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Daily news - 9th November 2023 |
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UK news
Local stop smoking services and support: additional funding
Information about a new grant totalling £70 million per year over the financial years of 2024 to 2025 through to 2028 to 2029 | DHSC, UK
Press release: Government drive to phase out smoking and tackle youth vaping attracts large response
Over 12,000 responses so far submitted on government proposals to create first ‘smokefree generation’, less than halfway through the consultation period | Department of Health and Social Care, The Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, and The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, UK
Nitrous oxide: 'Daily use of laughing gas left me in a wheelchair'
A woman who took almost 100 cannisters of laughing gas a day says she has been left with permanent nerve damage | BBC, UK
No plans to make nitrous oxide illegal in Guernsey
Teena Bhogal, chair of the misuse of drugs advisory group, said there was no evidence Guernsey had "the same challenges" as the UK with the substance | BBC, UK
Grimsby man who started taking drugs aged nine was given 48 hours to live
Shaun went through years of drug and alcohol addiction but has now overcome his addictions and is helping others through his job as a Recovery Worker in Grimsby | Grimsby Live, UK
Rotherham man drops 10 stone in a year after quitting booze
A Rotherham man whose struggle with alcohol saw his body weight double to 30 stone (190.5kg) described the lightbulb moment that saved his life | BBC, UK
Sussex Police crackdown on drugs gangs not working, ex user says
An ex-drug user says police crackdowns on county lines gangs in his community were "not working" as the criminal networks were too deeply rooted | BBC, UK
Turning Point Safer Lives Conference 2023
Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:00 - 17:00 GMT. Birmingham. Join the Turning Point Safer Lives Conference 2023 to meet harm reduction professionals and hear from expert speakers | Turning Point, UK
International news
Changing attitudes and policy through living experience representation’ with Arild Knutsen Part 1 - podcast
Arild Knutsen is Leader of The Association for Humane Drug Policy, a drug user organisation in Norway. Arild recently visited Scotland and presented at SDF’s International Overdose Day conference. In this episode, he joins SDF colleagues, Jason Wallace, Louise Aitken, and Wez Steele to talk about the influence of living experience; the importance of living experience representation in the media, policy and government; how this involvement plays out in reality and harm reduction initiatives, drug consumption rooms and overdose prevention in each country | Drugs Uncut, UK
Ohio Issue 2: State votes to legalise recreational cannabis
Ohio voters have approved a measure to legalise adult recreational marijuana use. It will take effect in 30 days | BBC, UK
Tongue-twisters could be used to gauge alcohol-intoxication levels, study finds
Method could be used to stop people from unlocking cars or to support bartenders serving alcohol | Guardian, UK [See also item below from Medical Xpress]
NSW police sniffer dogs incorrectly detect drugs on patrons despite costing taxpayers $46m over past decade
Exclusive: Between 1 January 2013 and 30 June this year, 94,535 general and strip-searches were prompted by the dogs but nearly 75% of these searches yielded no illicit drugs | Guardian, UK
Decline in alcohol treatment referrals not yet understood, MSPs told
Public health officials say a decline in alcohol treatment referrals is not currently understood, as they faced questions from MSPs on their research into minimum unit pricing (MUP) | Ireland live, Ireland
Smartphones and smart speakers may be able to detect alcohol intoxication by analyzing voice patterns, says study
Sensors in smartphones and smart speakers could help determine a person's level of alcohol intoxication based on the changes in their voice, according to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs | Medical Xpress, USA
Researchers identify brain network that is uniquely activated through injection vs. oral drug use
Results from a new clinical trial suggest that a group of brain regions known as the "salience network" is activated after a drug is taken intravenously, but not when that same drug is taken orally | Medical Xpress, USA
Inhaling drugs surpasses injections in Ottawa, and experts want new tools to fight it
Ottawa Public Health recommending expanding programs to help drug users, families, first responders | CBC News, Canada
Blogs, comment and opinion
How banning laughing gas will just make things worse
Why? Because, argues addiction expert Ian Hamilton, for all the many harms those silver nitrous oxide capsules can do to your body (and our streets), making it a class C drug will only increase the risks | Independent opinion, UK
My daily fight for medical cannabis is agonising – UK drug laws have failed
Surveys as recent as 2022 show that a third of police officers are unaware of cannabis prescriptions | i news opinion, UK
Will Latin American Leaders Finally Unite to End the Drug War?
From September 7 to 9, 2023, the “Latin American and Caribbean Drug Conference: For Life, Peace, and Development” took place in Cali, Colombia. This meeting aimed to establish a joint position on drug policy within the region, in a wider effort to transition away from the so-called “War on Drugs” | Talking Drugs, UK