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Daily news - 21st October 2022 |
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UK news
Leah Heyes: MDMA death teen's mother fronts anti-drug campaign
The mother of a 15-year-old schoolgirl who died after taking MDMA is fronting a campaign urging families to have "early and positive" conversations about drugs and alcohol | BBC, UK
Reflections on being in a lived experience panel at a gambling conference
Martin Jones has lived experiences of the harms from gambling. Here, he reflects on his involvement with the Current Advances in Gambling Research conference as a panellist and organiser | SSA, UK
Behind Closed Doors
Mon, 24 October 2022, 18:00 – 20:00 BST. Manchester. Over a third of the population have tried illegal drugs and a tenth take them regularly. Yet the possession of drugs is illegal. This exhibition and panel discussion examine the problems of drug prohibition and the challenges of drug policy reform | University of Manchester, UK
Street Drug Discussions: Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas)
Fri, 28 October 2022, 14:00 – 16:00 BST. This webinar looks at effects of nitrous on brain and body, medical and recreational patterns of use and the risks | Drug Science, UK
Hartlepool cannabis farms: Drugs 'worth over £1m' seized
Drugs with a street value estimated at more than £1m were seized when two cannabis farms were uncovered during a police sting | BBC, UK
International news
What is the Future of Medical Cannabis in Europe?
In this exclusive guest article, Franziska Katterbach, President, KHIRON Europe explores what the future holds for the medical cannabis industry in Europe | Business Leader, UK
High times at Circle K! Global convenience-store chain signs deal with US cannabis supplier to sell marijuana at 10 Florida gas stations... but will Gov. DeSantis allow it?
Floridians with medical marijuana cards will soon be able to fulfill cannabis prescriptions while they fill up their tanks at select Circle K locations in the state | Mail Online, UK
ACT becomes first Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise illicit drugs in small quantities
People found with small amounts of drugs for personal use, including heroin and cocaine, will be cautioned, fined or referred to drug programs | Guardian, UK
Merchants Quay recorded a 55% surge in 'new homeless' last year due to rising rents and evictions
The number of newly homeless people seeking help from Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) jumped by 55% in the final three months of 2021 — attributed to the lifting of eviction bans, rising rents, and Covid-related job losses | Irish Examiner, Ireland
Population-level counterfactual trend modelling to examine the relationship between smoking prevalence and e-cigarette use among US adults
Actual overall smoking prevalence from 2010 to 2019 was significantly lower than counterfactual predictions. The discrepancy was significantly larger as e-cigarette use prevalence increased. In subgroup analyses, discrepancies in smoking prevalence were more pronounced for cohorts with greater e-cigarette use prevalence, namely adults ages 18–34, adult males, and non-Hispanic White adults | BMC Public Health, USA
Maryland Campaign to Make Marijuana Legalization Mean Social Justice
AMaryland political group is campaiging for voters to approve the marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s November ballot. It’s also spotlighting issues of inequity and racism in the state—and working to ensure that legalization directly addresses these wrongs, and provides opportunity to Black communities and others harmed by prohibition | Filter Magazine, USA
Opium Use in the 19th Century
Opioid medicines are used today primarily as painkillers, but in the 19th century, advertisers claimed that they could be used for much more. In 1840, a broadside for “Dr. McMunn’s Elixir of Opium” claimed that the drug was able to “produce sleep and composure, relieve pain and irritation, nervous excitement and morbid irritability of body and mind, [and] allay convulsive and spasmodic actions.” | Library of Congress, USA
Perspectives of people who use methamphetamine on contingency management
This webinar presented views and perceptions of people who use methamphetamine as contingency management as a treatment for dependency | NDARC, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
How to regulate cannabis potency
Recent cannabis debates have thrust the issue of cannabis potency back into the limelight. From UK calls to put cannabis in Class A because of rising potency and health harms, to leaked proposals from Germany to cap retail cannabis potency at 15% THC in their soon to be legalised market - the issue remains clouded with misunderstandings | Transform Drug Policy Foundation blog, UK
'Talking to politicians about drugs doesn't work, it just makes things worse ...'
Following this summer's Drug Possession White Paper, Jay Jackson argues that the Government needs to adopt a multi-departmental approach to tackle the 88 per cent increase in drug deaths in the UK since 2010 | MEI Blog, UK
Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine Bans CBD Prescriptions for Adult Patients
The Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine (CFM in the Portuguese acronym) is once again stepping over the profession’s ethics code and ignoring the latest advancements in medical science to impose an ideological ban to restrict the prescription of CBD for adult patients | Talking Drugs, UK