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Daily news - 11th October 2023

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UK news

Vapes should be prescription only, Mark Drakeford says

The first minister said he was "attracted" to Australia's policy of restricting the sale of vapes to pharmacies. He has backed UK government plans that could see a ban on disposable vapes | BBC, UK

[Open access] This paper reports on the first qualitative study to interview people prescribed cannabis in the UK. Cannabis is a class B controlled substance under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs (MoD) Act, but a 2018 change to UK regulations provided for the prescription of cannabis for medical purposes. Relatively few people have been able to access a prescription, despite this policy change. This paper examines their experiences | IJDP, UK

Identifying evidence to support action to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in health A systematic scoping and mapping review (PDF)

This report examines the review-level evidence that is available to guide action on reducing socioeconomic inequalities in health. Evidence about public health interventions, programmes and policies applied to populations, groups and other geographically defined areas or jurisdictions was sought to explore whether they preferentially improve the health outcomes of people experiencing socioeconomic inequalities | LJMU, UK

Closes 22 Nov 2023. The Scottish Government is consulting on whether MUP should be continued as part of the range of policy measures in place to address alcohol related harm, and, in the event of its continuation, the level the minimum unit price should be set going forward | Scottish Government, UK

What's To Be Done? - podcast

In this final episode of series 2 of the More Than My Past episode, hosts Julie and Jason are joined by Forward Trust Chief Executive Mike Trace to speak about the themes covered in the series and reflect on how our approach to addiction and crime might be improved. Guests from the series with lived experience are asked to sum up how they’d change things if they had the chance. Ideas include outlawing short term sentences, improving education around addiction, and treating offenders with empathy instead of a desire to punish | More Than My Past, UK

Let's Talk About Addiction - Register for our Event

November 2nd (7:00pm - 8:45pm). This eventwill be a platform for open, honest, and compassionate conversations about addiction and recovery. It's an opportunity to bring together family, friends, and colleagues to share experiences, raise awareness, and foster understanding about a topic that affects us all | Action on Addiction, UK

State of ‘escape’ prison laid bear as inmates secretly brew alcohol in cells

Inmates at a south-west London prison at the centre of a recent escape scandal succeeded in illegally brewing 1,900 litres of alcohol with only 50 per cent of staff regularly on-duty to keep watch | Independent, UK

Teesside: 18 people arrested and homes raided in drugs inquiry

Organised crime gangs have been targeted during an investigation of Teesside's "vibrant" drug scene | BBC, UK

PSNI sends texts to phone numbers found in drug raids

Nearly 2,000 people whose phone numbers were recovered in a number of drugs raids have been texted advice on substance misuse by police | BBC, UK

International news

Climate crisis will make Europe’s beer cost more and taste worse, say scientists

Experts say hop yields and quality will continue to drop by 2050 if farmers don’t adapt to higher temperatures | Guardian, UK

Prescription drugs with potential for misusein Irish prisons: analysis of national prisonprescribing trends, by gender and historyof opioid use disorder, 2012 to 2020

[Open access] Pharmacotherapy is essential for the delivery of an equivalent standard of care in prison. Prescribing can be challenging due to the complex health needs of prisoners and the risk of misuse of prescription drugs. This study examines prescribing trends for drugs with potential for misuse (opioids, benzodiazepines, Z-drugs, and gabapentinoids) in Irish prisons and whether trends vary by gender and history of opioid use disorder (OUD) | BMC Psychiatry, UK

The 2024 Mid-term review: Paving the way towards transformative drug policies grounded in reality

The mid-term review will be held at the margins of the 67th session of the CND in March 2024. This high-level segment is set to take place against a backdrop of devastating human rights abuses and major drug-related public health crises affecting numerous countries... In this advocacy note, IDPC lays out the main challenges and opportunities offered by the midterm review and provides recommendations for the global drug control regime to rise to the challenge of becoming fit for purpose | IDPC, UK

FDA Win on Flavored E-Cigarettes Won’t Be Undone by Justices

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit sided with the FDA, finding that Avail hadn’t shown that its products had benefits for adults that offset the risk to youth | Bloomberg Law, USA

Can a History of Childhood Trauma Impact the Effectiveness of Treatment in Individuals with Alcohol Use Disorders? A 2.5- and 5-Year Follow-up

[Open access] Experienced childhood trauma (CT) is prevalent in individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Few studies examine how experienced CT affects alcohol-treatment outcome. This study accordingly investigates whether experienced CT independently affects treatment outcome 2.5- and 5-years post-treatment | International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, USA

Diagnostic Criteria for Identifying Individuals at High Risk of Progression From Mild or Moderate to Severe Alcohol Use Disorder

In this cohort study, cross-sectional and longitudinal multimodal secondary analyses involving a combined 15 928 individuals indicated that endorsement of criteria empirically designated as representing greater severity of AUD was significantly associated with 2-fold increased likelihood of progression from mild-to-moderate AUD to severe AUD, even after accounting for total criterion count | JAMA Network Open, USA

The DRAM, Vol. 19(11) – Is influencer marketing of non-alcoholic beer related to teen alcohol consumption?

Recently, alcohol companies have begun to use influencer marketing to promote their products on social media. In particular, influencers are being used to promote non-alcoholic beverages during times when alcohol advertising is normally restricted. This week, The DRAM reviews a study by Chun-Yin Hou and colleagues that examines whether exposure to influencer marketing of non-alcoholic beer was associated with adolescents consuming and purchasing alcohol in Taiwan | BASIS, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

Where next for Minimum Unit Pricing in Scotland?

5 years on from the introduction of Scotland’s pioneering Minimum Unit Pricing policy (MUP), which made it illegal to sell a unit of alcohol for less than 50p, Public Health Scotland published the results of a comprehensive evaluation. This evaluation drew on the findings of 40 individual studies and concluded that overall MUP had a positive impact on health outcomes, particularly in the most deprived areas, while finding no substantial negative impacts | IAS blog, UK

Trying to get free of drugs in prison is an almost impossible task – Karyn McCluskey

Problems with drugs and alcohol are behind many crimes and substance use is so widespread behind bars it can be like a Dante-inspired circle of hell, with temptation everywhere | Scotsman opinion, UK

Hippies to Hackers: 1960s Counterculture and Personal Computing

In the midst of societal upheaval during the 1960s and 70s, the Vietnam War ignited anti-war and counterculture movements, giving voice to individuals opposing prevailing societal norms and values. Counterculture, embracing a collective that stood against mainstream perspectives, unknowingly paved a path for revolutionary technological advancements. This article explores the clandestine connections between government-funded projects, subversive experiments with psychedelics, and the revolutionary evolution of personal computing | Tony D'Agostino, UK

Happy First Birthday Office of Recovery!

On September 29, 2023, SAMHSA’s Office of Recovery celebrated its first birthday. One year ago, during National Recovery Month, SAMHSA officially launched its first-ever Office to advance recovery across the nation | SAMHSA blog, USA

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