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Daily news - 20th October 2023 |
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UK news
Press release: Charities voice support for government's smokefree plans
Stakeholders met with government today and voiced support for the government's smokefree plans | Department of Health and Social Care and Neil O'Brien MP, UK
Investigating the impact of ‘dark nudges’ on drinking intentions: A between groups, randomized and online experimental study
[Open access] This study explored how ‘dark nudges’ (tactics used in alcohol industry-funded responsible drinking campaigns) affect drinking intentions, perceived source credibility and whether individual differences in perceptions of prototypical drinkers moderated these effects | British Journal of Health Psychology, UK
A latent class analysis of change and continuity in adolescent health and wellbeing in England during the decline in youth alcohol consumption: A repeat cross-sectional study
[Open access] In England, the proportion of 13–15 year-olds who have ever drunk alcohol fell from 71% in 1999 to 35% in 2019. Despite substantial research literature studying this decline, we know little about connections with concurrent shifts in wider aspects of health and wellbeing. This paper aims to identify how indicators of health and wellbeing cluster within 15-year-olds in England, identify changes in clustering over time, and explore associations with sex and family affluence | Preventive Medicine Reports, UK
Westminster drinking culture blamed for bad behaviour
A culture of drinking is fuelling inappropriate behaviour in Westminster, according to Parliament's behaviour watchdog | BBC, UK
Drugs: Research
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what quantity of controlled narcotic drugs her Department has estimated was necessary to enable legitimate scientific and medical use in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023; and what proportion of such drugs was (i) cannabis for medical use and (ii) imported in each year | They work for you, UK
The Last Laugh: Conservatives Face Backlash Over Ban on Nitrous Oxide as Move Criminalises More Young People
New strict penalties for laughing gas use – including prison sentences – have led critics to warn of the ban’s potential to divert resources from more severe crimes and push the drug into a dangerous, unregulated market | Byline Times, UK
University Inaugural Lecture to be delivered by the world’s first Professor of Addiction Recovery
Tuesday 14 November from 5.30pm. The lecture, titled The social contagion of hope: The role of peers and communities in recovery and rehabilitation, will focus on how and why people can turn their lives around, not only leaving addictions behind but becoming ‘better than well’ | Leeds Trinity University, UK
Recruitment for an upcoming trial - Microdosing
Imperial College's Centre for Psychedelic Research is seeking participants for the second round of its self-blinding microdose project. You are invited to participate if you microdose or are planning to microdose to help with a depression, anxiety, or mood problem | Imperial College London, UK
County lines drug networks halved in Kent, say police
More than half the county lines drug networks into Kent have been disrupted following a week of police action. About 1,000 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine were seized and 34 suspects were arrested by Kent Police during the latest operations from 9 to 15 October | BBC, UK
Public help police in drugs clampdown in Devon and Cornwall
Police have thanked the public for their help tackling the supply of illegal drugs in a week long operation. Devon and Cornwall Police took part in Operation Scorpion from 9 to 15 October, leading to 36 arrests and £90,000 of drugs being seized | BBC, UK
North Yorkshire: Drugs seized and 26 arrested in county lines crackdown
Twenty-six people have been arrested in a police operation targeting county lines gangs in North Yorkshire. North Yorkshire Police also seized large quantities of drugs and more than £70,000 in cash during a week-long operation between 9 and 15 October | BBC, UK
Vapes, tobacco and cigarettes worth £24k seized in Northants
Hundreds of illegal vapes, cigarettes and tobacco products have been seized in anti-smuggling police raids | BBC, UK
International news
Taking the pain out of pain
[Open access] While the potential risks of opioid prescribing for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) have long been known to addiction psychiatrists and pain researchers and clinicians, recent popular dramatizations of the opioid epidemic in the USA have brought the issue in to mainstream public sight. Hulu’s 2021 production Dopesick and Netflix’s 2023 release Painkiller both tell the story of the manufacturer of Oxycontin (Oxycodone), Purdue Pharma, and how development, testing and false and aggressive marketing of Oxycontin led to the current USA opioid crisis | British Journal of Pain, UK
Drug consumption rooms with Marie Jauffret-Roustide - podcast
In this episode Ben Scher talks to Dr Marie Jauffret-Roustide about drug consumption rooms and the recent publication based on the COSINUS cohort study. They cover a range of issues including the history of drug consumption rooms, the evidence on effectiveness and the challenges of studying this particular intervention.They also reflect on the social determinants of health and how drug consumption rooms can have a positive impact | SSA, UK
Rrevealing the missing link to climate justice: drug policy
A ground-breaking report from the International Coalition on Drug Policy Reform and Environmental Justice brings together evidence that reveals how the system of drug prohibition – the so called war on drugs – is undermining climate action | Health Poverty Action, UK
Sinalo Jafta on alcoholism, rehab and recovery - audio
Alison Mitchell speaks to South Africa wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta who went into treatment 12 months ago for alcohol abuse, to the point she said she was ‘drinking to die’. Fast forward two months and she lifted a runners-up medal in the T20 World Cup. Jafta shares her story in a powerful interview | BBC, UK
Merchants Quay Ireland annual review 2022
Yet again, 2022 saw a significant increase in the demand for support and MQI staff responded with increased support levels across all our services reaching a total of 12,764 unique individuals. As society emerged from Covid 19 we were able to adapt our regional services, our homeless day services, our health services and our rehabilitation services to meet the needs of our clients | Merchants Quay, Ireland
Steroid-using US high school athletes more likely to sustain concussion, study finds
More than half of US high school athletes who use anabolic steroids report having sustained a concussion, compared to around a fifth of those who do not use steroids, a new study published in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine finds | Medical Xpress, USA
Practice-Level Documentation of Alcohol-Related Problems in Primary Care
In this cross-sectional study including 3105 patients, primary care practices located in counties with greater social deprivation, as indicated by a standardized Social Deprivation Index, were less likely to document alcohol-related problems in the electronic health record. These findings were observed after adjusting for individual-level alcohol use, demographic characteristics, and health status | JAMA Network Open, USA
Ketamine's effect on depression may hinge on hope
In study after study, the psychoactive drug ketamine has given profound and fast relief to many people suffering from severe depression. But these studies have a critical shortcoming: Participants usually can tell whether they have been given ketamine or a placebo. Even in blinded trials in which participants are not told which they received, ketamine's oftentimes trippy effects are a dead giveaway | Medical Xpress, USA
Canada Will Legalize Medically Assisted Dying For People Addicted to Drugs
Some drug user activists have likened the move to "eugenics" and say Canada should be funding more harm reduction | VICE, Canada
Survey shows increased vaping of nicotine e-liquids
Findings from the 2022/23 New Zealand Drugs Trends Survey (NZDTS) show an increase in nicotine e-liquid vaping, but a decline in the use of no-nicotine e-liquids | Massey University, New Zealand
Blogs, comment and opinion
The illegal drugs market is changing—is the UK prepared?
Synthetic opioids are entering the drugs supply chain in the UK, resulting in rising overdose deaths—we need to act urgently to avoid a crisis similar to that in North America, write Niamh Eastwood and Shayla Schlossenberg | BMJ opinion, UK
There’s no such thing as ‘good quality’ alcohol
We are used to thinking about quality in the products we choose to buy, whether its clothing, food, or alcohol. But is there any truth to this when it comes to alcohol, or is it simply a marketing ploy by the alcohol industry? | IAS blog, UK
Highlife: a film project to save lives
A new campaign in Germany has launched to raise awareness of the life saving benefits of drug checking. The “Highlife” Campaign is a collaboration between UPPERFAST, MDCT AG, and BONAPARTE Films. The project aims to promote the use of drug checking and dismantle societal stigma surrounding drug consumption | Volteface, UK
Every response is incomplete
Over the last decade, as faith in the effectiveness of drug policy, addiction treatment, and drug enforcement diminished, interest and hope in harm reduction grew. Harm reduction was once a last resort response to drug problems and in recent years has become the first line response to drug problems. Harm reduction is now receiving the kind of scrutiny and doubt that other responses have received in the past | Recovery Review blog, USA