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Daily news - 19th September 2023 |
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UK news
UK drug advisers recommended decriminalising possession in 2016, leak reveals
Exclusive: Guardian has seen copy of 27-page report that Home Office attempted to keep confidential | Guardian, UK
Disposable vapes could still be available to smokers through NHS scheme despite Government ban
Ministers are understood to be finalising plans to ban single-use devices, amid concerns they have sparked an epidemic of youth vaping across Britain | i news, UK
Spotlight: Bereaved families warn over dangers over 'lethal' drugs
The mothers of two young people who died after taking suspected "extra-strength" pills say people need to be aware street drugs are "lethal" | BBC, UK
World Patient Safety Day 2023: How engaging patients has accelerated our progress towards hepatitis C elimination
Patient engagement has been essential to NHS England’s world-leading hepatitis C elimination programme, with the goal of eliminating the virus as a public health threat in advance of the World Health Organization target of 2030. Working in partnership with The Hepatitis C Trust, a charity dedicated to eliminating hepatitis C, it has been possible to elevate the voices of those cured of the virus to help find and treat the remaining patients in the country | Hepatitis C Trust, UK
Adfam Professionals Forum: The Relations Study
TODAY. Tue, 19 Sep 2023 14:30 - 16:00 BST. Adfam's online forum events are free to attend and open to anyone with a professional interest in supporting families affected by substance use. At this event we will be hearing from Professor Anne Whittaker on the findings from the Relations Study. The Relations Study is an innovative three year study on the provision of treatment and care for parents who use opioids and their families in England and Wales | Adfam, UK
Real recovery stories
TODAY. Tue, 19 Sep 2023 12:00 - 13:00 BST. Help us celebrate recovery journeys and learn about what it is like to be in recovery. The aim of this event is to raise awareness of real experience of being in recovery, bring to life what it is like to struggle with drugs and alcohol and to access life saving treatment | DAWS Learning, UK
Football fans received 11,000 gambling messages in Premier League opening weekend
Study for 5 News warns of ‘overwhelming and inescapable’ betting imagery in the game | Guardian, UK
Two pubs a day disappearing in England and Wales
Figures showed that 230 pubs vanished in the three months to 30 June - an increase over the previous quarter when the doors to 153 pubs shuttered | BBC, UK
Man held in prescription drugs crackdown in Greater Manchester
Police raided a home in Salford following the seizure in August of drugs worth more than £2m. They found a "significant amount" of cash before arresting the man on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class C drugs | BBC, UK
Nearly 1,400 illegal vapes seized in Staffordshire raids
Trading standards targeted four shops in and around Newcastle-under-Lyme on Monday, after receiving intelligence about oversized illegal e-cigarettes and also selling to under-18s | BBC, UK
International news
Is Syria’s government pushing an addictive party drug? - audio
A few days ago police in the United Arab Emirates intercepted a huge haul of illegal Captagon pills worth one billion dollars. It’s an addictive party drug that’s sweeping across the Middle East | BBC, UK
Victims of Philippines’ war on drugs take fight for justice to the Hague
[Possible paywall] Families who lost loved ones to Duterte’s brutal campaign look to the International Criminal Court for answers | Telegraph, UK
Despite successes, addiction treatment programs for families struggle to stay open
Recovering Hope is one of only five providers in the state that offer family-based residential treatment, allowing women to enter the program while pregnant or to bring one of their children younger than 5 with them for the duration of their stay | Medical Xpress, USA
Buprenorphine Dose and Time to Discontinuation Among Patients With Opioid Use Disorder in the Era of Fentanyl
In this cohort study of 6499 patients initiating buprenorphine treatment between 2016 and 2020, those prescribed the recommended daily dose (16 mg) were at significantly greater risk of treatment discontinuation within 180 days than those prescribed a higher dose (24 mg) | JAMA Network Open, USA
Substance Use in Pregnancy and its Association With Cardiovascular Events
[Open access] Substance use has a strong association with acute CV events and maternal mortality during hospitalization for delivery and women with substance use warrant increased surveillance for CV events during this time | JACC Advances, USA
Thoracic surgeons who treat lung cancer are helping reduce patients' risk of opioid dependence, study shows
Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have found that robot-assisted surgeries and new patient-care protocols are enabling lung cancer surgery patients to go home earlier, with less pain and almost always without a need for potentially addictive opioids | Medical Xpress, USA
Using a CBD product? Be sure to tell your doctor
Cannabinoid products may interfere with some prescription medications, so people who use them should add these to the list of supplements they tell their doctors about | Medical Xpress, USA
Alcohol and other drug use more prevalent in non-car injuries, shows study
The Monash University-led study, believed to be Victoria's first to analyze the alcohol and other drug use of trauma patients with non-transport injuries, has prompted calls for more prevention efforts | Medical Xpress, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
Isolating and Examining Off-Trade Availability and Violence
Policy discussion of the contribution of alcohol to incidents of violence has, in recent decades, broadly focused on night-time economy spaces. Sites like pubs, bars, and nightclubs have been central to such discussion – not only as sites where this violence might occur, but also as sites which sell alcohol. However, others have noted that this approach has overlooked violence which takes place in other sites, including the home, as well as the ways alcohol sold in other sites, such as supermarkets and shops, might contribute to this | IAS blog, UK
I thought vaping was my pleasure but a book showed me it was a tyranny. With one leap, I was free
I had 20 nicotine obsessed years: first cigarettes and then the plastic alternative. I came to realise it wasn’t a want: it was a need | Guardian opinion, UK
Decriminalisation Under Attack: What Opponents Propose To Fix Drug Problems
Youtuber J.J. McCullough was somehow considered a key voice to comment on drug-related deaths by the Washington Post. In his piece, McCullough says that it is taboo to stigmatise drug use in Canada, when stigma is often an effective strategy to achieve other health-based objectives like reducing tobacco smoking. Countering decades of expert investigations into the barriers created by stigma, he states that judgement is an effective tool to tackle societal ills | Talking Drugs, UK