Person Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Among Veterans Health Administration patients receiving buprenorphine for opioid use disorder in the year following implementation of COVID-19–related telehealth policies, did patient characteristics and retention differ across treatment modalities? | JAMA Network Open, USA
Medicinal cannabis study into easing symptoms of children in palliative care
A Murdoch Children’s Research Institute pilot study will explore the use of medicinal cannabis to reduce symptoms in children and adolescents who are undergoing palliative care for non-cancerous conditions | EurekAlert, USA
New York City’s First Cannabis Boss Wants to Combat ‘Cannaphobia’
[Free registration required] Dasheeda Dawson, a native New Yorker, returns home to direct the effort to build cannabis businesses and to absorb the illegal market into the new legitimate one | NYTimes, USA
Make It Make Sense: The Confusing Terminology Around Safer Nicotine
Nicotine vapes contain no tobacco but are routinely called “tobacco products.” A 2019 lung disease outbreak is still known as “EVALI” (e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury), when nicotine vapes had nothing to do with it. The war of disinformation against tobacco harm reduction relies on a host of inaccurate and outright misleading terms that leave the public asking, “Make it make sense.” | Filter Magazine, USA
Alberta sets standards for psychedelic drug-assisted therapy
The government of Alberta is outlining requirements and standards for psychedelic-assisted therapy, becoming the first province in Canada to put these guidelines and medical oversight in place | Global News, Canada
Blogs, comment and opinion
Thérèse Coffey doesn’t understand that most people are anti-smoking
The Health Secretary would be foolish to ditch the government’s smoking action plan | New Statesman, UK
The new over-the-counter drug that’s SWEEPING British Prisons
Drug use is widespread in British prisons, brutally exposing the dangerous folly of prohibition... | Volteface, UK
Grandma had just died and I was far from home. Then I had a drink – and the pain vanished
Lonely and heartbroken, I first tasted beer at the age of 14. Decades later, after consuming enough alcohol to fill a petrol tanker, I realised it was time to cut back | Guardian, UK
From the war on drugs to the drug war
The Colombian Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition (the Truth Commission) published its final report in June 2022. In a pioneering move it urged the new government to legally regulate drugs in order to end violence | Anyone's Child, UK
Drug overdoses in public bathrooms are common: new tools could prevent harm and improve response
The drug poisoning crisis in Canada is at its worst in British Columbia, with over 10,000 lives lost since 2016. A key setting for overdoses in B.C. is bathrooms, though this information has not always been readily available | Conversation, Canada