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Daily news - 11th July 2023

UK news

Open consultation: Visiting in care homes, hospitals and hospices

Providers of residential and inpatient services should contribute to the national consultation on visiting guidance and legislation by DHSC Visiting in care homes, hospitals and hospices - GOV.UK to help ensure that the operational needs of residential and inpatient drug and alcohol services are fully considered and supported. The closing date is the 16th August | DHSC, UK

Impact of the introduction of medical cannabis in the UK on risk perception and recreational use of cannabis: A longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis

Cannabis was rescheduled in the UK in November 2018 so that it can now be prescribed as a treatment for certain medical conditions. It is not yet known whether this has had an impact on peoples’ perception of its risk or on their recreational use of cannabis | Drug Science, UK

[Open access] The aim of the paper is to understand how people who use drugs (PWUD) experience stigma. To examine this issue, this paper draws on Bourdieu's logic of practice to understand how social harm emerges relationally between people via ‘mechanisms of stigma’ | SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, UK

Vaping industry hits back after Leeds councillors call for plain packaging for e-cigarettes

The vaping industry says it strongly opposes plain packaging for e-cigarettes, after councillors in Leeds criticised the way the products are marketed | Yorkshire Evening Post, UK

Why neurodivergent people are self-medicating with weed

A recent poll has found that 1.8 million people in the UK are self-medicating using cannabis, a 29 per cent rise from 2019 | Dazed Digital, UK

Wiltshire Police seize 100kg of cannabis in single raid

More than 100kg of cannabis has been seized in a single haul in an operation targeting organised crime groups. Wiltshire Police worked with Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and charity Crimestoppers, in Operation Mille | BBC, UK

Portsmouth docker jailed over £118m cocaine haul in bananas

The drugs, weighing 1.5 tonnes, were found on a ship in the Netherlands in April 2022 | BBC, UK

Workington: Moore siblings convicted over Class A drugs ring

Brothers Kieran, Dean and Jackson Moore and their sister Amber Moore were snared by Cumbria Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit | BBC, UK

International news

Germany: Minister plans ban on smoking in cars with children

Health Ministry proposals would prohibit smoking in vehicles carrying children and pregnant women. The ban could include e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and cannabis | DW, Germany

Sharp rise in severe, alcohol-related liver injury during pandemic: Nationwide analysis

A boom in alcohol sales during the pandemic appears to have had dire consequences for some as hospital admissions for alcohol-related hepatitis, a life-threatening liver inflammation, increased dramatically, according to a study of national hospitalization data | Medical Xpress, USA

Addiction research shows the influence that social factors have on men's health

Men are twice as likely to die of overdoses as women. Gender stereotypes discourage them from seeking help and finding healthy solutions to pain caused by trauma and other issues | Philly Voice, USA

New study debunks claims of a psychedelic cannabinoid

The cannabis plant is complex, with about 100 cannabinoids, or compounds, many of which science still knows little or nothing about. The two most prevalent active ingredients—tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)—have been well-studied. However, a variety of other cannabinoids are being introduced to the marketplace at a fast clip. Among the latest is THC-O-acetate, which has been gaining traction amid claims on social media, online message forums such as Reddit, and even some manufacturers' own advertising, that it produces psychedelic effects similar to LSD or psilocybin mushrooms | Medical Xpress, USA

Q&A: Expert discusses the science and safety of recreational marijuana

Maryland joins 23 other states, plus the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, in permitting anyone 21 and older to buy and use cannabis for both recreational and medicinal purposes. But as more states make cannabis legal, what are policymakers and government agencies doing to ensure its safety? What does the latest research on cannabis indicate that can help the public make informed decisions? | John Hopkins University, USA

Harm Reduction: Young People in Appalachia and the South Are Addressing the Overdose Crisis

Marlie Thompson, 19, remembers when someone on her campus found what they believed to be fentanyl in their cocaine. The person posted this news on the app YikYak with a word of caution — that on college campuses, students should "be careful out there." Thompson is the founder of the University of Alabama’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), which works to educate students on campus about substance use and how to minimize risk | Teen Vogue, USA

Study: Consumer-led peer recovery program program deemed a success [Australia]

Outcomes from the "Circles of Support" program, a free peer education and recovery program for families and friends of individuals who experience alcohol and drug-related issues, has been deemed a success by Flinders University rural and remote health experts | Medical Xpress, USA

The implementation and public health impacts of cannabis legalization in Canada: a systematic review

We provide a narrative summary of research on changes in cannabis arrests, cannabis products and prices, cannabis use and cannabis-related harm since legalization | Addiction, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

Scottish politicians have the courage to decriminalise drugs, but Westminster is too timid to let them

Objecting to capital punishment was once taboo too. Real change comes from politicians brave enough to speak up | Guardian, UK

Peter Krykant: Scotland must act on drug deaths even if the UK won’t

Scotland's Drugs Policy Minister Elena Whitham on Friday launched a call for the UK Government to decriminalise drugs for personal use or devolve powers to the Scottish Parliament to take this step, a step that would stop people who use drugs receiving a criminal record for simple possession | National opinion, UK

Decriminalisation of drugs is elitist caprice masking abject failure

When Irvine Welsh described drug addiction as the “disease of the stupid” he was drawing on what I suppose we must all now call ‘lived experience’. It was all there in Trainspotting, his first great novel and in the movie that followed. Yet, there was a lot more going on in this book than the bleak lives of Renton, Sickboy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy | Herald opinion, UK

Expert committee’s advice on vaping is dynamite to Butler’s prohibition model

Internal confidential emails from the Australian National Advisory Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ANACAD) have blown Australia’s prohibition policy on vaping out of the water | Colin Mendelsohn, Australia

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