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Daily news - 15th March 2023

UK news

Public health ring-fenced grant 2023 to 2024: local authority circular

Loal authorities must have regard to the need to improve the take up of, and outcomes from, its drug and alcohol misuse treatment services, based on an assessment of local need and a plan which has been developed with local health and criminal justice partners | DHSC, UK

Local Authority Public Health Update

The allocations I am announcing today [See above] are part of a wider package of investment in public health services. This includes additional targeted investment up to 2025 of £516 million going to local authorities to improve drug and alcohol addiction treatment | UK Parliament, UK

Humankind joins call to reinstate funding to support children affected by parental alcohol use

Humankind has signed a joint letter to the the Chancellor of the Exchequer calling to reinstate funding to support children affected by parental alcohol use | DDN, UK

Evaluating the impact of alcohol minimum unit pricing (MUP) on alcohol-attributable deaths and hospital admissions in Scotland

We used a natural experimental study design to look at the impact of MUP on deaths and hospital admissions caused wholly or partially by alcohol consumption in Scotland. We used data for England as the main geographical control group. Data for English regions was used in sensitivity analyses | PHS, UK

Suspected drug deaths in Scotland at worst level for 18 months

Suspected drugs deaths jumped by a quarter at the end of last year, bringing the total for all of 2022 to more than 1,000, according to new official figures | Herald, UK

SDF appoints new CEO

Kirsten Horsburgh has been appointed CEO of Scottish Drugs Forum. Kirsten has worked at SDF for eleven years, having previously worked in drug treatment services. Kirsten has held various positions within SDF most recently serving as Director of Operations | SDF, UK

Substance use, risk behaviours and well-being after admission to a quasi-residential abstinence-based rehabilitation programme: 4-year follow-up

[Open access] The aims of this study were to analyse and report outcomes up to 4 years after attendance at a substance misuse residential rehabilitation programme (Lothians and Edinburgh Abstinence Programme) | BJPsych Open, UK

How do patients feel during the first 72h after initiating long-acting injectable buprenorphine? An embodied qualitative analysis

[Open access] Long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) is a new treatment for opioid use disorder that is generating positive outcomes. Negative effects are typically mild and transient, but can occasionally be serious, resulting in treatment discontinuation/non-adherence. This paper aims to analyse patients’ accounts of how they felt during the first 72h after initiating LAIB | Addiction, UK

Medication sparing after medical cannabis initiation: A case study of a chronic pain patient in T21

[Open access] Prescribed cannabinoids are legal in the UK and are increasingly being used for a variety of conditions, with one of the most frequent conditions being chronic pain. Within this cohort, there is developing evidence that cannabis-based medicinal products are associated with opioid and other medication sparing. However, at present, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not recommend the prescription of cannabis-based medicinal products to treat chronic pain due to the lack of randomised controlled trial evidence for this condition | Drug Science, UK

Glasgow City Council supports ban on sale of single-use vapes

The council confirmed that its Environment and Liveable Neighbourhoods Committee will write to the Scottish Government to back calls for the introduction of new legislation banning their sale | Herald, UK

Electronic Cigarettes: Asthma

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of e-cigarette smoke on people with asthma in enclosed public places | They work for you, UK

Electronic Cigarettes: Standards

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) safety and (b) quality of e-cigarettes available to consumers | They work for you, UK

Baroness Masham of Ilton

All at the APPG for Prescribed Drug Dependence are very sorry to hear the sad news about Baroness Masham of Ilton today – she was a long-term and dedicated member of our APPG whose presence will be missed | APPG, UK

International news

International Narcotics Control Board expresses concern over the trend to legalize non-medical use of cannabis, which contravenes the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is warning in its Annual Report 2022 that legalizing the non-medical use of cannabis, which contravenes the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, seems to result in higher consumption and a lower perception of risk, especially among young people | INCB, Austria

Association of Fully Branded and Standardized e-Cigarette Packaging With Interest in Trying Products Among Youths and Adults in Great Britain

In this study comprising 2 surveys conducted among 2469 youths (aged 11-18 years) and 12 046 adults (aged ≥18 years) from Great Britain, youths had higher odds of reporting no interest in trying e-cigarettes in standardized green packaging than e-cigarettes in branded packaging, but adults had lower odds of reporting no interest in trying e-cigarettes in standardized green packaging than e-cigarettes in branded packaging | JAMA Network Open, USA

Better understanding of reasons for and against change may be an effective strategy for supporting drinking reduction or abstinence among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The current study explored connections between reasons for and against changing hazardous alcohol use, as well as the relative importance of a given reason | Addictive Behaviors, USA

Vermont Has Multiple New Drug Decriminalization Bills

Vermont lawmakers have introduced four major drug policy reform proposals in March. Two of the bills would decriminalize simple possession of all drugs and expand harm reduction services; another would remove criminal penalties for using or selling psilocybin, and a fourth would decriminalize certain psychedelic plants and fungi | Filter Magazine, USA

Why calls are growing in B.C. to fund more overdose prevention sites

Ministry says more overdose prevention sites coming, including safe inhalation spaces | CBC News, Canada

Report 18 of the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program

Report 18 of the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program covered sampling in August and October 2022. In August, 58 wastewater sites were monitored nationally, covering approximately 57% of the Australian population. Sites were selected to permit the ACIC to provide data on major population areas, sites of actual or potential concern from a drug use perspective. Key findings and additional data are available – by state and territory and drug type – as a guide to trends over the period the respective drugs have been monitored by the wastewater program | ACIC, Australia

Harm reduction programs in prisons will be key to achieving Australia's public health goals, says consensus statement

Reducing the spread of blood borne viruses (BBVs) and other injecting-related harm in prison will be best achieved by implementing specific evidence-based methods, a new consensus statement by The Harm Reduction in Prisons Working Group says | Medical Xpress, Australia

Blogs, comment and opinion

Expert reaction to study of plain packaging for e-cigarettes

A study published in JAMA Network Open looks at the use of and Standardised Packaging for e-cigarettes. Here, Dr Sarah Jackson, Principal Research Fellow at the UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group comments on the study | SMC, UK

Studies around the world collectively find that Minimum Unit Pricing would reduce alcohol-related hospital burden

In England and Ireland, alcohol harms contribute significantly to the burden on healthcare. In England, alcohol accounted for 7.2% of all days that patients spent in hospital in 2009 – 2010, and in Ireland this figure was 8.7% in 2000 – 2004. The estimated annual healthcare cost of the alcohol-related burden on the NHS in 2009 was £3.5bn (or 2.3% of the healthcare budget) and in Ireland in 2010 was €1.5bn (or 7% of the healthcare budget) | IAS blog, UK

Has the time come for reform of the UK’s drug policy?

Unlike in many other countries, the UK’s drug policy has seen little development in recent years. Are concerns that liberalisation would not have public support well-founded? Albert Ward finds public support for significant reform is promising but capricious, and easily influenced by how questions are asked | LSE blog, UK

Hey budtender, take me to the Ganja Giggle Garden! A pot-crawl round LA’s boutique cannabis stores

They look like cosmic chapels, luxury spas and uber-cool art galleries. One even boasts a 250-year-old ceiling from a Burmese monastery. Our writer joins the ‘cannaseurs’ in a bong-filled world that could be the future of Britain | Guardian, UK

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