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Daily news - 17th December 2024 |
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UK news
Estimating recent trends in UK alcohol sales from alcohol duty revenue - preprint
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in individual-level alcohol consumption and a sharp increase in heavy drinking in the UK. More recently, high rates of inflation, the resulting ‘cost-of-living crisis’ and reforms to alcohol taxation have affected the affordability of alcohol, but little is understood about how these changes have impacted on alcohol sales and consumption. We aimed gain insights into recent trends in alcohol sales by assessing changes in alcohol duty revenue collected by the UK government since 2020 | MedRxiv, UK
Bridge the Gap
Bridge the Gap is Surrey’s first trauma-informed outreach service for residents facing multiple disadvantage. Lisa Byrne explains | DDN, UK
SDF Trends 2024, Jason Wallace, Senior Development Officer SDF 'What is Drug Checking telling us?' - video
Presentation on 'What is Drug Checking telling us?' by Jason Wallace, Senior Development Officer who leads and manages the Living Experience Engagement Team at Scottish Drugs Forum | SDF, UK
SDF Trends 2024, Vicki Craik, PHS 'RADAR: The neglected threats of cocaine, benzos & gabapentinoids' - video
Presentation on 'Under the RADAR: The Neglected Threats of Cocaine, Benzos and Gabapentinoids' by Anna McVinish, Clinical Nurse Consultant at St Vincent's Health Australia.' | SDF, UK
SDF Trends 2024, Anna McVinish, St Vincent's Health Australia, 'FOpIT Trial'
Presentation on 'FOpIT Trial - Feasibility of Opioid Injection Trial' by Anna McVinish, Clinical Nurse Consultant at St Vincent's Health Australia | SDF, UK
Alcoholic drinks will be allowed in theatre seats
Alcoholic drinks will soon be allow to take alcoholic drinks back to their seats for the first time in an historic theatre | BBC, UK
Operation Venetic: Leading figure of gang that shipped class A drugs between England and Scotland is jailed
Colin Wright, 38, from Torre Pacheco in Murcia, and formerly of Motherwell, was arrested by the Spanish National Police in March this year at the request of the National Crime Agency, and extradited to the UK on 4 October. A number of high value items were seized from his Spanish address | NCA, UK
International news
Changes in socio-economic inequality in alcohol-attributable mortality in periods of increasing and decreasing alcohol affordability
Reducing alcohol affordability reduces alcohol-related harm but its impact on socio-economic inequalities requires further study. We examine changes in alcohol-attributable mortality inequalities in Finland during periods of sharply rising (2000–2007) and falling (2008–2017) alcohol affordability | Addiction, UK
Sacks of chemicals, plastic fruit … and millions of pills: inside a Damascus Captagon factory
Burnt-out rooms reveal extent of lucrative regime-supported operation to smuggle drug across region | Guardian, UK
Hepatitis C in Australia more than halved in less than a decade
In 2023, there were an estimated 68,890 people living with hepatitis C in Australia, down 58% from 162,590 at the end of 2015, according to a new report released today by the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney | UNSW, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
The London Alcohol-Free Comedy Club
Hello! Martyn here from Phoenix Futures. By day you will catch me as the Senior Alcohol HIU Specialist, working person centred and holistically with a small cohort of clients. My work is to try and break the cycle in their hospital presentations and vitally get them re-engaging with services. Using my own lived experience with this cohort type has proved invaluable | AntiStigma Network, UK
Medical cannabis, housing, and the Equality Act
Since 2018, specialist doctors in the UK have been allowed to initiate prescriptions of cannabis medicines to their patients, who are then legally allowed to possess and consume this medication. It is not legal for prescription cannabis to be smoked or cultivated at home. However, the medication can legally be vaporised using a medical device or taken as an oil or capsule. The Cannabis Industry Council, which represents clinics, pharmacies, licensed producers, and patient groups, has prepared some guidance on this issue for housing providers. This has been reviewed by Fieldfisher lawyer, Robert Jappie | National Housing Federation, UK
Drug testing and Incentivised Substance Free Living wings
Research into the lived experience of drug testing and Incentivised Substance Free Living wings (ISFLs) in three prisons | Russell Webster, UK
New alcohol mortality data presents a bleak picture for England
New figures, published by the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) as part of their Local Alcohol Profiles for England, show that England set another unwanted record in 2023, with the highest number of alcohol-specific deaths on record. 8,274 people died in 2023 from causes that are wholly attributable to alcohol, an increase of 4.6% from 2022 and 42.2% since 2019 | IAS blog, UK
Why does red wine cause headaches? Our research points to a compound found in the grapes’ skin
Medical accounts of red wine headaches go back to Roman times, but the experience is likely as old as winemaking – something like 10,000 years. As chemists specializing in winemaking, we wanted to try to figure out the source of these headaches. Many components of red wine have been accused of causing this misery – sulfites, biogenic amines and tannin are the most popular. Our research suggests the most likely culprit is one you may not have considered | Conversation, USA