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Daily news - 17th July 2023

UK new

Dele Alli: Sleeping pill addiction 'widespread' in football, says psychotherapist

Addiction to sleeping pills in football is "much wider than people realise", according to former Oxford United psychotherapist Gary Bloom. Everton midfielder Dele Alli said he spent six weeks in rehab for sleeping pill addiction and mental health issues | BBC, UK

Disposable vapes: Councils call for total ban by 2024

Disposable vapes cause litter problems, are a fire hazard and appeal too strongly to children, according to local councils in England and Wales. The Local Government Association says 1.3m vapes are thrown away each week and wants them banned by 2024 | BBC, UK

SNP minister told to halt community health cuts amid drug deaths fears

Leading public sector trade union Unison has written to the health secretary to warn cuts "make no sense when Scotland has the worst drug death tragedies in Europe" | Herald, UK

Smokers who get e-cigarette flavour advice more likely to quit, report finds

Study says quarter of smokers had quit after three months and 13% cut consumption by more than half | Guardian, UK

Southend-on-Sea: City aims for 'smoke free' target with vaping push

A city is on target to become "smoke free" by 2030 by encouraging smokers to vape, a health boss claims. Director of public health, Krishna Ramkhelawon, said figures showed less than 5% of Southend-on-Sea's population might smoke by the end of the decade | BBC, UK

Drug Science to launch first study to directly test molecular neuroplasticity effects of DMT in humans

With first human study, Scientists believe a drug found in Amazonian plants could help the UK’s stroke victims — and the 1.81 million of us who live with depression | Drug Science, UK

Community pharmacists in Wales warn they're close to burnout

Community pharmacists in Wales have warned they are close to "burnout". They described being under increased pressure to deliver more services to patients without adequate financial support from the Welsh government | BBC, UK

This is why some of the UK’s top medical bodies support drug decriminalisation

When the Scottish Government endorsed drug decriminalisation in a major policy paper last week, the RCPE quickly came out in favour. So did the Faculty of Public Health. And when the Royal Society for Public Health released a paper recommending the same move in 2018, the 500-year-old Royal College of Physicians of London declared their support for it too | Metro, UK

Bereaved families demand reform to UK’s outdated drug laws

As Sunak rejects legalisation in Scotland, grieving families ask how many more must die as a result of 50-year-old law | Open Democracy, UK

Drug addiction. Chris Gorham - audio

Looking at the impact drug-taking can have on individuals, families and communities | BBC Radio Norfolk, UK

UK Recovery Walk Hull 2023

23rd September 2023. One of the biggest celebrations of people in recovery in the UK. The UK Recovery Walk 2023 will be held in Hull from 11.00am on Saturday 23rd September. Individuals and families will walk through the centre of the town to celebrate the event | FAVOR, UK

Recovery Walk Scotland Greenock 2023

23rd September 2023. Recovery Walk Scotland is the largest recovery event in Scotland and has been held in different locations across our beautiful country since 2013. The event is comprised of three parts: Roses in the River Memorial, Recovery Walk Scotland procession through the town and a Recovery Festival and Village in Greenock | Recovery Walk Scotland, UK

Shops asked to halt mafia-themed Scotch whisky orders

Regulators have asked UK retailers to stop placing orders for a Sicilian mafia-themed Scotch whisky. The call by the Portman Group, which regulates the UK's alcohol sector, came after it found that Polish firm Bartex Bartol had breached rules over its "Cosa Nostra" product | BBC, UK

Cumberland Council finds vapes sold in Workington to under-18s

Enforcement officers have found a number of retailers breaking the law by selling disposable vapes to under-18s in a town, a council said | BBC, UK

Betting firm logos shown on TV up to 3,500 times in Premier League matches, study finds

Average was once every 16 seconds across 10 matches last season, with a total of 3,522 in West Ham v Chelsea | Guardian, UK

Huge cannabis farm found in Burnley house

Cannabis plants with a street value of about £50,000 have been found growing over four storeys of a house | BBC, UK

Cannabis factory found in HMOs crackdown

North Northamptonshire Council said it targeted 76 private properties in the East Northants, Kettering and Wellingborough areas with the police | BBC, UK

International news

Cocaine worth €11.4m found in horsebox at Rosslare Europort

Two men have been arrested after cocaine worth €11.4m (£9.8m) was discovered in a horsebox trailer at a port in the Republic of Ireland | BBC, UK

Six arrests after €2.1m of drugs seized

Gardaí (Irish police) have seized drugs with an estimated value of €2.1m (£1.8m) during searches in counties Kildare and Westmeath | BBC, UK

Russia is sending 'disposable' soldiers to fight Ukraine high on amphetamines to ensure they 'still run at machine guns,' military expert says

Russia has taken to chemically lowering its soldiers' inhibitions to guarantee these ill-trained civilians and convicts continue to fight no matter the odds in the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to a UK defense think tank | Business Insider, UK

Drug treatment bodies 'the Cinderella of health service'

Drug treatment organisations must be funded like any other part of the health service, says the head of a drug treatment service in Cork | Irish Examiner, Ireland

Housing Minister praises Council’s plan to turn drug dens into affordable homes

Local authorities across the country should follow Limerick City and County Council’s lead in taking ownership of vacant buildings used by criminals to store and sell drugs, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien told the Limerick Post | Limerick Post, Ireland

New multi-city syringe analysis uncovers latest patterns of injecting drug use

The latest patterns of injecting drug use in a selection of European cities are presented today in a new analysis from the EMCDDA. The findings are from the agency’s ESCAPE project, which investigates the substances used by people who inject drugs (PWID) by chemically analysing the content of used syringes. In the latest ESCAPE data-collection round (2022), the contents of 1 845 used syringes were analysed via a sentinel network of harm-reduction sites in 10 EU cities, plus Oslo, Odessa and Tunis. The results show that the drugs being injected in Europe are highly diverse, with a total of 54 psychoactive substances identified | EMCDDA, Portugal

Despite a high prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) among people in prison, there is little knowledge of how many receive the recommended opioid agonist treatment (OAT) and what characterizes those who receive OAT and those who do not when it comes to mental health comorbidities. We aimed to describe people with OUD in Norwegian prisons over a ten-year period and their OAT status, and to investigate comorbidity of mental health disorders stratified by gender | DAD, USA

Viral caffeine-heavy drink raises concerns for US kids

With its extremely high levels of caffeine, a hip new soft drink is raising fears in the United States that it might be dangerous for children, who have been snapping up the beverage since it was launched by famous YouTube personalities | Medical Xpress, USA

Berkeley Vote Spreads Psychedelic Decriminalization in the Bay Area

City lawmakers in Berkeley, California have voted to decriminalize naturally occurring psychedelic drugs. It means local police will be advised not to arrest people for possessing and growing these substances, and the city will avoid spending tax dollars on enforcement. Back in 2019, Berkeley was one of the first cities to consider this change; several years later, it’s finally become the latest of over a dozen in the United States to decriminalize psychedelics | Filter Magazine, USA

Incorporating prescription psychostimulants into the continuum of care for people with stimulant use disorder in Canada

Accumulating evidence supports treatment of stimulant use disorder with prescribed psychostimulants, but no pharmacologic treatments for stimulant use disorder are currently approved in Canada | CMAJ, Canada

Lifetime ban on cigarettes for Hongkongers born after certain date proposed in public consultation on smoking

Banning Hongkongers born after a certain date from buying cigarettes is among measures in an open-ended public consultation on discouraging smoking, although insiders say some of the more controversial ideas were dropped | SCMP, China

What did Australia's first drug-checking site CanTEST find in its inaugural year?

From pink cocaine and dangerous opioids to a never-before-seen drug dubbed CanKet, Australia's first fixed-site drug-checking service has made history-making discoveries in 12 months | abc.net.au, Australia

Blogs, comment and opinion

Minimum Unit Pricing in Scotland: Has it been a success?

In this blog, Dr Peter Rice, President of the European Alcohol Policy Alliance and Chair of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, examines the final report from Public Health Scotland that evaluates the impact of minimum unit pricing in Scotland | AHA UK, UK

Minimum unit pricing: Main solution to problem drinking and alcohol-related deaths in Scotland lies beyond flagship policy – John McLaren

Like ambitions to ‘eradicate poverty’, MSPs’ talk about Scotland’s relationship with alcohol seems to be more about easy rhetoric than truly grappling with the issues | Scotsman opinion, UK

Rehabilitation funding is the solution to reducing Scotland’s unacceptably high level of drug deaths - John McLellan

As High Street traders face daily battles with the consequences of the failed “war on drugs” it will take some explaining for them to understand how the Scottish Government’s aim of legalising possession of drugs for personal use is the answer | Edinburgh News opinion, UK

Youth Vaping: A Closer Look at Harms, Research and Policy

There’s an eery feeling with vaping that harks back to a vintage time of big tobacco when the marketing was unregulated, uncontested, and backed by pseudo-science. Robert Jackler, an advertisement researcher at Stanford University said: “e-cigarettes ignore absolutely everything that was ever agreed to around combustible cigarettes.” | Talking Drugs, UK

Uniting Voices for Change: Anyone’s Child Seventh Mass Lobby Against Prohibition

In a powerful demonstration of unity, I had the privilege to meet activists, politicians, and journalists at Parliament Square on the 27th of June to discuss UK drug policy reform. The event was the seventh mass lobby organised by Anyone’s Child – a network of families with lives devastated by the harms of prohibition | Anyone's Child blog, UK

Doug Naysmith, MP who campaigned successfully to have smoking banned in public places – obituary

[Possible paywall] Doug Naysmith, who has died aged 82, was a bearded Scottish immunologist who as Labour and Co-Operative MP for Bristol North West from 1997 to 2010 took a leading role in Parliament’s handling of health and science issues.... | Telegraph, UK

The Perfect Storm is Foundering Our SUD Interventional Infrastructure

Exactly twenty years ago, key SUD field leaders examined our SUD service infrastructure and published can the national addiction treatment infrastructure support the public’s demand for quality care? It noted extreme instability across our entire workforce. There was inadequate infrastructure to meet our nation’s SUD Care needs. History shows us that we mostly kicked the can down the road on those and other challenges. It is a can that cannot be kicked any further | Recovery Review blog, USA

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