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Daily news - 12th June 2023 |
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UK news
Correspondence: Scheduling and lawful access to nitrous oxide: letter to the ACMD
The government has written to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs for advice on the scheduling and lawful access to nitrous oxide | Home Office and The Rt Hon Chris Philp MP, UK
Instagram influencers advertising nicotine products to young people, charity warns
Highly addictive nicotine products are being advertised to young people by influencers on social media, a charity has warned | Guardian, UK
Drugs, pesticides and medicine found in south coast seawater
Researchers from Brunel and Portsmouth universities analysed nearly 300 samples from Langstone and Chichester harbours, in Hampshire and West Sussex | BBC, UK
Mum whose son, 21, died after taking magic mushrooms calls for change in law
A Mirror investigation has shed light on a 'grey area', that means firms which sell grow your own magic mushrooms kits for as little as £13 cannot be prosecuted | Mirror, UK
Individual cigarettes 'should be printed with health warnings'
The Scottish Government is being asked to follow Canada in the move with labels including 'poison in every puff' | STV, UK
Hemp: Licensing
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs on the licensing process of growing hemp | They work for you, UK
Restrictions on vaping products to be considered
Proposed new laws to prevent under-age vaping will start its journey through the House of Keys on Tuesday. If approved the Vaping Products Bill 2023 would bring Manx laws in line with the UK on age controls for the products | BBC, UK
Addiction Audio: The first 72 hours of long-acting buprenorphine
Professor Joanne Neale joins Rob Calder on the Addiction Audio podcast to talk about her latest research into how people feel during the first three days of taking Buvidal – a long-acting form of buprenorphine, prescribed for people dependent on opioids | SSA, UK
IAS strategy 2023 - 2026: Our challenge for 2023-2026: Addressing alcohol-related inequalities
The harm caused by alcohol is not equally experienced across society. Evidence consistently shows that the most deprived communities consume less alcohol yet suffer higher rates of alcohol-related health and social problems compared to the least deprived | IAS, UK
Kingswood shop given alcohol ban over reports of cannabis sold to children
An off-licence outside Bristol has been banned from selling alcohol after it allegedly sold cannabis to children. Customers at Fosters in Kingswood could reportedly ask for a "cheese sandwich" as a code word for buying cannabis, police told a licensing hearing | BBC, UK
Cannabis factory found at disused Ladywood building
A huge cannabis factory containing up to a thousand plants has been found at a disused building in Birmingham | BBC, UK
International news
Boots owner pays $500m settlement to New Mexico over claims it helped fuel opioid addiction in the state
New Mexico's lawsuit against Walgreens was one of more than 3,300 filed by state and local governments accusing pharmacies and distributors of ignoring red flags that opioids were being diverted to the black market | Sky News, UK
‘This doesn’t make sense any more’: why you still can’t buy wine in New York supermarkets
Prohibition-era laws require a trip to the liquor store. Those shops say they’re defending an intimate tradition | Guardian, UK
Most Irish doctors support decriminalisation of cannabis, survey finds
A new survey of Irish doctors has found 12pc have experimented with cocaine.
The Irish Medical Times survey also revealed 37pc of doctors have tried cannabis, while a majority, 54pc, support the decriminalisation of small quantities of the drug for personal use. It also showed 8pc of doctors use cannabis — with 5pc using it “regularly” | Independent, Ireland
Label wars: Ireland’s new alcohol warning law heads for fight at World Trade Organisation
Standing on the stage of a European Union cancer conference this spring, a top Department of Health official presented a graph of the causes of cancer in Ireland. It showed alcohol as the fourth biggest cause of the disease, after smoking, excess weight and infection | Irish Times, Ireland
New APA Poll Finds Americans Rate Cigarettes as Most Unsafe, Addictive Substance Among Options Surveyed
In a new national poll, Americans widely agreed that cigarettes are unsafe (84%) and addictive (87%), and yet a fifth (21%) reported smoking every day. The vast majority of people believe alcohol, opioids, and vapes are addictive, and about two-thirds said alcohol and opioids are unsafe, while more than three-fourths said vaping is unsafe | American Psychiatric Association, USA
Estimated Reductions in Opioid Overdose Deaths With Sustainment of Public Health Interventions in 4 US States
In this decision analytical model that simulated the opioid epidemic in Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio, 4 states highly affected by the opioid epidemic, a 2- to 5-fold increase in initiation and retention of medications for opioid use disorder along with increased supply of naloxone could reduce OODs by an estimated 13% to 17% in Kentucky, 17% to 27% in Massachusetts, 15% to 22% in New York, and 15% to 22% in Ohio after 2 years, compared with the status quo | JAMA Network Open, USA
UK Students’ Harm Reduction Work Deserves to Be Recognized
AMay 15 article in the Times, one of the United Kingdom’s biggest newspapers, described harm reduction approaches supported by student organizers as “lenient”—and juxtaposed this with recent cases of drug-related harms. What that article and much other coverage fails to emphasize is the evidence-based, life-saving work that students are doing in this area | Filter Magazine, USA
Oklahoma Rolls Out Harm Reduction Vending Machines; More Is Needed
In Oklahoma, state officials are launching a program for residents to get free naloxone and fentanyl test strips from strategically placed “vending” machines. But even the most robust installation campaign will struggle to reach everyone across the large, mostly rural state | Filter Magazine, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
Alcohol and diabetes: a guest blog post from Diabetes Scotland
The relationship between alcohol consumption and diabetes is complex and our understanding of it is still evolving. We do know that people who drink heavily are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people who drink moderately | Alcohol Focus Scotland, UK
We need to listen to those impacted by alcohol abuse - Karyn McCluskey
Speaking about alcohol, our use and abuse always divides people | Scotsman, UK
It’s time for booze bottles to have health warning labels
Is alcohol about to have its cigarette moment in terms of its public image? As Ireland vows to introduce health warnings to alcohol labels, Matthew Neale explores why our relationship with drink should be less blasé | Independent voices, UK
Drink up, it’s closing time: South African study calculates that limiting opening hours will save lives
South Africans are among the heaviest drinkers in the world. The country has the highest per capita rate of alcohol consumption in Africa. Excessive drinking is especially widespread in the Western Cape. Research estimates that per capita alcohol consumption in the province is between 30% and 40% higher than the national consumption | Conversation, South Africa
‘From Magic Mushrooms to Big Pharma’ – a college course explores nature’s medicine cabinet and different ways of healing
What prompted the idea for the course? I’m from the foothills of the Appalachians in southern Ohio, where my Grandma Mildred would go out into the woods, which she called her medicine cabinet, to find herbs to use as medicine. I grew up to be an anthropologist, interested in how people around the world heal themselves. In the 1990s, I did my dissertation research in Ecuador and learned how Indigenous people in the Choco region used ayahuasca and other medicines from the forest to assist in the grieving process | Conversation, USA