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Daily news - 29th March 2023 |
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UK news
National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on waiting times for people accessing specialist drug and alcohol treatment services between 1 October and 31 December 2022. In 2011, the Scottish Government set a Standard that 90% of people referred for help with problematic drug or alcohol use will wait no longer than three weeks for specialist treatment that supports their recovery | Public Health Scotland, UK
National naloxone programme Scotland - Quarterly monitoring bulletin
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number of take-home naloxone kits issued by the National Naloxone Programme (NNP) in Scotland. Figures are presented separately for kits issued from community outlets, kits issued in prisons at the point of liberation, kits dispensed via community prescription, and kits issued by Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) | Public Health Scotland, UK
Antisocial Behaviour Action Plan
With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement about the antisocial behaviour action plan, which I published today with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities | They work for you, UK
Cannabis: Medical Treatments
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to extend Target Pharmacy's licence for Bedrocan products | They work for you, UK
Petition - Policing and drug and alcohol treatment in Hull
I rise to present this petition regarding the policing of antisocial behaviour in Hull, and the drug and alcohol use that often underpin it | They work for you, UK
Forward wins two new employment contracts
The Forward Trust has been awarded two major new contracts, helping even more people to change their lives for the better | DDN, UK
William Hill to pay record £19.2m for ‘widespread and alarming’ failures
Group admits string of transgressions, days before reforms of gambling laws are finalised | Guardian, UK
Barrow father took fatal cocaine dose as sons slept
Adam Price, 27, collapsed at his partner's home in Barrow in the early hours of 29 October 2022, assistant Cumbria coroner Margaret Taylor heard. His partner said he had been "paranoid" and was convinced someone had broken into the home moments before his fall. Ms Taylor concluded it was a "drugs-related death" but said his family would remember him for how he lived | BBC, UK
DrugFam newsletter March
The Spring 2023 Newsletter keeps you in the loop of all things DrugFAM.
We've been busy and have updates on the following: Volunteers; Ongoing operations; Bereavement support; Advocacy, networking & partnerships; Fundraising & events and more | DrugFam, UK
Newtownards and Bangor: Attacks on homes linked to drugs feud
There have been further attacks on properties in County Down in a dispute between rival factions of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) | BBC, UK
International news
Amsterdam tells young British men who want a ‘messy’ weekend to stay away
In bid to reduce nuisance behaviour ads will be triggered if people search online for terms such as ‘stag party Amsterdam’ | Guardian, UK
Key Players in Syria's ‘Narco State’ Hit With Western Sanctions
US and UK governments target senior officials, militia leaders and two of Bashar al-Assad’s relatives to take down the Syrian regime's captagon racket | VICE, UK
GFN News #50 | BAD SCIENCE: AUSTRALIA | Perils of mixing science and ideology with Alex Wodak - video
The Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN), which has taken place every year since 2014, is the only international conference to focus on how vapes, nicotine pouches, Swedish snus and heated tobacco can help people switch away from smoking. Building on the success of an event that attracts hundreds of in-person participants and thousands of online delegates, GFN•TV, a broadcast arm of the GFN stable, is now offering year round coverage of the issues that matter in tobacco harm reduction | GFN, UK
Advisory Support Group for the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use is announced
Chairperson of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use, Mr. Paul Reid, has announced the membership of the Advisory Support Group to the Assembly | Citizen's Assembly, Ireland
EU Drugs Agency: Commission welcomes political agreement on new fully-fledged Agency
The Commission welcomes today's political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on a stronger mandate which establishes a new EU Drugs Agency. The new Agency builds on the achievements of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The Commission proposed to strengthen the mandate of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, by transforming it into the European Union Drugs Agency, in January 2022. The proposal builds on findings of the Commission evaluation of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, published in May 2019 | European Commission, Belgium
Cocaine-related A&E admissions in France soar
The sharp rise in emergency admissions for cocaine comes as production of the drug soars in Europe | Connexion, France
Marijuana-derived compounds could reverse opioid overdoses
There's been a recent push in the U.S. to make naloxone—a fast-acting opioid antidote—available without a prescription. This medication has saved lives, but it's less effective against powerful synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. In an interesting twist, researchers are now looking to cannabidiol (CBD), a component of marijuana, as a possible alternative to the popular antidote. Today, a team reports compounds based on CBD that reduce fentanyl binding and boost the effects of naloxone | Medical Xpress, USA
The pathway from socioeconomic status and educational attainment to mid-life heavy drinking among Black Americans
Black adults in the United States are at greater odds of experiencing alcohol-related problems when compared to White adults, but what contributes to this disparity? Minoritized populations may experience greater negative health outcomes related to alcohol use due, in part, to racial disparities that plague our schools and economic systems | BASIS, USA
A 20-year study of heroin use disorder: Patterns and predictors of remission, recurrence, and continued use
Studies that follow people with addiction for long periods of time improve our understanding of its natural course and how different types of treatment may affect it. However, these types of studies are difficult and expensive to conduct and are therefore relatively rare in addiction treatment research. In this Australian study, however, people with heroin use disorder were followed for 20 years and the patterns and predictors of use were examined | Recovery Research Institute, USA
Can adding treatments that increase substance-free reward and pleasure enhance intensive outpatient treatment?
Interventions for substance use disorder that try to increase patients’ substance-free reward and pleasure, thereby making recovery efforts more sustainable long-term, are often referred to as “behavioral activation” treatments. This study tested the effects of adding behavioral activation with and without a smartphone app to an existing intensive outpatient treatment to see if it improved outcomes | Recovery Research Institute, USA
“Lawmakers Have to Google It”: Inside the Struggle to Regulate Kratom
Dozens of legislatures across the United States are currently weighing how to regulate or ban kratom, a plant with mild opioid-like properties that’s indigenous to Southeast Asia. It’s used by people around the world who attest to its abilities to elevate mood, boost energy, relieve pain and—perhaps most crucially in an era of mass overdose deaths—treat symptoms of opioid withdrawal and sometimes replace opioids | Filter Magazine, USA
Kentucky Just Banned ‘Gas Station Heroin’
The governor of Kentucky just issued an emergency ban on tianeptine, also known as “gas station heroin,” a drug that’s causing extreme addiction | VICE, USA
Opioid- and Stimulant-related Harms in Canada
Presented here are the most recent available data on overdoses and deaths involving opioids and/or stimulants from January 2016 to September 2022 in Canada, where available | Government of Canada, Canada
'It's not just fentanyl anymore': B.C. sets new record high for overdose calls as concerns grow over 'tranq' drug
On March 22, first responders received an alarming number of overdose calls from the Downtown Eastside. "We saw 45 overdoses in one day," said Keith Stewart, assistant chief with the Vancouver Fire Rescue Service | CTV News, Canada
Blogs, comment and opinion
Last orders? Young people’s perspectives on the decline in youth drinking
Despite what we might think, young people in the UK today are drinking less alcohol than their parents’ generation did when they were young. This picture is reflected in many other high-income countries like Australia, Germany, Sweden and the US. Young people are starting drinking later, drinking smaller amounts and drinking less frequently | IAS blog, UK
Why we need to know how all communities drink
Rhondell Stabana, Co-founder of Yada Collective and Sober Black Britain in Derby discusses a lack of representation in alcohol harm research and beyond | Drinkaware, UK
Associate Feature: New First Minister must put public health first
If you want to understand how much damage alcohol, smoking and obesity is doing to health in Scotland, speak to GP Dr David Blane. He’s spent 13 years working in the southside of Glasgow at a “Deep End” practice serving one of Scotland’s 100 most deprived populations | Holyrood comment, UK
The Government’s ban on laughing gas doesn’t go far enough
Nitrous oxide is soon to be banned in the Government’s fight against anti-social behaviour. Commonly known as laughing gas, its empty canisters can be found littered over parts of London, including my borough of Tower Hamlets in London | i news opinion, UK
Why did the government just ban nitrous oxide? - video
Watch Paul talk to Jay Jackson of Labour Campaign for Drug Policy Reform about the politics behind the NOS ban | Volteface, UK
The Trip Report 28/03
Through the work of organisations such as WEDINOS, The Loop, and SaferParty, we know a little more about the drugs in circulation. The report provided below is a summary of their findings over the last few weeks | The Trip Report, UK
Failure with Benefits: The War on Drugs Rolls on
In June 1970, under the influence of a flawless midwestern day and the imminent launch of life after college, my friend Mary and I agreed that marijuana would be legal very soon. By 1985, I wondered how America had gone from Jimmy Carter’s support for decriminalizing cannabis to Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign. In 2023, the war on drugs soldiers on. From the start, historians and others have tracked its evolution and probed its motivations and effects | Points blog, USA