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Daily news - 25th January 2023

UK news

Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) quarterly report

The Drugs Team at Public Health Scotland (PHS) has compiled this report of drug-related indicators in order to inform action to prevent drug harms and deaths. The objectives of this report are to: 1) monitor changes in drug trends, harms and use of services to inform immediate and short-term actions that reduce drug harms 2) detect potential clusters of harms and recommend appropriate responses | Public Health Scotland, UK

Increase in suspected drugs deaths across Scotland

The number of suspected drug deaths in Scotland increased towards the end of 2022, new figures show | BBC, UK

RADAR Alert 2023/04, Nitazene type drugs in Scotland

There is an increase in the availability of a new type of synthetic opioid called nitrazenes. Due to their unexpected presence they pose a substantial risk of overdose, hospitalisation and death | Public Health Scotland, UK

New drugs trend raises concern

Public Health Scotland has [Yesterday] issued an alert concerning the availability of synthetic opioids in Scotland. There have been seizures of small quantities of drugs belonging to the nitazine group. These have been sold as ‘Oxycodone’ pills or have been found in prison ‘blotted’ into paper | SDF, UK

Glasgow push to tackle drug deaths crisis gets cross-party support

Councillors from all parties have agreed there must be more work done on helping people into recovery to cut the number of drug-related deaths | Glasgow Times, UK

Mums move into drug rehab centre with children to turn lives around

Mothers who use drugs are being helped into recovery while staying with their children at a new rehabilitation house in Dundee | STV News, UK

Being and becoming a father in the context of heavy drinking and other substance use—a qualitative evidence synthesis

This qualitative evidence synthesis informs intervention development by systematically searching, evaluating and synthesizing qualitative studies on fatherhood in the context of heavy drinking and other substance use. We searched seven databases, grey literature and reference lists to identify eligible studies. Our international sample includes 156 fathers of different ages, cultural backgrounds and family living arrangements across 14 unique studies | DEPP, UK

University of Brighton conducts “first comprehensive review of alcohol misuse in the UK’s LGBTQ+ communities”

As Dry January comes to a close, University of Brighton for Drinkaware has conducted what it calls the “first comprehensive review of alcohol misuse in the UK’s LGBTQ+ communities”. The study by researchers in the university’s Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender has now highlighted issues that include higher rates of alcohol use and failures in support networks following the pandemic | GScene, UK

Cocaine

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the evidential basis is for cocaine being classed as a Schedule 2 controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 | They work for you, UK

Health and Safety: Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will hold discussions with the Health and Safety Executive on the potential merits of including in the reporting process the ability to log when (a) drugs or (b) alcohol were a contributing factor to an accident at work | They work for you, UK

Drug Science’s medical cannabis patient registry (T21) sees departure of Lyphe Group and introduces new pricing model

The subsidised pricing structure of Drug Science’s medical cannabis registry, ‘T21’, is changing to a new model. Until now, T21 has operated at a £150 price cap on all prescriptions – a model that has remained in place since its launch over three years ago. This cap will now be replaced, and registered patients will instead receive a minimum of 5 percent discount on all cannabis-based medicines (CBMPs) included in the T21 formulary | Drug Science, UK

MAT Standard 10: All people receive trauma informed care: webinar

Friday 27th January 2023, 1.00pm - 2.20pm. The treatment service people use recognises that many people who use their service may have experienced trauma, and that this may continue to impact on them in various ways. The services available and the people who work there, will respond in a way that supports people to access, and remain in, services for as long as they need to, in order to get the most from treatment. They will also offer people the kind of relationship that promotes recovery, does not cause further trauma or harm, and builds resilience | SDF, UK

Man denies fatal Deepcar laughing gas robbery plot

A man has denied being part of an armed gang involved in a botched robbery that led to the death of a delivery driver | BBC, UK

International news

Sexual and emotional intimacy key to syringe sharing among women who inject drugs in Philadelphia

Published in AIDS and Behavior, a recent study among women who inject drugs in Philadelphia set out to determine how the women’s relationships influenced syringe sharing. Women were more likely to use syringes after someone they had an intimate or close relationship with, including sex partners, people who helped them inject, and those providing emotional support | NAM, UK

Alice Springs: Alcohol limited in Australian town due to violence

An outback Australian town has re-imposed a controversial policy directed at Aboriginal communities that restricts the sale of alcohol | BBC, UK

[open access] This study systematically reviews the English-language academic literature to understand what is meant and understood when the term ‘public health approach’ is used in the context of substance use. The most commonly cited characteristics of a public health approach were regulation, treatment, education, prevention, and contrast with a criminal justice approach. However, there was shifting support for these positions over time and across substances | IJDP, USA

Cigarette Use Among Older Adults: A Forgotten Population

The number of adults aged 65 years and older is expected to more than double worldwide over the next several decades, and for the first time in recorded history, older adults will outnumber children. Despite these unprecedented population shifts, older adults are significantly underrepresented in biomedical research, especially in the field of nicotine and tobacco science | Medscape, USA

As opioid deaths rise among teens, too few youth get anti-addiction drug

The number of American teenagers becoming addicted to opioids is on the rise, yet fewer are being prescribed a medication that can help them, a new government study finds | Medical Xpress, USA

New Potent Synthetic Opioid—N-Desethyl Isotonitazene—Proliferating Among Recreational Drug Supply in USA

N-Desethyl isotonitazene is a new synthetic opioid bearing structural resemblance to isotonitazene and recently emergent nitazene analogues. N-Desethyl isotonitazene is dissimilar in chemical structure to fentanyl, the synthetic opioid most commonly encountered, but this subclass of new opioids has been proliferating in the wake of the scheduling of fentanyl analogues | CFSRE, USA

Telemedicine Use and Quality of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this cohort study of 11 801 patients with OUD with commercial insurance or Medicare Advantage coverage, there were no significant differences in visit frequency, initiation of medications for OUD, or OUD-related adverse outcomes between those who were treated by clinicians with high vs low telemedicine use across the prepandemic and pandemic periods | JAMA Network open, USA

Medical Costs of Substance Use Disorders in the US Employer-Sponsored Insurance Population

In this economic evaluation of 162 million non–Medicare eligible enrollees with employer-sponsored health insurance in 2018, 2.3 million had an SUD diagnosis. The annual attributable medical expenditure was $15 640 per affected enrollee and $35.3 billion in the population; alcohol-related disorders ($10.2 billion) and opioid-related disorders ($7.3 billion) were the most costly | JAMA Network open, USA

Taiwan Is About to Ban the Use of Nicotine Vapes

On January 12, amendments to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act effectively cleared the legislative floor. Now, the legislation only awaits a presidential nod—a formality given that President Tsai Ing-wen is from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party that proposed it | Filter Magazine, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

Dry January: Does help for alcohol misuse need rethinking for LGBT+ people?

With Dry January putting a spotlight on our alcohol consumption, pioneering research by experts at University of Brighton for Drinkaware has resulted in the first comprehensive review of alcohol misuse in the UK’s LGBT+ communities | Brighton University blog, UK

Scotland's alcohol problem: It is time to put people's health before profits – Dr Alastair MacGilchrist

Scotland’s problem with alcohol is well-established. Every day, almost 100 people in Scotland are hospitalised and three people lose their lives because of alcohol | Scotsman opinion, UK

Get the facts – on the label

Recent alcohol advertisements are carrying an industry slogan – Get the Facts. But what’s in a bottle of wine or a can of beer? Judging by current labels in Ireland and across the world, the answer might be some combination of a rural idyll, a promise of a good time, a romantic evening in, a cheeky brunch or a raucous night out with friends. The answer is whatever the marketing masterminds want you to believe and that is entirely at the discretion of the producer’s budget and where this product is being positioned in the market | IAS blog, UK

We need drug policy reform – but we won’t get it without PR

Drug policy reform is popular, based on decades of evidence, and would save billions of pounds each year… but under first-past-the-post it won’t ever happen | Compass, UK

Legalise Cocaine To Save the Amazon

45 years ago, foreign ministers of eight countries bordering the Amazon rainforest signed a treaty for Amazonian cooperation. The pact aimed to improve the lives of local populations by protecting natural resources and regulating their use. Almost half a century later, the Amazon region remains as a central stage for ecological exploitation and political violence. Meanwhile, the prohibition of cocaine fuels repeating episodes of brutality in the region, funding criminal enterprises’ actions | Talking Drugs, UK

A brief review of psychedelics’ biological and psychological mechanisms of action attributed to their therapeutic effects

In Spanish there is a saying that goes “Lo prometido es deuda”, which translates as “What is promised is owed”. In my first post in this series, I mentioned that in a future post I would share some of the information I researched to write my preliminary exam, which answered the question “What are the known and theoretical mechanisms by which psychedelic substances produce therapeutic effects, both short and long term?”. | Points blog, USA

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