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Daily news - 15th December 2023 |
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UK news
Drug misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2023
An overview of the extent and trends of illicit drug use. Data are from the Crime Survey for England and Wales. In the year ending March 2023, an estimated 9.5% of people aged 16 to 59 years (approximately 3.1 million people) reported using a drug in the last 12 months; 7.6% reported using cannabis (around 2.5 million people) and 3.3% reported using a Class A drug (around 1.1 million people) | ONS, UK
Magic mushroom use grows in England and Wales, ONS figures show
Use of ecstasy and nitrous oxide falls overall and drug use of all kinds falls among younger people | Guardian, UK
National statistics: Substance misuse treatment for adults: statistics 2022 to 2023
There were 290,635 adults in contact with drug and alcohol services between April 2022 and March 2023. This is a small rise compared to the previous year (289,215). The number of adults entering treatment in 2022 to 2023 was 137,749, which is higher than the previous 2 years’ figures (130,490 and 133,704). The numbers of people entering treatment was relatively stable from 2016 to 2017 up to 2021 to 2022 | OHID, UK
Nitazenes: Warning over super-strength street drugs linked to deaths
The Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (Radar) alert warned that nitazenes were mainly found in the form of counterfeit oxycodone tablets - usually blue and stamped with '30' or 'M'. | BBC, UK
Nitazenes: SDF Launch Alert and Information Resources for People at Risk of Overdose
Scottish Drugs Forum has worked with service providers and other stakeholders to develop information resources for people at risk of overdose due to the introduction of synthetic opioids, including nitazenes into the drug supply | SDF, UK
Crisis warning over deadly drug cocktail '10 times stronger than Fentanyl'
Experts have warned a sharp rise in use could result in a wave of deaths unless urgent action is taken to protect casual users and addicts | Sky News, UK
Pattern of alcohol intake more accurate indicator of liver disease risk than overall consumption
Those who binge drink and have a certain genetic makeup are six times more likely to develop alcohol-related cirrhosis, according to new research from UCL, the Royal Free Hospital, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge | UCL, UK
Review of the year – 2023
While the money promised in the wake of the drug strategy continued to flow into the treatment system, there were disturbing shifts in the country’s constantly changing drug supply – with more highly potent synthetic opioids being entering the market than ever before | DDN, UK
Submission to Public Accounts Committee on Reducing the Harms from Illegal Drugs
Release partnered with Unjust UK to submit evidence to the Public Accounts Committee’s Inquiry into government’s progress implementing its 10-year drug strategy, which was published in 2021. We have published our complete thoughts on the strategy here. The Committee began hearing oral evidence on 30 November. Our submission was accepted as evidence and published to the Inquiry’s website here | Release, UK
Birmingham addiction recovery charity in merger talks with Forward Trust to save vital service
Changes UK, a vital force in addiction recovery in Birmingham for the past 16 years, is in merger discussions with national charity The Forward Trust | Bdaily news, UK
Glasgow City Council and Turning Point Scotland in row over budget cut
Turning Point 218 will close next February after Glasgow City Council offered the service an "unworkable" budget of £650,000, down from a budget of £1.37 million that was agreed in March | Glasgow Times, UK
Smoking: Young People
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the consultation entitled Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping, published on 12 October 2023, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of including heated tobacco products within these proposals on levels of smoking cessation | They work for you, UK
'Kingpin' of multi-million pound cocaine gang jailed for 24 years
The "kingpin" of a drugs gang who imported millions of pounds worth of cocaine has been jailed for 24 years | BBC, UK
Gang jailed for £1m cocaine-coated broom handle plot
Six men have been jailed after being caught smuggling £1m worth of cocaine into the UK by concealing the drug in varnish on broom handles | BBC, UK
International news
Spain considers banning smoking and vaping on ALL beaches
The Spanish Ministry of Health has confirmed a new crackdown on both smoking and vaping and says people's health has to be protected | Mail Online, UK
Social epidemiology of early adolescent alcohol expectancies
To determine the sociodemographic correlates of alcohol expectancies (i.e., beliefs regarding positive or negative effects of alcohol) in a national (U.S.) cohort of early adolescents 10–14 years old. A second aim was to determine associations between alcohol sipping and alcohol expectancies | BMC Public Health, UK
‘Peer influence is no joke’: Australian government to fund research into youth vaping prevention
Researchers awarded grants to study pro-vaping content on social media and other pressures to help young people kick the habit | Guardian, UK
Reversing the exploitation of amazonian indigenous peoples: drug trafficking and extractive economies in peru (PDF)
This paper has two main objectives. First and foremost, to shine a light on the extremely vulnerable situation Amazonian Indigenous peoples of Peru currently face, with the aim to specifically highlight this to the international community of the country | Beckley Foundation, UK
More than a third of those arrested for driving while intoxicated this year involved drug use, say Garda
Over 7,400 arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, with 36% suspected of having drugs in system | Irish Times, Ireland
Drugs increasingly disguised as confectionary - Forensic Science Ireland
Eating a sweet, a packet of crisps or a bar of chocolate nowadays may have some unexpected and unwelcome effects, according to the scientists at the new Forensic Science Laboratory | RTe, Ireland
Ban flavoured vapes, WHO says, urging tobacco-style controls
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday urged governments to treat e-cigarettes similarly to tobacco and ban all flavours, threatening cigarette companies' bets on smoking alternatives | Reuters, USA
Retention and critical outcomes among new methadone maintenance patients following extended take-home reforms: a retrospective observational cohort study
Approximately 1800 opioid treatment programs (OTPs) in the US dispense methadone to upwards of 400,000 patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) annually, operating under longstanding highly restrictive guidelines. OTPs were granted novel flexibilities beginning March 15, 2020, allowing for reduced visit frequency and extended take-home doses to minimize COVID exposure with great variation across states and sites. We sought to use electronic health records to compare retention in treatment, opioid use, and adverse events among patients newly entering methadone maintenance in the post-reform period in comparison with year-ago, unexposed, controls | Lancet, USA
San Francisco Will Finally Start Testing Wastewater for New Drugs
San Francisco's health department announced a new program to test for "high-risk substances" in the city's sewage system, allowing the city to identify deadly new street drugs quickly | San Francisco Standard, USA
Victorian government approves health services to hand out life-saving overdose-reversal drug
Victorians will be able to get an opioid overdose-reversal drug directly from addiction support services at no cost from this week, in a move advocates say is long overdue | abc.net.au, Australia
Is there such a thing as an addictive personality? Chronic stress is challenging our ideas about addiction - audio
Climate change, foreign wars, economic stress, overwork and the ongoing recovery from pandemic trauma... if it all has you reaching for a glass of wine you're not alone | abc.net.au, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
Drug & Alcohol Treatment Trends 2023
Yesterday (14 December 2023 – one month earlier than last year), the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities published the adult substance misuse treatment statistics for 2022/23. In this blog post, I summarise the main trends in treatment numbers. There were 289,215 adults in contact with drug and alcohol services between April 2021 and March 2022. This is a rise compared to the previous year (275,896) | Russell Webster, UK
Expert reaction to study showing that the decline in smoking in England has stalled since the pandemic
A study published in BMC Medicine looks at the decline in smoking in England since the pandemic. Here experts in the field give their feedback on the study | SMC, UK
The views of alcohol frequent attenders at a general hospital in Scotland: a qualitative study
People with repeated admissions for alcohol-related problems made up more than a quarter of England’s alcohol admissions. Measures from administrative records show a higher number of admissions, occupied bed days, average length of stay and total admission costs over a five-year period among alcohol frequent attenders (AFAs) with alcohol-specific diagnoses when compared to non-alcohol and non-frequent admissions (Blackwood et al 2021) | IAS blog, UK
Narco-Deforestation and Its Climate Impact in Central America
Despite its extensive network of protected areas, Central America has witnessed alarming rates of deforestation over the past decade. While agriculture and livestock are the primary drivers of deforestation in the region, a lesser-known and often overlooked crisis erodes the area’s ‘hyperdiversity’. Due to the American-led war on drugs, current debates around the impact of illicit economies have centred around coca producing countries, such as Brazil and Colombia. Recently the growing connection between deforestation and drug trafficking in Central America has led to what researchers from Oregon State University have called ‘narco-deforestation’. | Talking Drugs, UK