Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 31st August 2023 |
 |
UK news
Drugs: Third Report of Session 2022–23
In this report the Committee calls for a new legislative and funding framework that enables practical, risk-reducing interventions such as establishing a pilot drug consumption facility and drug testing at festivals. It further calls from a move away from an abstinence-only approach towards harm reduction with improved cross-working between police, health and social services. The Committee found that law enforcement should continue to do all it can to stamp out the illicit trade of controlled drugs, but will need to be bolstered by a stronger public health response that helps people escape drug addiction and related criminality | Home Affairs Committee, UK
Allow drug testing at festivals to cut deaths, MPs urge ministers
Drop ‘abstinence-only approach’ and focus on public health, report by home affairs select committee says | Guardian, UK
Scotland should pilot drug consumption rooms, say MPs
Efforts to run similar facilities in Glasgow have so far been blocked by the Home Office. However, the Home Affairs Committee said the power to introduce them should be devolved if the UK government would not back a pilot jointly funded with Holyrood | BBC, UK
Nitrous oxide: Laughing gas ban could harm users, experts warn
In a letter to the government, seen by BBC Newsnight, 15 neurologists and related health experts say possession of the drug should not be criminalised | BBC, UK
Cranstoun Launches Report in Response to Escalating Opioid Crisis, Backed by Cross-Party Parliamentarians and Leading Academics
Cranstoun has launched a report containing 8 key recommendations on how to address the escalating drug crisis. The report is in response to emerging accounts of nitazenes – a potent, synthetic opioid similar to fentanyl – contaminating the UK’s heroin supply | Cranstoun, UK
Powder cocaine use in young people and adults: call for evidence
Call for evidence from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs on the prevalence and drivers of powder cocaine use by young people and adults. Deadline extended till 2nd October | Home Office and Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, UK
Estimated numbers of people prescribed opioid substitution therapy in Scotland: Scottish Public Health Observatory August update
In 2022/23, the number of paid items for OST drugs was 423,814. In 2022/23 the dispensing of methadone was equivalent to 10.28 Defined Daily Doses per 1,000 population per day. Buprenorphine dispensing (including Buvidal© slow-release formulations) was equivalent to 1.75 DDDs per 1,000 population per day in 2022/23. In 2022/23, the dispensing of buprenorphine and naloxone combined (Suboxone) was equivalent to 0.20 DDDs per 1,000 population per day | Public Health Scotland, UK
Update to Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol - Evaluation findings at a glance
Public Health Scotland (PHS) welcomes the response from the UK Statistics Authority to Dr Gulhane MSP on its final report in the evaluation of minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol in Scotland. The letter from Sir Robert Chote, Chair of the UK Statistics Authority - which focuses on how statistical evidence has been presented - says that "the findings in the final PHS report are communicated clearly and impartially" | Public Health Scotland, UK
Faith, Families and Recovery Forum
Mon, 25 Sep 2023 14:30 - 15:30 BST. Online event shining a light on the role of faith in many people’s lives when they’re struggling with addiction | Adfam, UK
Recovery Street Film Festival 2023 Award Ceremony & Screening
Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:00 - 13:30 BST. Join us for a screening of our 15 shortlisted films for Recovery Street Film Festival 2023 with an award ceremony and special guest speakers | RSFF, UK
Vaping: Kent County Council to crackdown on underage vape sales
Kent County Council (KCC) will launch a two-year project in the autumn after figures showed a rise in the use of vapes among young people | BBC, UK
Illegal tobacco and vapes worth £45k seized in Huddersfield
Cigarettes and rolling tobacco were seized as well as disposable vapes, which West Yorkshire Police believe may have been sold to children. The haul is part of a wider operation in which officers have seized £100,000 worth of goods in the past year | BBC, UK
Teacher banned after bringing Ketamine into primary school
Small package of the Class B drug found in staff cubicles, professional conduct panel says | Independent, UK
International news
International Overdose Awareness Day: 31st August
31st August. International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died from overdose, and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind. The IOAD 2023 theme “Recognizing those people who go unseen” is about acknowledging people in our communities who are affected by overdose but might go unseen in the crisis | Penington Institute, Australia
US health department recommends looser restrictions on cannabis
The US Department of Health and Human Services has called on the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to loosen federal rules on cannabis. The drug is illegal at the federal level despite 40 of 50 US states having passed laws legalising its use in some form. Cannabis is currently listed in the same class of drugs as heroin and LSD | BBC, UK
Young people, pregnant women and drivers should avoid cannabis – study
Largest review of its kind says while cannabis-based medicines may help some people, drug is detrimental for others | Guardian, UK
The Taliban’s Opium Ban Has Become an Existential Problem for the West
As fears grow Afghanistan’s opium trade is the only barrier to a global opioid death epidemic, experts tell VICE News “there are no good options.” | VICE, UK
Sierra Leone considers health emergency over illegal drug Kush - audio
Sierra Leone is grappling with a serious substance crisis. A cheap and illegal synthetic drug known as Kush that is wreaking havoc among the youth | BBC, UK
Life-Saving Nalox-Home Intervention Announced to mark International Overdose Awareness Day 2023
Marking International Overdose Awareness Day 2023, the HSE in collaboration with St James’s Hospital is introducing Nalox-Home: a new pilot initiative designed to save lives and promote harm reduction among people who use drugs. Nalox-Home provides free naloxone kits to patients who attend the St James’s Hospital Emergency Department (ED) and have experienced or are at risk of an opioid overdose | HSE, Ireland
HSE back to provide harm reduction services at Electric Picnic 2023
The Health Service Executive will be back at Electric Picnic this year to provide harm reduction services for festival attendees. The services the HSE are planning to provide include: 70 HSE-trained volunteers. Five drugs.ie surrender bins. Drugs.ie tents at three locations and On site lab for drug checking and real-time results | HotPress, Ireland
The interaction of e-cigarette use and mental health symptoms on risk of cigarette smoking initiation among young adults in the United States
It is unknown whether young adults who vape nicotine and have poor mental health have greater risk of smoking initiation than expected based on individual risks of vaping and mental health alone. This study aimed to estimate the joint association of vaping and mental health symptoms with smoking initiation among young adults, and test for additive interaction between vaping and mental health in smoking initiation risk | Addiction, USA
Study finds high blood and urinary metal levels among exclusive marijuana users
Research conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health detected significant levels of metals in the blood and urine among marijuana users, concluding that marijuana may be an important and under-recognized source of lead and cadmium exposure | Medical Xpress, USA
Opioid Settlement May Spur Cannabis as Potential New Pharmacy Revenue Stream
The opioid crisis has profoundly impacted communities across the United States, prompting a $50 billion opioid settlement framework approved by a consortium of attorney generals and the US Justice Department.1 This landmark settlement holds pharmaceutical and health insurance companies accountable for their involvement in the opioid epidemic. However, the framework may also have broader implications, potentially shaping the distribution of cannabis in big-box pharmacies and its integration into mainstream health plans. This article explores the potential impact of the opioid settlement framework on the future of cannabis distribution and its role in health care | Pharmacy Times, USA
Fentanyl gets into Washington state in 'any manner you can think of'
Through vehicles on Interstate 5, through packages disguised as merchandise from abroad, or through smugglers traveling north, fentanyl has poured into the Puget Sound area | Medical Xpress, USA
Opioid OD rescue drug Narcan will reach drug store shelves next week
People who want to carry Narcan, the nasal spray version of naloxone, will be able to find it at Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart and CVS for a suggested retail price of $44.99 for a box of two doses,the drug maker reported Wednesday | Medical Xpress, USA
Afghanistan’s Poppy Ban May Fail. Its Success Could Bring Global Crisis
For decades, the war-torn country of Afghanistan has been the world’s largest producer of illicit opiates (opium, heroin and morphine). According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan accounted for a staggering 85 percent of global opium production in 2020. “It’s as easy as growing potatoes, you just don’t need to do much,” one poppy farmer said | Filter Magazine, USA
Police seizure of drugs without arrest among people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada, before provincial ‘decriminalization’ of simple possession: a cohort study
Despite the depenalization policy, the Vancouver Police Department has continued to seize illicit drugs from PWUD, even in cases where no arrest occurred. This policing practice may create health and safety risks for PWUD as it forces PWUD to increase the engagement with the unregulated illicit drug market. Our findings support calls for abolishing this often-undocumented discretionary policing practice that may exacerbate ongoing health inequities and interfere with peer-based overdose prevention efforts | Harm Reduction Journal, Canada
Sentencing drug law reform in Victoria: A chronically relapsing disorder?
This paper concludes that sentencing alone can never provide the answer to AOD-related crime and that far more fundamental reform to the regulation of AOD-related offending is required | VAADA, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
Belinda Phipps: Scotland must take alcohol-related deaths more seriously
As a nation, we need to better acknowledge the depth of alcohol dependency in order to change behaviours and save lives | Press and Journal opinion, UK
Semana Psicoativa 2023: Three Lessons for Colombian Drug Policy Reform
‘Semana Psicoactiva 2023’,an international conference on innovative drug policies, organised by Acción Técnica Social between 2 and 4 August 2023 in Bogotá, created a much-needed public debate to Colombia on building evidence-based drug policies. The conference was a great opportunity to exchange experiences, knowledge and disciplines from across the drug world | Talking Drugs, UK
Ireland’s Best Chance Ever for Effective Drugs Policy Reform
As the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use meets for the fourth time (2nd, 3rd September), it is at a crucial point which will determine its usefulness. Either it will move on to examine the broad range of drugs use and wider policy or it will continue to ignore and exclude 90% of its subject from consideration, focusing only on problematic use and treatment services | Citizens Assembly on Drug Use, Ireland
Many people think cannabis smoke is harmless − a physician explains how that belief can put people at risk
Though tobacco use is declining among adults in the U.S., cannabis use is increasing. Laws and policies regulating the use of tobacco and cannabis are also moving in different directions | Conversation, USA
Decriminalization: How police drug seizure, even without arrest, can create harms
International Overdose Awareness Day, an annual campaign to end overdose and drug poisonings while also remembering those who have died, is Aug. 31. Events are being held in communities across Canada, a sign of a worsening crisis that has taken more than 36,000 lives since 2016 | Conversation, USA