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Daily news - 4th December 2024

UK news

Alcohol Profiles for England: short statistical commentary, December 2024

New data has been added to the Alcohol Profile tool on the Fingertips platform. This update shows: In 2023, there were 8,274 alcohol-specific deaths (deaths wholly due to alcohol) in England, which was an increase of 63.8% from 5,050 deaths in 2006 and a 4.6% increase since 2022. This equates to a rate of 15.0 per 100,000 population in 2023. This was the highest rate for alcohol-specific mortality since the start of the data series in 2006 (10.7 per 100,000) | OHID, UK

Still ambitious for recovery - How to address illegal drug addiction and strengthen law enforcement’s role (PDF)

This report sheds light on the scale of the illegal drug addiction crisis we face today, not only in terms of the lives lost to overdoses and drug poisonings, but also the lives blighted by stigma and a lack of support It echoes the findings of Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs, which so starkly warned that the Government must invest in tackling the problem or keep paying for the consequences | CSJ, UK

Recovery Is Possible - Addiction Awareness Week 2024 - Taking Action on Addiction - video

Ant and Dec, and more than 75 other individual contributors, kindly shared their own uplifting, remarkable and inspiring stories of their own or a loved one’s recovery from addiction | Forward Trust, UK

National naloxone programme Scotland - Quarterly monitoring bulletin

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number of take-home naloxone kits issued by the National Naloxone Programme (NNP) in Scotland. Figures are presented separately for kits issued from community outlets, kits issued in prisons at the point of liberation, kits dispensed via community prescription, and kits issued by Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) | Public Health Scotland, UK

Scottish Public Health Observatory update - Estimated quarterly numbers of people prescribed opioid substitution therapy in Scotland (12-month period)

In the 12-month period ending 30 June 2024 (the end of 2024/25 Q1), Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) was prescribed to an estimated minimum of 29,470 people in Scotland. In the 12 months to the end of the previous financial year quarter (2023/24 Q4) an estimated minimum of 29,817 people were prescribed OST. The NHS Board areas where the highest estimated numbers of people prescribed OST lived were Greater Glasgow & Clyde (8,579), Lothian (4,570) and Lanarkshire (3,032) | Public Health Scotland, UK

[Open access] Recent reports suggest that the prevalence of alcohol consumption has reduced among young people in England. We used whole population, English substance use treatment data to examine whether there has been a corresponding decrease in the number of young people accessing specialist alcohol treatment. We also examined the trend among young people with the highest levels of alcohol treatment need | IJDP, UK

How nurses and midwives are driving smoking cessation success

Amid bold legislative proposals to ban smoking and restrict the sale of vapes, alongside new smoking cessation initiatives being rolled out across the NHS, nurses and midwives hold the key to supporting the UK population to kick these habits for good | Nursing Times, UK

Consultation Response: Change NHS

Why and how the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England must take action on alcohol harm | Alcohol Change UK, UK

Two drug arrests after Belfast nightclub death

Chloe Ferris, who was in her 20s, died at the Lux nightclub in the city centre in the early hours of Sunday. The emergency services were called to the club after reports that two women had fallen unconscious. Ms Ferris had died by the time police had arrived | BBC, UK

Police team up for drink and drug driving campaign

Lancashire and Merseyside police forces have teamed up to launch a joint annual crackdown on drink and drug driving in the run up to Christmas | BBC, UK

Police forces to crack down on drug drivers

Police forces in Suffolk and Norfolk are targeting drug drivers as part of an annual winter crackdown | BBC, UK

Gang hid £7bn of drugs in garlic and onion cargo

It is believed to be the largest drug smuggling operation ever detected in the UK, Manchester Crown Court has heard | BBC, UK

Gang jailed over £200m of cocaine in banana boxes

A gang has been jailed after trying to smuggle cocaine with a street value of about £200m in a cargo of bananas from Colombia. The shipment - believed to be one of the biggest drug seizures ever seen in the UK - was intercepted at Portsmouth Port in February 2021 | BBC, UK

Man jailed for smuggling 'skull' ecstasy pills

A man who tried to use the postal system to import 29,000 skull-shaped ecstasy tablets into the UK has been jailed | BBC, UK

International news

Trump’s DEA pick Chad Chronister withdraws from consideration

Florida sheriff cites ‘gravity’ of responsibility days after Trump taps him to lead Drug Enforcement Administration | Guardian, UK

Transformation of the tobacco product market in Japan, 2011–2023

This study updates a previous paper that examined trends in the sale of cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs) in Japan between 2011 and part way through 2019. The current study includes complete unit sales data through 2023 | BMJ Tobacco Control, UK

‘Clear end goal’ is to fully decriminalise and regulate all drugs, NSW drug summit told – video

Dr Annie Madden, the executive director of Harm Reduction Australia, calls for decriminalisation of small quantities of drugs for personal use at the NSW government’s drug summit. 'It is only reasonable that we give decriminalisation a proper chance to do what decades of prohibition has failed to do,' says Madden, who was the only speaker at the state’s first drug summit 25 years ago who was an active drug user | Guardian, UK

More than 90% of people caught with small amounts of illicit drugs criminalised in NSW despite diversion reforms

Exclusive: Police used discretion to divert just 6.9% of people caught with personal use quantities of drugs from criminal justice system, data shows | Guardian, UK

Indonesia hands Australia draft Bali Nine repatriation deal in ‘significant step forward’

Australia’s home affairs minister Tony Burke says some issues are yet to be resolved but hails Indonesian goodwill | Guardian, UK

The fentanyl funnel: How narcos sneak deadly chemicals through the U.S.

A secretive route that drug traffickers use to transport fentanyl-making chemicals from China to Mexico runs straight through the United States. It’s called the “master carton” smuggling scheme, and it all starts with one little box | Reuters, USA

Dual use of vapes and cigarettes hinders smoking cessation

People who use both vapes and cigarettes are less likely to quit compared to people who only smoke or only vape, according to a study published today (Wednesday) in ERJ Open Research | News Medical, USA

Maryland's cannabis-related emergency room visits are trending downward since legalization

Cannabis-related emergency room visits are on a downward trend in Carroll County, according to Maryland Department of Health statistics | Medical Xpress, USA

[Open access] There are many barriers to prescribing medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). This study evaluates the prevalence, patterns, and predictors of inpatient MOUD prescribing at discharge to patients with a diagnosis of opioid use/opioid use disorder (OUD) that developed opioid withdrawal during their hospital stay | DAD, USA

There Are Multiple Routes to Prisoner Naloxone Access. These Are the Best

No prison in the United States currently has an Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution program that puts naloxone in prisoners’ hands directly. However, they wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel to implement one. The medical and security infrastructure to do so already exist, and naloxone could be folded in with few adjustments and at almost no cost | Filter Magazine, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

Being admitted to hospital after taking hallucinogens increases the risk of schizophrenia more than threefold

A link between taking hallucinogenic drugs and psychosis has long been suspected. Given the recent increase in people taking these drugs, a research group in Canada wanted to know if there was an association between people going to hospital because of problems related to these drugs and subsequent mental ill health – specifically, schizophrenia spectrum disorder | Conversation, UK

People who use drugs and the right to health

Support for a human rights framework for drug policy has been growing for some years. This year, the UNODC published a chapter in the World Drug Report focussed on the right to health. In this paper, we draw attention to the conceptualisation of the right to health for people who use drugs | BMC Public Health, UK

An Interview with Maryanne Frangules of the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery (MOAR)

Maryanne Frangules has decades of experience as a recovery community advocate and community recovery capital builder. I met her shortly after I got to PRO-A in the early 2010s. We both were working on Recovery Community Service Program grants through SAMHSA | Recovery Review blog, USA

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