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Daily news - 7th September 2023

UK news

Alcohol and rising obesity led to ‘alarming’ surge in cancers in young people

‘These results are interesting but colleagues will need to give considerable time and thought as to their interpretation,’ says professor Stephen Duffy | Independent, UK

Funding for new platform to bring recovery support to students across the UK

As many of our followers, ambassadors and people know, we’ve spent many years of endeavour in bringing Collegiate Recovery to the UK. And right now, we’re delighted to officially announce the start of a brand new project that will make this longstanding vision a reality | Recovery Connections, UK

Sure Recovery app

The app is free to use and has been designed to help people track their own recovery journeys and achieve their personal goals. The app has been developed with people at different stages of recovery and is based on their ideas and feedback, resulting in six key features. A new version of the app has just been released | KCL, UK

Electronic Cigarettes (Branding, Promotion and Advertising)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the branding, promotion and advertising of electronic cigarettes, for the purpose of preventing electronic cigarettes from being marketed in a way which appeals to children... | They work for you, UK

Doug Naysmith obituary

Immunologist and MP for Bristol North West who regarded the legislation to ban smoking in 2007 as the highlight of his career | Guardian, UK

Londonderry: Police seize estimated £50,000 of suspected drugs

Suspected cocaine with an estimated street value of £50,000 has been seized by police in Londonderry | BBC, UK

International news

Increase in fake prescription pills fuels record drug overdose deaths in the US

CDC study reveals deaths have more than doubled from the counterfeits, which are mostly laced with fentanyl | Guardian, UK

Associations between alcohol intake and hospital contacts due to alcohol and unintentional injuries in 71,025 Danish adolescents – a prospective cohort study

Alcohol is a leading risk factor to adolescent health. However, it is unclear how associations between alcohol intake and injuries are shaped. We investigated the dose–response relationship between alcohol intake and risk of hospital contacts due to alcohol and unintentional injuries in adolescents | Lancet, UK

The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences on People in Opiate Agonist Treatment: The Importance of Feeling Unloved

Adults in opiate agonist treatment (OAT) often have a background of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and are more likely to be exposed to a variety of risks that may trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While a summation of ten ACEs predicted higher levels of PTSD, the factor "feeling unloved" as a child provided the single strongest predictor and may represent an overarching risk of PTSD and continued substance use in later life among adults in treatment for an opiate use disorder | European Addiction Research, UK

Cork teenager sold cannabis vapes that he made in his bedroom all over Europe

The court heard that the teenager's bedroom owas converted into a full laboratory-type set-up to manufacture the vapes | Irish Examiner, Ireland

[Open access] This study revealed an alarming level of unmet treatment need and significant disparities in treatment use among young adults with SUDs. To reduce barriers to treatment utilization, more coordinated efforts that leverage policy and structural changes alongside innovations to engage young adults with SUD care are needed | DAD, USA

A tax on menthol cigarettes would work better than statewide bans, study finds

More than 150 cities and counties have prohibited the sale of menthols, and Massachusetts and California both have statewide bans. The Food and Drug Administration proposed a federal ban in 2022 but may never institute it. In the absence of a national ban, new research from the University of Washington finds that a menthol tax is a preferable policy to scattered statewide bans | Medical Xpress, USA

Cannabis-Involved Traffic Injury Emergency Department Visits After Cannabis Legalization and Commercialization

Our findings suggest that cannabis-involved traffic injuries have increased over time and that the commercialization of cannabis markets may result in further increases | JAMA Network Open, USA

In Tennessee, Unsanctioned Harm Reduction Work Gains a Foothold

In late 2021, after losing a friend to overdose, Miriam Field began distributing syringes, naloxone, glass pipes and other harm reduction supplies to Nashville-area encampments. The early outreach she did was unfocused, without a clear vision of the kind of work she wanted to do | Filter Magazine, USA

Highly potent MDMA pill prompts call for drug testing services

In a coronial finding released for the first time today, State Coroner Judge John Cain has recommended the Victorian Government introduce drug testing services. The recommendation follows an investigation into the 2022 death of a 26-year-old man from a type of highly potent MDMA pill called the ‘Blue Punisher’ | Coroners Court of Australia, Australia

Blogs, comment and opinion

Does the Governments £5 million fund to tackle UK Drug Deaths go far enough

Matt Rees explores whether the provisions of the recently announced £5 million pound fund are enough to tackle drug deaths in the UK | Volteface, UK

Criminalisation does not deter people from taking drugs

Despite the billions spent annually on punitive enforcement in an attempt to deter drug use, and the concept of deterrence sitting at the heart of UK and global drug enforcement thinking, it is now clear there is little or no meaningful deterrent effect from arresting, criminalising or punishing people who use drugs | Turning Point, UK

How America’s Prohibition invented organised crime

[Possible paywall] When the US banned alcohol in 1920, bootlegging gangs formed to traffic liquor on the black market – with deadly consequences | Telegraph, UK

The quiet champions of pill testing preventing “harrowing” deaths

You have only to walk into Canberra’s fixed-site pill testing site to have one of the chief criticisms of such schemes palpably refuted | Pearls & Irritations blog, Australia

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