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Daily news - 31st January 2023 |
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UK news
Doctors in England and Wales urged to monitor people’s drinking habits
More than 10m people consume alcohol at levels that pose a risk to their health, experts say | Guardian, UK
Urgent action needed to curb rise in prison deaths linked to spice, say UK researchers
Synthetic cannabinoids involved in nearly half of male prisoner deaths analysed in England and Wales | Guardian, UK
Minimum Unit Pricing: Impacts on the alcoholic drinks industry in Scotland
This is the second and last report of a study being undertaken by researchers at Frontier Economics to look at the impact of MUP on the alcoholic drinks industry in Scotland. The first report from this study was published in 2019 | Public Health Scotland, UK
Addendum (YouGov) to ‘Evaluating the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) of alcohol in Scotland on cross-border purchasing’
This is an addendum to our 2022 report on the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) of alcohol in Scotland on cross-border purchasing. This paper describes updated data collected in March 2022 by putting survey questions about self-reported cross-border and online purchasing to a panel. Data were first collected in March 2021 and those were described in the main report | Public Health Scotland, UK
Minimum alcohol pricing impact on drinks sector 'minimal'
Minimum unit pricing (MUP) has had little economic impact on Scotland's drinks industry, a report has found | BBC, UK
Why more than 1,700 drug-driving prosecutions could be overturned
The National Police Chiefs’ Council has announced that all drug-driving tests produced by Synlab between April 2019 and December 2020 have to be withdrawn | Independent, UK
Homeless people in English hostels at risk of return to streets as bills soar
Exclusive: charities say energy costs and underfunded contracts threaten government promise to end rough sleeping by 2024 | Guardian, UK
Scottish Government using ‘placebo policies’ over drugs deaths
The Scottish Government opted for “placebo policies” in its multimillion-pound response to the drug deaths crisis rather than tackling the issue’s root causes, academics have said | National, UK
'It's a game of roulette': Aberdare mum whose son died after taking MDMA wants drugs legalised
Nadia Rees’ son Ben was 23 when he died after taking MDMA. He was on holiday in Berlin with friends at the time and wasn’t told the MDMA he bought included a lethal substitute - PMA | ITV, UK
Addiction: Ex-convict mentors TikTok users on drug abuse
A man who served 22 years in prison has become a mentor on social media to help people with addictions. Paul Simmons, from Swindon, was abused as a child which lead to drug use, homelessness and violent crime | BBC, UK
Sober Open Mic Night [Facebook page]
Starting starting Friday 10th February. 238 Stapleton Rd, Easton, Bristol BS5 0NT A Sober Open Mic night at Coffee House 238 | Bristol Sober Spaces, UK
The Scottish Drug Policy Conversations on Cannabis
Tue, 21 February 2023, 13:00 – 17:00 GMT. The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH1 1PB. A private event aimed at individuals and organisations involved in the emerging medical and adult use cannabis market in Scotland | SPRG, UK
Psychedelics & PTSD: On the Frontline - at the University of Manchester
Wed, 15 March 2023, 18:30 – 21:30 GMT. Roscoe Building University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL. An evening with a unique line-up of psychedelic researchers and people with lived experience who have experienced the power of psychedelics | Drug Science, UK
Grantham cannabis raid: Two charged after 1,000 plants seized
Two men have been charged after hundreds of cannabis plants were found at a disused town centre shop in Lincolnshire | BBC, UK
International news
Legal Environment Scan
INPUD are very excited to be releasing the first, community-friendly legal assessment tool specifically focused on people who use drugs | INPUD, UK
Canada province experiments with decriminalising hard drugs
Canada's province of British Columbia is starting a first-in-the-nation trial decriminalising small amounts of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin | BBC, UK
New phase of collaboration between the EMCDDA and the Ukrainian Ministry of Health
This month sees the start of a new phase of collaboration between the EMCDDA and Ukraine following the signing of a Working Arrangement between the agency and the Ukrainian Ministry of Health. The signatories of the agreement were EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel and Ukrainian Minister of Health Viktor Liashko. Exchanging expertise, experience and methodology in drug monitoring will be at the heart of the collaboration | EMCDDA, Portugal
Machine learning identifies drugs that could be repurposed to help people quit smoking cigarettes
Medications like dextromethorphan, used to treat coughs caused by cold and flu, could potentially be repurposed to help people quit smoking cigarettes, according to a study by Penn State College of Medicine and University of Minnesota researchers. They developed a novel machine learning method, where computer programs analyze data sets for patterns and trends... | News Medical, USA
Study shows how personal stories of health risks got students to stop vaping
Ph.D. candidate Babac Salmani and Faculty of Health Sciences professor Harry Prapavessis have published a paper in the Journal of Health Psychology showing vaping intentions—and, to a lesser degree, the behavior itself—can be reduced after learning about the potential consequences | Medical Xpress, USA
Reducing opioid prescriptions decreases opioid use and related harms, but it takes time
Despite recent large-scale efforts to combat the opioid overdose epidemic, including reductions in opioid overprescribing, poisoning deaths continue to rise at unprecedented levels. This study examined whether a time lag between prescription reductions and lives saved is one potential reason for this discrepancy | Recovery Research Institute, USA
Recreational marijuana policies have mixed effects on opioid use, may affect other substance use patterns
Most states have adopted marijuana policies that allow for medicinal and/or recreational use. Some prior research suggests such policies may increase marijuana use as a substitute for other more immediately harmful substances. In this study, researchers examined the relationship between recreational marijuana laws and subsequent substance use patterns, with a focus on prescription opioid misuse | Recovery Research Institute, USA
Beyond “Zero Tolerance”? Syringe Access in Canadian Prisons
In the outside world, if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that has harm reduction services, you might have access to a syringe service program. There, you can get supplies and information, or meet with staff and others who use drugs who can teach you how to pack a really good pipe, or tricks to avoid missing a shot | Filter Magazine, USA
B.C.’s decriminalization experiment is about to begin — and other jurisdictions are watching
On Tuesday, British Columbia will begin a three-year decriminalization experiment, allowing drug users 18 and over to carry a up to 2.5 grams of opioids, such as heroin and fentanyl, as well as cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA | Toronto Star, Canada
Encounters with police drug detection dogs at music festivals amongst people who regularly use ecstasy and/or other illicit stimulants in Australia
Despite increasing evidence challenging the effectiveness and legality of police drug dog operations, these strategies remain common. We aimed to describe drug dog encounters at music festivals, behavioural adaptations taken in anticipation of their presence and consequences of encounters amongst a sample of people who regularly use MDMA/ecstasy | Drug and Alcohol Review, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
What happened with UK alcohol consumption and harm in 2022?
In January 2022, I wrote that there were no signs of the ‘return to normal’ in drinking patterns that was hoped for in the wake of the pandemic. A year on, just as how questions about drinking cultures in Whitehall and Downing Street and the ‘partygate’ inquiry have dragged on, many of the same concerning trends in alcohol consumption have persisted, too | IAS blog, UK