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Daily news - 28th September 2023 |
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UK news
UK's first consumption room for illegal drugs given go-ahead
The UK's first official consumption room for illegal drugs including heroin and cocaine has been approved by authorities in Glasgow | BBC, UK
Man shows BBC Glasgow alley where he injects cocaine six times a day - video
Hugh has struggled with addiction for the last three decades. The 53-year-old injects cocaine about six times a day - sometimes in a needle-strewn alley off Trongate in Glasgow city centre | BBC, UK
Action taken to help promote no and low-alcohol drinks
More people could be encouraged to purchase alcohol-free drinks under government proposals to make alternatives to alcoholic drinks more widely available | Department of Health and Social Care and Neil O'Brien MP, UK
A mentally healthier nation
Mental health in the UK is getting worse. Sickness absence due to mental illness is soaring, rates of mental health difficulties are increasing at an alarming rate, and already overstretched services are struggling to meet rising demands. Along with over 30 organisations with an interest in mental health, we have developed a plan to address this and build a mentally healthier nation | Centre for Mental Health, UK
Policy must tackle root causes of England’s record mental ill-health, says report
Coalition of experts publish action points including tackling inequality, poor housing and child poverty | Guardian, UK
Smoking in pregnancy increases risk of premature birth threefold, study finds
Risk of smoking double the previous estimate, but research finds no link between above average caffeine intake and pre-term babies | Guardian, UK
Assessing the reach and engagement with the ‘How To Save A Life’ mass media campaign on drug-related death prevention in Scotland
[Open access] ‘How To Save A Life’ (HTSAL) was a mass media campaign on drug-related death prevention which ran in Scotland from August 2021 to January 2022. It aimed to increase awareness of how to respond to an opioid overdose, and the uptake of take-home naloxone (THN). The objective of this study was to determine the reach and engagement with the campaign | DEPP, UK
Science to identify harmful substances and reduce drug-related deaths in North Yorkshire and York
Seized drug samples are to be analysed in a bid to reduce drug-related deaths in North Yorkshire and York as part of a new 12-month project. The North Yorkshire Drug Analysis Project (NYDAP) will see drug samples found or seized by North Yorkshire Police, examined for harmful substances in a Home Office licenced drug-testing facility at Manchester Metropolitan University | MMU, UK
Social media may increase the risk of teenage alcohol use and binge drinking
The latest study, which is led by the University of Glasgow and published in the European Journal of Public Health, analysed how often teenagers used social media every day at 14 years and investigated if it influenced their reported use of alcohol at 17 years, including potentially dangerous behaviours such as binge drinking | University of Glasgow, UK
ASH Deputy Chief Exec Hazel Cheeseman discuss vaping on BBC Radio 5 Live - video
ASH Deputy Chief Executive Hazel Cheeseman joins BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss the risk of vaping compared to smoking and what needs to be done to reduce youth vaping | ASH, UK
Recovery Games 2023 Full Day Coverage - video
As Recovery month draws to an end the Recovery Games 2023 tenth anniversary film is out. Many thanks to all the people, sponsors, supporters, teams and friends of recovery for being part of the games, taking part and showing that recovery can happen, is fun and does not need to be stigmatising | Aspire, UK
What's Scarier: Drugs or Drug Policy? - with Prof David Nutt
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 18:30 - 20:00 GMT. A Drug Science Halloween Special, in-person and online in collaboration with the University of York 's Drug Science Student Society | Drug Science, UK
Norfolk woman took magic mushrooms to ease pain, inquest told
A woman who died after eating magic mushrooms did so to relieve her pain, an inquest has heard. Dorota Paskevic, 33, from Dunston near Norwich, was left paralysed after a road collision in 2017 | BBC, UK
Thousands of 'drug line' contacts texted by Police Scotland
Thousands of people whose phone numbers were recovered in a drugs raid have been sent advice on substance misuse by Police Scotland | BBC, UK
Class A drugs disguised as chocolate seized
The government said 600g (21oz) of chocolates made to look like "off the shelf" brightly coloured treats and labelled "Magic Dinosaurs", had been laced with the hallucinogenic drugs Psilocin and Psilocybin | BBC, UK
Dealer caught with heroin hidden in biscuit tin jailed for 10 years
A dealer who was found with a "massive amount" of heroin inside a biscuit tin has been jailed for 10 years | BBC, UK
Heroin found stuffed in Birmingham boxing kit
Heroin with a street value of £250,000 has been found sewn in boxing gloves and head guards | BBC, UK
International news
Largest ever Irish drug seizure after ship raided
An operation in which more than two tonnes of cocaine was recovered off the Irish coast was the largest drugs seizure in the history of the state, gardaí (Irish police) have said | BBC, UK
Cassidy Hutchinson claims Mark Meadows got drunk on White Claws at White House – as he didn’t know they contained alcohol
Mr Meadows, a “dedicated and faithful” practicing Southern Baptist, does not drink alcohol and apparently never had until the moment he pulled a White Claw from his office refrigerator believing it to be a non-alcoholic seltzer | Independent, UK
Alcohol breath-test devices that can stop cars from starting may be introduced in State next year
Alcohol Ignition Interlock detects the level on the driver’s breath and immobilises the vehicle | Irish Times, Ireland
Putting People First
In our new movie, Drugreporter gives you a snapshot of the state of drug policy in Africa | Drug Reporter, Hungary
Ban smoking and vaping in schools worldwide urges WHO
Young people continue to be “relentlessly” targeted with tobacco and nicotine products, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday, in a call to ban smoking and vaping “whether sitting in class, playing games outside or waiting at the school bus stop” | WHO, Switzerland
The association between temperature and alcohol- and substance-related disorder hospital visits in New York State
[Open access] Our work highlights how hospital visits from alcohol- and substance-related disorders are currently impacted by elevated temperatures and could be further affected by rising temperatures resulting from climate change. Enhanced social infrastructure and health system interventions could mitigate these impacts | Nature, USA
One-Year Association of Drug Possession Law Change With Fatal Drug Overdose in Oregon and Washington
In this cohort study using synthetic control analysis, laws decriminalizing drug possession in Oregon and Washington were not associated with changes in fatal drug overdose rates in either state. The average rate difference in Oregon post change was 0.268 fatal drug overdoses per 100 000 state population, while the average rate difference in Washington post change was 0.112 fatal drug overdoses per 100 000 state population | JAMA Network, USA
Safety concerns about youth access to online marijuana dispensaries
Researchers from the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, Lake Success, have looked into age verification procedures and the potential for underage youth access to online marijuana dispensaries in the United States | Medical Xpress, USA
Emergency department visits for substance use linked to higher risk of developing schizophrenia
People visiting the emergency department (ED) for substance use—particularly cannabis—are at high risk of developing schizophrenia, according to new research | Medical Xpress, USA
Q&A: Methadone is effective for opioid use disorder, so why aren't more patients using it?
Since the 1970s, methadone has been used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) with great success—reducing the likelihood of dying from an opioid overdose by 50% or more. Yet for patients and prescribers alike, choosing the drug for OUD treatment is complicated | Medical Xpress, USA
Many People Left to Make Their Own Stimulant Pipes and Face the Risks
Across the globe, people who use stimulants have devised creative, sometimes ingenious, smoking tools. Often used to heat up and inhale crack cocaine or methamphetamine, these homemade implements are regularly made of whatever’s available—particularly in jurisdictions where access to new pipes and stems, such as through safer smoking kit programs, is banned | Filter Magazine, USA
New psychoactive substance markets and monitoring in Australia: An update
The Ecstasy and Related Drug Reporting System (EDRS) and the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) are national drug monitoring systems intended to identify emerging trends of local and national concern in illicit drug markets, and form part of Drug Trends. This bulletin aims to examine new psychoactive substance (NPS) use among the EDRS and IDRS national samples from 2010 to 2022 | NDARC, Australia
Recent alcohol use among a sample of people who inject drugs, Darwin, NT, 2018-2022
The Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) is a national illicit drug monitoring system intended to identify emerging trends of local and national concern in illicit drug markets and forms part of the Drug Trends program. This bulletin aims to describe the past six months of alcohol use and hazardous patterns of use, using AUDIT-C score, for males and females among a sample of people who regularly inject illicit drugs in Darwin, NT, from 2018 to 2022 | NDARC, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
With You welcomes plans for the UK's first overdose prevention centre
Ronnie, from Paisley, used drugs for more than 30 years before going into residential rehabilitation and overcoming his challenges. He says: “Every penny I had went on drugs. When I stopped working I was living out of food banks, sleeping on a couch, only getting off the couch to go and score. “If I didn’t seek help when I did, I would be dead now. There’s no doubt, I would be dead. Or I would be sitting with limbs amputated, lost the ability to walk, ultimately I wouldn’t be here.” Ronnie now works at our Glasgow Recovery Hub. He believes the overdose prevention centre will help homeless people in the city | With You, UK
The Cranstoun Response to the United Kingdom’s First Sanctioned OPC Pilot
Cranstoun strongly welcomes this milestone moment, and lauds the Scottish Government, and other supportive MSPs, for their efforts in pushing for implementation over the past years. In addition, we would like to thank the tireless campaigning of people including Cranstoun’s Peter Krykant, who have been instrumental in ensuring the UK finally has an OPC | Cranstoun, UK
Bob Blackman: ‘Sunak should make delivering a smokefree 2030 his public health legacy’
As a dyed in the wool Conservative I believe in freedom of choice, but smoking is not a matter of free choice | Politics.co.uk, UK
I have 30 years’ experience as a prison officer and feel the fear every single day
Prisoners are bigger due to steroids. Spice turns inmates into zombies. And with social media they might know where we live | Guardian, UK
[Commentary] The WHO strategies to reduce tobacco-related deaths are insufficient
The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) aims to combat global tobacco-related deaths. While it has reduced smoking in some regions, its overall effectiveness is debated, especially regarding alternative nicotine products like e-cigarettes and Swedish snus. Although the WHO views these as threats, evidence suggests they could aid harm reduction. With differing smoking trends in various countries and emerging evidence supporting alternatives, the upcoming 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) in Panama represents a crucial juncture to reassess and potentially redefine global tobacco control strategies | Qeios, Sweden