Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 29th September 2023 |
 |
UK news
Open consultation: Updating labelling guidance for no and low-alcohol alternatives
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is consulting on options for updating guidance on low-alcohol descriptors. Our aim is to increase substitution of alcoholic drinks with ‘alcohol free’ or low-alcohol (‘NoLo’) alternatives among people who drink above low risk levels | OHID, UK
Disposable vapes as an environmental as well as public health threat: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 | Scottish Government, UK
TikTok videos on deadly bodybuilding drugs viewed 89m times by young people in UK
Report into toxic content aimed at young men finds drug use being promoted and risks downplayed | Guardian, UK
Labour MP recommends trialling ‘hard drug rooms’
[Possible paywall] Dame Diana Johnson has suggested the UK Government consider £2.3m ‘safe consumption’ facility being tested by SNP | Telegraph, UK
Our strategy 2023/24
This one-year strategy is the next step in achieving our vision of a future free from harm caused by alcohol, drug and mental health issues | With You, UK
Coventry school head calls for police to tackle nearby drug use
Residents close to the school and Charterhouse museum say dealing frequently takes place in the area | BBC, UK
FA Cup: Former Cambridge United forward Liam Hughes on addiction and self-harm
It is January 2015 and Liam Hughes is standing in the players' tunnel at the Abbey Stadium, home of Cambridge United | BBC, UK
Isle of Man: Take Drugs Seriously
Starts on Tuesday, October 10 · 7pm BST. Promenade Methodist Church, The Promenade IM1 2LX Douglas Isle of Man. Anyone's Child: Families for Safer Drug Control invite you to join us for a conversation around the impact of drugs on the Isle of Man and how we can better protect our community. Join the discussion about what a new approach to drugs could mean for the Isle of Man, your family and your community | J Slater, UK
Derry: Police raid over prescription drug dealing
Police in Londonderry have seized an item following a search related to the illegal supply of prescription drugs | BBC, UK
Police seize cannabis plants worth more than £1.1m
Police have seized 1,375 cannabis plants worth more than £1.1m in two outbuildings | BBC, UK
International news
Ireland 'no soft touch' on drugs, says minister
Ireland is "anything but a soft touch" for international drug traffickers, the country's justice minister has said | BBC, UK
Minister Naughton announces the reconstitution of the North Inner-City Drug and Alcohol Task Force
Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Hildegarde Naughton, has today announced the reconstitution of the North Inner-City Drug and Alcohol Task Force | Department of Health, Ireland
Alcohol 'promotion' detracted from success of Women's World Cup, says new commentary
The authors, Dr. Frank Houghton and Daisy Houghton, highlight a "highly problematic" moment during the final between England and Spain, which was broadcast to tens of millions worldwide. Around 30 minutes into the match, the camera focused on a fan celebrating Spain's winning goal while holding a cup of beer | Medical Xpress, USA
Cannabis Use Frequency and Cannabis-Related Consequences in High-Risk Young Adults Across Cannabis Legalization
In this cohort study of high-risk young adults, individuals using cannabis frequently prelegalization showed significant reductions in use and consequences over time, reflecting an aging out pattern. Small increases in use among participants with no prelegalization use were observed over time, but without parallel changes in cannabis-related consequences. The results did not reveal substantive adverse near-term outcomes across the legalization period, although a within-participants design cannot rule out the possibility of alternative trajectories in the absence of legalization | JAMA Network Open, USA
Canadian adults with cannabis use disorder appear to have 60% higher risk of cardiovascular diseases
A new study has found that Canadian adults with cannabis use disorder appear to have an approximately 60% higher risk of experiencing their first heart attack, stroke, or other major cardiovascular event than those without cannabis use disorder | News Medical, USA
Widespread naloxone distribution not enough to impact overdose death rate: Study
The highest ever number of opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States was recorded in 2020 at 68,630, a 68% increase in just two years. Naloxone is a medicine that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, but a new study out of the University of Cincinnati finds that widespread community distribution of naloxone through a take-home naloxone (THN) program did not significantly impact the median monthly opioid overdose rates | Medical Xpress, USA
Technology-Assisted Buprenorphine Treatment in Rural and Nonrural Settings
In these randomized clinical trials of TAB treatment, demonstration of efficacy was extended to a longer duration than previously examined and to patients residing in rural communities | JAMA Network Open, USA
In the Lead Up to Prevention Month, the Biden-Harris Administration Awards $42.6 Million to Expand and Strengthen the Capacity of States and Local Community Prevention Providers to Implement Evidence-based Prevention Strategies
These grants ― a foundational investment for substance use prevention in the U.S. ― focus on preventing substance use initiation and reducing the progression of substance use and related problems by supporting the development and delivery of state and community substance use prevention and mental health promotion strategies | SAMHSA, USA
Our Struggle for Safe Consumption Sites in San Francisco’s Tenderloin
In 2006, a community health clinic opened in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. On any given day, the waiting room would be filled with people at higher risk for HIV transmission, many of whom lacked stable housing or housing at all—drug users, sex workers, trans folks, people who were mentally ill and disabled. A community of people who weren’t welcome at other health care facilities | Filter Magazine, USA
New Zealand’s first wet house opens in Wellington
New Zealand’s first ‘wet house’, where homeless men with chronic alcoholism can get help while still drinking, has opened in Wellington | 1 News, New Zealand
Blogs, comment and opinion
Crispin Blunt: ‘The UK’s hopeless drug policies need urgent reform and overhaul’
The think tank I founded in 2019 as the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group has just become the Centre for Evidence Based Drug Policy. My team and I have found that we are just as often trying to persuade MPs of opposition parties as my own. But it is not just that the leadership of the Labour party is as consistently hopeless as my own party on drug policy; it is more basic than this | Politics.co.uk, UK
Henry Hill: The SNP is right to open drug consumption rooms, but wrong to push for decriminalisation
This week, as a break from our usual service, we’re going to talk about a policy where I think the Scottish Government has got it right: drug consumption rooms | Conservative Home, UK
The Guardian view on Scotland’s drug deaths: at last, a glimmer of sense
Glasgow’s pilot scheme to create an official consumption facility without threat of prosecution is a small but overdue step forward | Guardian opinion, UK
An update on european cannabis reform
Moving into October, cannabis reform has been on the agenda of a number of countries across Europe. Now that campaigners and advocates are finally gaining recognition for their efforts, let’s take a look at some of the countries that are spurring on with cannabis reform | Volteface, UK
Guest blog: Neil Hudson-Basing on the origin of The House of Happiness, an alcohol and drug-free clubbing extravaganza
Neil Hudson-Basing, is the co-founder of The House of Happiness, which is an alcohol and drug-free clubbing extravaganza based in London. These queer-led and delivered events are coming up to their one-year anniversary! Neil reflects on his journey creating these events and spreads the message that you don’t need alcohol to tear up the dance floor and party hard! | Drinkaware Blog, UK
South African men are much more likely to die from TB than women – here’s why
We estimated that of the 801 per 100,000 adult men who developed TB in 2019, 51% were attributable to heavy alcohol use, 30% to smoking, and 16% to undernutrition | Conversation, South Africa