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Daily news - 13th July 2023 |
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UK news
Researchers welcome new support for ‘monkey dust’ users'
As part of the new National Drug Strategy, ‘From harm to hope’, Stoke-on-Trent City Council received additional grant funding of just over five million pounds from April 2022 to March 2024, to improve drug and alcohol treatment | Staffordshire University, UK
Alcohol-free venue provides ‘safe space’ for community - video
A cafe in Cheltenham is one of a growing number of alcohol-free live entertainment venues across the UK. Sophia Downes, 26, works at the Sober Parrot and gave up drinking six months ago | BBC, UK
Some UK drug and alcohol treatment services are providing creative arts interventions to aid recovery as part of their offering to service users
This study investigates what currently is on offer and the perception of the usefulness creative arts can bring to the table. More research is needed to substantiate effectiveness levels and extend the understanding of how these interventions are delivered | Qeios, UK
UK’s Largest Ever Medicinal Cannabis Report Reveals Staggering Lack of Prescriptions and Lack of Public Awareness of Legal Status
A new report has revealed that approximately 29.6 million people (50.2%) in the UK could be entitled to a medicinal cannabis prescription, yet just 0.48% of the population has been given a prescription for it | Wellbeing News, UK
More Than My Past: Prison Release - audio
This episode is all about prison release - and the thoughts, feelings and practicalities that go along with it. Our hosts film star Jason Flemyng and Forward Trust Executive Director of Recovery Julie Muir explore the topic with a selection of guests from Series 2 who have all come out and stayed out. People are so often released full of anxiety and uncertainty and reoffending seems like the only option to provide for others. This can be improved by support services that help to create a full roadmap and plan for someone's release. Leaving without the support of new options too often just leads people back to what they know | More Than My Past, UK
Professor David Best: From Zero to LERO - podcast
In this podcast we talk to recovery academic, David Best | David Higham, UK
Bacterial infections and social determinants of health with Thomas Brothers - audio
In this episode Ben Scher talks to Dr Thomas Brothers about his qualitative systematic review looking at infections from injecting drug use. Tommy and Ben talk about bacterial and fungal infections and how social and structural factors can have a detrimental impact on access to treatment and health outcomes for people who use drugs | SSA, UK
Vaping: Young People
What steps is the Secretary of State for Health taking to tackle vaping by young people | They work for you, UK
Young people and vaping - ensure your ads don’t go up in smoke
If you’re a marketer of vaping products, you should know that there are many ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ when it comes to advertising - but creating compliant ads doesn’t have to be a drag. Read on for a quick look at the key media and content restrictions related to young people and vaping | ASA, UK
Just under three weeks are left to enter the 2023 Recovery Street Film Festival
There's still time left to enter the Recovery Street Film Festival 2023. This year we're asking filmmakers with lived experience to explore our latest theme, ‘The sky is the limit’. The theme is all about viewing recovery as a gift of opportunity. Opportunity to heal, grow, travel, find freedom, meaning, love, and kindness. Recovery journeys can take us to places we never thought possible. The sky is the limit, so where will your film take you and your audience? The competition is open until 11.59pm on Tuesday 1st August 2023 | RSFF, UK
International news
Analysis of changes in alcohol prices, taxation and affordability in the Republic of Ireland (PDF)
The Central Statistics Office in the Republic of Ireland publish monthly data on the Consumer Price Index, the government’s preferred measure of inflation. Data is available in a consistent time series back to January 2003, with the latest data reflecting prices in May 2023. Over this period overall inflation has risen by 41.8%, with alcohol prices rising by 42.9% | University of Sheffield, UK
The celebrities investing in alcohol brands - audio
We're in Hollywood, where a rising number of stars are putting their names on wine and liquor products. Is it a sensible investment? Or is the market reaching saturation point? | BBC, UK
Carlsberg cuts alcohol in beer ahead of duty increase
[Possible paywall] The brewer is the latest in a string of companies to cut its alcohol content | Telegraph, UK
Oddities and commodities: The sometimes confusing and contradictory functions of alcohol in society
In the third edition of Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity, a group of esteemed researchers analyse the global burden of alcohol-related disease, the economic and political power of the alcohol industry, and the scientific basis for alcohol policy. The following edited excerpt sets the stage for the book by discussing the dual role of alcohol as a drug and a commodity | SSA, UK
Flavored vapes are supposed to be illegal, but they're still widely available
Disposable and fruit and candy flavored vapes can't be sold legally in the U.S., yet they're still readily available. Why? The answer is complex and has concerned parents wringing their hands | npr, USA
Researchers receive $3.9 million grant to evaluate effects of e-cigarette flavors on smoking behaviors
A new $3.9 million grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow researchers with the Center for Tobacco Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center to evaluate effects of e-cigarette flavors on the smoking behaviors of current adult smokers | News Medical, USA
Time Short to Stop the WHO’s Assault on Tobacco Harm Reduction
You may not have heard it, but the final lap bell has been rung in the race to inflict maximum damage on tobacco harm reduction at a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting later this year. From here on in, it’s a sprint to the finish. If the WHO is successful, public health worldwide will be the loser | Filter Magazine, USA
You Can’t Help Noticing — On Wine & Succession
Ordering a glass of wine may seem innocuous at first, but the reasoning for that wine being chosen, how the necessary interactions between server and customer play out, and the subsequent way the wine is drunk, discussed and displayed to the wider world can speak volumes. Just ask anyone who serves drinks for a living | Pellicle Magazine, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
How children affected by criminal exploitation in Northern Ireland need better legal protections
To date, most research on child criminal exploitation has been in the context of county lines drugs trafficking. My research looks at child criminal exploitation in the context of both drugs trafficking networks in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and paramilitary groups in Belfast, Northern Ireland | Conversation, UK
Total abstinence and premier league footballers: an unrealistic and unfair pursuit for ‘perfection’
Is it fair to force standards of total abstinence on football players? Matt Rees explores... | Volteface, UK
‘The dirty disease’ – both smokers and non-smokers get lung cancer. They face stigma on top of illness
Earlier this year, federal health minister Mark Butler announced a new national Lung Cancer Screening Program. The first of its kind for lung cancer, the screening program will open initially to current and former smokers aged 50 to 70 years by July 2025. It aims to save lives by detecting lung cancer earlier | Conversation, Australia
Chemical adventurers: the science of the mind has a long, colourful history of psychedelic exploration
There is a delirious moment in the 1988 documentary Cane Toads: An Unnatural History when a back-lit hippie explains that consuming mescaline allowed Native Americans to see the world through the eyes of the cactus. It is the same when people imbibe the skin secretions of the toad, he mumbles, although sadly he “didn’t like it that much” | Conversation, Australia