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Daily news - 12th January 2023 |
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UK news
The rise of chemsex ‘cuckooing’ as drug gangs take over vulnerable men’s homes
‘I was threatened, bribed, and blackmailed. I was heavily groomed.’ A man whose home was taken over by drug dealers on the chemsex scene reveals how his life was controlled by them – as criminal justice agencies raise the alarm | I news, UK
Prisons: Drugs
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce drug use in prisons | They work for you, UK
British tourists are flocking to Amsterdam-style coffee shops in Tenerife
While many Brits have long-since flocked to Amsterdam for coffee shops and cannabis culture, there's a new green destination on the map catching peoples' eye | LadBible, UK
Swindon cannabis farm: Man arrested after 200 plants found by police
A man has been arrested after a cannabis farm with 200 plants was discovered by police on a residential street | BBC, UK
International news
GFN News #35 | 10 YEARS OF GFN | Featuring GFN Founders Gerry Stimson and Paddy Costall - video
The Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN), which has taken place every year since 2014, is the only international conference to focus on how vapes, nicotine pouches, Swedish snus and heated tobacco can help people switch away from smoking. Building on the success of an event that attracts hundreds of in-person participants and thousands of online delegates, GFN•TV, a broadcast arm of the GFN stable, is now offering year round coverage of the issues that matter in tobacco harm reduction | GFN TV, UK
Minnesota lawmakers start down path to legalizing marijuana
The Minnesota Legislature has embarked on a path toward legalizing recreational marijuana | Independent, UK
Crack and heroin shop to open in Vancouver when hard drugs legalised
[Possible paywall] British Columbia will decriminalise possession of personal-use amounts of A-class drugs from Jan 31 to help reduce overdose rates | Telegraph, UK
Health information labelling of alcohol products
In June 2022 the Department of Health published its draft labelling regulations for alcohol products under Section 12 of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 | Alcohol Action Ireland, Ireland
Andrew Tatarsky and Maia Szalavitz: How 'Harm Reduction' Is Transforming Drug Policy -podcast
As the drug war retreats, individualist approaches to substance use and abuse will make us all better off | Reason, USA
The Meaning of Dry January
That more and more people are abstaining from drinking for one month a year is a sign of society’s profoundly broken relationship with alcohol—and coming change | The Atlantic, USA
Pharmacists can start patients on road to recovery from opioid use disorder, study shows
A study from researchers at Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital and the University of Rhode Island found that pharmacists—not just physicians at clinics and doctor's offices—can safely and effectively start patients with opioid use disorder on the lifesaving medication buprenorphine | Medical Xpress, USA
Social vulnerabilities, not individual behavior, put opioid-using women at risk for rape, finds research
As rates of opioid use continue to rise among women in the United States, emerging research reveals a worrisome prevalence of rape among opioid-using women | Medical Xpress, USA
Maine’s Prisons Taught Washington a Crucial Lesson in Fighting Opioids
Using drugs to treat addicts inside prison might just be the best way to stem the crisis of overdose deaths | Politico, USA
Inside El Salvador’s brutal gang crackdown
In her cramped breeze-block home on the outskirts of El Salvador’s capital, across an alley from a school currently occupied by soldiers, 65-year-old Francisca Alas rolls down her sock to show a scar from the machete of a gang member | UnHerd, USA
Harm reduction advocates praise Naloxone365 announcement
Earlier today in New Jersey’s State of the State address, Governor Murphy announced the launch of Naloxone365. This new program will enable every pharmacy in New Jersey to provide 4mg nasal spray naloxone anonymously and for free to any resident who requests it, at any time throughout the year | NJ Harm Reduction Coalition, USA
Harm Reduction the Peer N Peer Way: Community Support at the Nexus of Sex and Drugs
As queer sexual cultures have evolved in the context of HIV/AIDS, so too has the relationship between sex and drugs. Earlier poz prevention strategies like condoms and serosorting have expanded to include newer paradigms of U=U, PEP, and PrEP. The drugs we use with sex have shifted as well - from the poppers, booze, pot, and LSD of the 70’s, to today’s crystal meth, GHB, ketamine, and MDMA | CBRC, Canada
Blogs, comment and opinion
What are terroirs and why are they important for cannabis conservation?
There is a lot of hype around cannabis, landraces, and terroir. Yet, this hype about landraces and terroirs doesn’t mean that these terms are understood by most. In fact, it is often (yet wrongly) thought that cannabis landraces are “wild” cannabis populations, and that the terroirs are limited to the impact of soil and climate | Talking Drugs, UK
Needle and syringe programmes save lives: Why The Economist’s article on them got it wrong
The Economist usually publishes excellent, robust articles on drug policy. But in its 1 December issue, which somewhat ironically is World AIDS Day, was an opinion piece titled ‘America’s syringe exchanges might be killing drug users| IDPC, UK