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Daily news - 24th July 2023

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UK news

New support for Somerset hospital patients with alcohol issues

Hospital patients who also have struggles with alcohol are being supported by a new service. A team of nurse specialists at Musgrove Park Hospital work with patients who are dependent on alcohol, as well as those with a high alcohol intake. Alcohol-related hospital admissions in Somerset are significantly higher than the national average | BBC, UK

Avon & Somerset Police trained to use life saving drug naloxone

In a new collaborative project, we have trained up nearly 200 police officers from Avon & Somerset Police to carry and use naloxone. Naloxone is a medication that temporarily reverses the effects of an opioid overdose allowing time for the person to receive emergency medical care | BDP, UK

Implementing buprenorphine prolonged-release injection using a health at the margins approach for transactional sex-workers

Access to prescribed interventions and retention in treatment services are associated with improved health outcomes and reduced premature mortality rates for people living with opioid use disorder (OUD). In Leeds, transactional sex-workers frequently cycled in and out of treatment for OUD such that they never reached a level of engagement that permitted opportunities to meet their healthcare or housing needs | Frontiers in Psychiatry, UK

Further Education and Schools: Electronic Cigarettes

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help schools and colleges address vaping by their pupils | They work for you, UK

Kent man with depression calls for ketamine prescriptions

Ketamine is licensed to be used as an anaesthetic but has a reputation as an illegal party drug. But Simon Bottle, from Hawkhurst, Kent, has lived with depression for 30 years and says taking the drug has been "game changing" | BBC, UK

Amazing tales of recovery from addiction across Ayrshire

Harbour Ayrshire, formed just a year ago, celebrated some of their biggest success stories at their first Harbour Hero Awards, held in the Carlton Hotel in Prestwick | Irvine Times, UK

A chat with Recovery Street Film Festival 2022 filma maker, John Paul Chapman

John Paul Chapman, or JP for short, entered Recovery Street Film Festival 2022 on a whim with his mates at Chase Recovery. Their film ‘My Head Feels Like a Washing Machine’ was shortlisted and eventually placed third overall in the annual film competition | RSFF, USA

Snapchat: Does app give drug gangs access to teenagers?

Minutes after opening a Snapchat account pretending to be a 15-year-old girl, I'm amazed at what I see. Drugs seem to be readily available - just a couple of clicks away. I thought this world was hidden and hard to access, but it is so easy to find | BBC, UK

Suella Braverman refuses plea of man barred from UK to be reunited with son

Siyabonga Twala from Chester has been in limbo in Ankara for more than six months after he was blocked from boarding a flight back to Manchester last December. He wrote to the Home Office asking to be allowed to come back but instead Braverman has ordered his exclusion “on the basis of serious criminality” because of a cannabis offence from five years ago. Twala’s lawyer said Braverman’s intervention set a “worrying precedent” | Guardian, UK

Jason Zadrozny: Council leader denies fraud, tax and drug charges

The leader of Ashfield District Council has denied fraud, income tax evasion and possession of cocaine | BBC, UK

Drug dealer who sold deadly heroin mix that killed two people is jailed for more than two years

A drug dealer who sold heroin mixed with a deadly synthetic opioid that killed two people has been jailed for more than two years. Ahmed Khelifi, 39, had a £1,000 stash of heroin laced with etonitazene - the same powerful substance discovered at the scene where a man and woman were found dead in Basildon, Essex, last month | ITV, UK

Taunton shop sold illegal vapes to children from hidden hatch

Police and Trading Standards found thousands of packets of illegal cigarettes, more than 300 pouches of illegal tobacco and a number of non-compliant vapes at the shop in Taunton | BBC, UK

International news

International Drug User Remembrance Day - 2023

On International Drug User Remembrance Day, Friday 21 July, we launch the 21 Days of Remembering the drug user activists who have worked tirelessly to shift drug policies and create a more humane approach towards drug use | INPUD, UK

[Open access] Alcohol use can cause harm not only to the person who consumes it but also to others. Prior research has found that these alcohol-attributable harms to others differ across socioeconomic groups, though several findings have been contradictory. The aim of this contribution was to study the role of individual-level and population-level income inequalities in alcohol's harm to others among women and men | IJDP, UK

Searches for drug packages continue on Donegal coastline

Air and sea searches are continuing along the coastline of County Donegal following the discovery of suspected cocaine worth €4m (£3.5m) | BBC, UK

Police seize record cocaine haul in Italy worth more than £730 million

Authorities have made the biggest cocaine bust ever found on Italian territory off the southern coast of Sicily. Guardia di Finanza border police said in a statement that the force began monitoring a suspicious “mother” ship that was maintaining a position just outside Italian territorial waters in the Straits of Sicily | Independent, UK

Two men accused of importing $61m of cocaine hidden in yacht at Townsville

Matthieu Anthony Rees and Rachid Kachour arrested at ACT apartment after federal police seize 247kg of cocaine | Guardian, UK

A call for cannabis research reform in New Zealand: Why real world evidence and patients’ voices matter

While cannabis based medicines hold out the promise of much needed relief, at the same time, this often conflicts with many countries’ drug laws and the dogma of prohibition. Centuries of stigma around cannabis (and other drug use) has muddied the waters and made it incredibly difficult to progress an accessible and affordable therapeutic cannabis scheme | Drug Science, UK

Use of ketamine 'increasing in popularity' among festival-goers

A euphoric drug that has been used on the margins of Ireland’s festival scene appears to be “increasing in popularity”, particularly among younger people, a HSE report indicates | Irish Examiner, Ireland

Gardaí to be trained to test drug samples to take pressure off national labs

Gardai are to be trained to test drug samples which will take the pressure off the National Forensics Laboratories | Kildare Nationalist, Ireland

KY commission hears from experts on promise of psychedelic to treat opioid addiction

Karen Butcher, whose son died in 2020 of an opioid overdose, asked a panel of experts on Monday in Frankfort: If cost wasn't a factor, why shouldn't Kentucky explore the use of an illicit psychedelic drug as a treatment for opioid addiction? | Medical Xpress, USA

Could New Weight-Loss Drugs like Ozempic Treat Addiction?

Ozempic and similar medications may target brain circuitry involved in addiction as well as appetite control | Scientific American, USA

SF Chronicle’s “Honduran Drug Dealers” Series Fuels Xenophobia

In the past month, the San Francisco Chronicle has published a series of articles ostensibly aimed at getting to the root of the “complex and multifaceted” issues of fentanyl sales and overdose in San Francisco | Filter Magazine, USA

NT government extends Alice Springs takeaway alcohol restrictions for at least 12 months

The Northern Territory government will extend takeaway liquor restrictions in Alice Springs for at least the next 12 months, citing a dramatic reduction in harm to the community since their introduction | abc.net.au, Australia

Concern over nitrous oxide abuse as hospital sees rise in spinal injuries

Auckland City Hospital is worried about a sudden increase in patients admitted with severe spinal injuries due to the abuse of nitrous oxide | NZ Herald, New Zealand

Taking drugs for science: Auckland man says medical trial changed his perspective on MDMA

It was the most MDMA he’d ever taken. He listened to music for two hours, contemplated his life and relationships, felt talkative and thought deeply about scuba diving. But Evan* wasn’t out clubbing - he was lying on a bed in a central Auckland research facility at 8.30am one morning this year, blindfolded and next to a therapist | NZ Herald, New Zealand

Blogs, comment and opinion

Integrating smoking cessation treatment into routine care for people with mental illness: how will the NHS cope?

Thirty percent of smokers in the UK have a mental health condition, and more than 40% of adults with serious mental health conditions smoke (Souto et al., 2019). People with mental health conditions are 19% less likely to stop smoking than people without these conditions | Mental Elf blog, UK

A day in Parliament for Alcohol Awareness Week

During Alcohol Awareness Week Alcohol Change UK met with MPs in Westminster to talk about the true cost of alcohol, from health and relationship difficulties to problems with family and finances | Alcohol Change UK, UK

Time to make drug policies work for people and communities

In early July, Edinburgh was the site of the annual plenary of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a group of global leaders lobbying governments worldwide for drug policies that put people’s health and safety first. I’ve been a member of the Commission since its founding in 2011 | Virgin blog, UK

My sister is drinking heavily while pregnant. How can I help her stop?

Excessive alcohol consumption puts the baby at risk so she needs urgent professional support – but approach her with compassion | Guardian, UK

Catherine Conlon: Why the rising price of a pint is better for our health

Increasing the price of alcohol impacts on overall consumption figures as well as hospital admissions and deaths | Irish Examiner opinion, Ireland

Cormac O'Keeffe: Invest in frontline to help tackle street violence

Community groups have flagged ad nauseum the crisis in certain communities: with people simply not feeling safe; the constant threat of violence and the corrosive impact of open drug dealing, public drug usage and drug debt intimidation | Irish Examiner opinion, Ireland

And finally...

Are these Florida sharks addicted to cocaine? - video

Scientists think hungry sharks could be feasting on bales of cocaine, ditched by drug smugglers off the coast of Florida | Channel 4 News, UK

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