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Daily news - 1st December 2023 |
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UK news
Consultation on Restricting Alcohol Advertising and Promotion: Analysis of responses
Analysis (PDF) of responses to the public consultation on potential restrictions to alcohol advertising and promotion in Scotland | Scottish Government, UK
Suffolk police launch Christmas drink and drug driving campaign
Officers will complete roadside checks throughout the day and night, plus intelligence-led enforcement activity | BBC, UK
Legislative Council passes under-18 vaping ban bill [Isle of Man]
A bid to reduce the likelihood of young people caught vaping being criminalised was rejected as proposed new Manx laws progressed through the Legislative Council | BBC, UK
PrEP: Preventative HIV drug highly effective, study says
A drug which stops HIV infecting the body has proved to be a highly effective "real-world" preventative treatment, a study has confirmed. The results of the research on 24,000 people taking it across England, have been described as "reassuring". Thousands of people are already taking PrEP through sexual health clinics. HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust wants easier access to the drug, since many people, including women, do not know it exists | BBC, UK
Alcohol Alert podcast - November 2023
In this month's podcast, we spoke to Dr Aalaa Jawad about a new report by the AHA, OHA and ASH that found that alcohol, tobacco, and junk food industries make £53 billion a year from harmful consumption.
We also spoke to Susan Taylor of Balance North East, about their hard-hitting new campaign, which aims to raise awareness in the region of alcohol as a cause of cancer | IAS, UK
Six times more newly homeless families than new social houses, England data shows
Councils forced to put people in expensive temporary accommodation as only 8,386 social homes built in 2022-23 | Guardian, UK
St Mungo's Winter Response: Information & Volunteering
Tue, 5 Dec 2023 17:45 - 18:45 GMT. Join us to hear from our First Response, Outreach, StreetLink and other teams how we work to keep people safe during the winter | St Mungo's, UK
Illegal immigrant Albanians jailed over ‘epidemic’ of cannabis farms
[Possible paywall] More than 100 criminals from Balkan country sentenced in three months as police seize £130m worth of illegal plants | Telegraph, UK
Concern over vape display near sweets - council
Sweet flavoured vapes are being marketed on the confectionery aisle of B&M in York | BBC, UK
International news
World Aids Day - 1st December 2023
We have come so far in HIV, but it’s not over. The UK government has set a goal of ending HIV transmissions by 2030. This is possible, but not without continued fight for political leadership, investment and a commitment to ending stigma and injustice. Stay up to date on our work to make this a reality | National AIDS Trust, UK
Half of pre-mixed alcohol features nutritional claims as industry targets young Australians, study finds
Exclusive: Researchers say producers of alcoholic drinks ‘intensively using’ health claims in efforts to reverse declining consumption | Guardian, UK
Traces of cannabis found in pre-modern human bones for the first time
A 17th-century hospital crypt in Milan, Italy, has yielded the first archaeological evidence of cannabis's psychoactive components in human bones | New Scientist, UK
World AIDS Day: concerns over stimulant injecting and late HIV diagnoses in Europe
On the eve of World AIDS Day, the EMCDDA showcases the latest data on HIV among people who inject drugs (PWID) and explores how countries are performing on global health sector objectives to tackle HIV/AIDS. The data underscore growing concerns that a potential rise in stimulant injecting and delayed HIV diagnoses could jeopardise the slow, but constant, progress seen in recent years in HIV prevention and treatment in this population | EMCDDA, Portugal
DrugNet Europe - November
Latest monthly round-up of drug policy news from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction | EMCDDA, Portugal
Social media posts that promote tobacco are increasing, AI detection technology finds
When teenagers and young adults see pro-tobacco content on social media, they face higher risks. They are more likely to report using tobacco products such as e-cigarettes (also called vapes), more likely to start using those products for the first time and less likely to view them as harmful | Medical Xpress, USA
Substance abuse treatment helps reduce reported methamphetamine use among men who have sex with men
A nearly decade-long study by UCLA researchers found that substance abuse treatment of any kind may help to reduce methamphetamine usage among men who have sex with other men—a population that has been disproportionately impacted by the U.S. methamphetamine crisis in recent years | Medical Xpress, USA
Study exposes widespread inaccuracies in cannabidiol product labeling
Scientists at the North-West University, South Africa, have recently tested the cannabidiol content of many commercial products and found discrepancies between the actual amount and the claimed amount of cannabidiol present in these products | News Medical, USA
People Are Having Seizures After Drinking Shots of ‘Gas Station Heroin’: FDA
Some users of tianeptine, a substance that mimics opioids, have reported being hospitalized after taking shots of Neptune’s Fix | VICE, USA
Why Oregon Psilocybin Services Draw Many Clients From Out of State
Oregon will soon be hitting the six-month mark since its first-in-the-nation psilocybin centers first started offering legal, if strictly regulated, access to the drug. One consequence that Oregon voters may not have anticipated when they approved this model in 2020 is an influx of people seeking psilocybin from out of state, as a number of new media reports highlight | Filter Magazine, USA
Ontario to ban cannabis in homes offering childcare, increase retail stores for operators
Ontario is banning the growing of cannabis in homes offering childcare services while increasing the number of stores retailers can operate in the province | CTV News, Canada
Blogs, comment and opinion
Buvidal: is it really a ‘game changer’ in the treatment of problematic opioid use?
To overcome problematic opioid use, traditional forms of opioid substitution therapy, such as methadone and oral buprenorphine, have become valuable tools. Research shows that patients receiving substitution therapy are more likely to stay in treatment and stop using heroin than patients receiving treatments that do not involve substitutes – such as counselling or group therapy | Conversation, UK
Mental health and alcohol – "it should be all under one banner"
A new Alcohol Change UK guide for practitioners makes the case for holistic approaches to alcohol and mental health issues | Alcohol CHange UK blog, UK
My special interest in addictions and substance misuse
I have had my psychiatry training in India and I always had an inclination towards Addiction Medicine. It was way back in 2012 that I first started my exposure with Addiction Psychiatry | RCPsych, UK
Leave no drug behind
Psychedelic drugs should not be treated as exceptional and more viable for reform than other drugs | Transform blog, UK
Does cannabis actually help with sleep?
Sleep is one of the many areas where we see medical benefits with cannabis, and it’s one of the most common reasons people use the drug in Canada. Research by the Sleep Foundation found that around 70% of young people who use cannabis report doing so to help with sleep | Volteface, UK
These Lebanese Hospitals Won’t Arrest You For Overdosing
The NGO Skoun in Lebanon has updated its latest iteration of its “safe hospitals” map, outlining all the institutions that do not report cases of overdoses to the police. The map aims to guide people who use drugs to access emergency health services without further risk of criminalisation, safeguarding their health and freedom | Talking Drugs, UK