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Daily news - 18th December 2024

UK news

UK more likely to donate to food banks and furry friends than UK kids this Christmas

Drug, alcohol and mental health charity WithYou reveals that this Christmas the UK is most likely to donate to foodbanks and animal charities, but only 10% of people would donate to charities supporting young people and even less (5%) would donate to a drug and alcohol charity | WithYou, UK

Survey shows funding uncertainty threatens progress on smoking

The latest Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Cancer Research UK annual survey of local authorities has found a record expansion in local authority-run stop smoking services following major investment. For the first time since the transfer of public health to local government a decade ago, all surveyed local authorities commissioned a stop smoking service, which provides essential support to those who want to quit | ASH, UK

Alcohol related hospital statistics

This release by Public Health Scotland provides information on alcohol-related inpatient and day case activity within general acute and psychiatric hospitals in Scotland. In 2023/24 there were 32,301 alcohol-related hospital admissions (stays) in Scotland. The majority of alcohol-related hospital admissions (92%) occurred in general acute hospitals, with the remaining 8% of admissions occurring in psychiatric hospitals | PHS, UK

Alcohol Consumption and Harms Dashboard

This release by Public Health Scotland provides an update on the Wholly Attributable Alcohol Hospital Statistics and the Wholly Attributable Alcohol Mortality figures to include financial year 2023/24 and calendar year 2023 respectively. In 2023/24, the European Age-sex standardised rate of wholly attributable alcohol hospital admissions to general acute hospitals was 548 per 100,000 population and was 3% higher than the rate in 2022/23 | PHS, UK

National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times

This release by Public Health Scotland reports on waiting times for people accessing specialist drug and alcohol treatment services between 1 July 2024 and 30 September 2024. During the quarter ending 30 September 2024, there were 7,454 referrals to community-based services. Of these, 6,976 (93.6%) involved a wait of three weeks or less | PHS, UK

Evaluation of the Scottish Government Residential Rehabilitation programme

This release by Public Health Scotland reports on the number of individuals who started a residential rehab placement in Scotland in financial years 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23. The purpose of this report is to help track progress towards the Scottish Government's target of 1,000 individuals publicly funded to go through residential rehab per year by 2026. This report will inform the PHS evaluation of the Scottish Government's Residential Rehabilitation programme | PHS, UK

Interim monitoring report on statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements

The report by Public Health Scotland presents information on the number of statutory funded placements into residential rehabilitation, with estimated costs, that were approved between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2024. In the last 6-month period, between 1 April 2024 and 30 September 2024, a total of 442 residential rehabilitation placements were approved for statutory funding in Scotland. This is a decrease of 37 placements when compared to April 2023 to September 2023 | PHS, UK

National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times customer survey results

This report by Public Health Scotland summarises the responses to PHS’s customer survey on the quarterly National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times publication which ran between 5 September 2024 and 17 October 2024. The survey sought feedback on the publication report and dashboard, and on PHS’s proposal to discontinue the report and focus future work on the dashboard. The report also provides details of planned publication developments and the timescales for these | PHS, UK

NHS Stop Smoking Services Scotland

This release by Public Health Scotland provides an annual update on statistics from NHS Stop Smoking Services in Scotland for the period April 2023 to March 2024, including trend data from 2014/15. In 2023/34 the number of attempts to stop smoking made with the help of NHS smoking cessation services increased to 30,314, a 12.4% increase from 2022/23 | PHS, UK

Health secretary’s claims on smoking aren’t supported by the evidence

The health secretary Wes Streeting recently said that most young smokers will never be able to break their addiction, and also suggested that smoking “will eventually kill” two-in-three of them. He made the comments during a debate in parliament on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, but neither claim is supported by the evidence | FullFact, UK

Alcoholism: Death

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet the Alcohol Health Alliance to discuss what steps the Government can take to reduce alcohol related deaths | They work for you, UK

Leeds expands support to help more smokers quit for good

Health bosses in Leeds have expanded their stop smoking services to help encourage residents to kick the habit – as figures show there are currently more than 111,000 people in the city who still smoke | South Leeds Life, UK

'You're not even living, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy'

The Welcome Organisation's drop-in centre was forced to close its headquarters in west Belfast after an arson attack in July. It has taken five months to find new premises at Centenary House in Belfast City Centre | BBC, UK

Drug Education Forum development planning - survey

The Drug Education Forum Spring Event will take place on Wednesday 5th March 2025 from 3.30-5.30pm. It will be online and free to attend. They have released a very short survey to find what you would like to be featured and included in future events | DEF, UK

SDF Trends 2024, Trina Ritchie, NHS GGC 'Providing MAT for people with Benzodiazepine Dependency' - video

Presentation on 'Trends in Treatment – Providing MAT for people with Benzodiazepine Dependency' by Trina Ritchie, Lead Clinician at NHS GGC Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services. View and download the slides for the presentation here (PDF) | SDF, UK

SDF Trends 2024, Chris Rintoul, Cranstoun 'Pregabalin in Northern Ireland' - video

Presentation on 'Pregabalin in Northern Ireland' by Chris Rintoul, Head of Harm Reduction at Cranstoun. View and download the slides for the presentation here (PDF) | SDF, UK

Innovation Fund to Reduce Demand for Illicit Substances (RDIS) Phase 3

Closing date: 23 April 2025 at 1:00 pm. NIHR is launching Phase 3 of the Innovation Fund to Reduce the Demand for Illicit Substances, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care in partnership with the Joint Combatting Drugs Unit. The funding opportunity aims to fund projects that address demand for recreational drugs and are thereby likely to lead to reduced drug use and dependency. Successful projects are eligible to the following phase (depending on successful outcomes and assessment of a separate application into the subsequent phases). However new applications will also be accepted in Phase 3 | NIHR, UK

£1m of cannabis seized in drug farm raids

Drugs worth about £1m have been seized in a series of raids on illegal grow sites, with 10 people arrested | BBC, UK

Nurse who took drug from hospital struck off

A nurse who repeatedly took fentanyl intended for patients from a hospital after doctoring patient records has been struck off | BBC, UK

International news

Exploring and describing alcohol harm reduction interventions: a scoping review of literature from the past decade in the western world

[Open access] Published from 2011 to 2022, 61 articles were synthesised into an overview of the types of interventions trialled to reduce harm from drinking in Europe, North America, and Australia, their effectiveness, and helps and hindrances to implementation | Harm Reduction Journal, UK

Ireland's first medically supervised injection facility to open

its doors this month at Merchant Quay Ireland's Riverbank centre in Dublin city centre | RTe, Ireland

‘The Runners - A Trafficking Timeline’ which highlights the impact on children and young people when they are trafficked for criminal activities in the North East Inner City Dublin

The animation was developed following an involved research process that included the testimonies and voices of children and parents who have become trapped in a cycle of fear, distress and harm when they were trafficked. The animation shows the silent and hidden in plain sight nature of the crime | Inner City Organisations Network, Ireland

EUDA webinar: Responses for drugs in prisons — implications for Latin America, Caribbean and Europe - video

The main aim of this webinar is to share knowledge on the issue of prisons and drugs and how it is addressed in different world regions. The webinar will discuss related challenges and the possibilities for addressing drugs and prison in different countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe | EUDA, Portugal

Drinking a moderate amount of wine may lower the risk of serious cardiovascular disease in high-risk people

Drinking a small or moderate amount of wine may lower the risk of serious cardiovascular disease in people at a higher risk who are following a Mediterranean diet, according to research published in the European Heart Journal | Medical Xpress, USA

Missing rebound: Youth drug use defies expectations, continues historic decline

Adolescent drug use continued to drop in 2024, building on and extending the historically large decreases that occurred during the pandemic onset in 2020 | University of Michigan, USA

Reported use of most drugs among adolescents remained low in 2024

After declining significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, substance use among adolescents has continued to hold steady at lowered levels for the fourth year in a row, according to the latest results from the Monitoring the Future Survey, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These recent data continue to document stable and declining trends in the use of most drugs among young people | NIDA, USA

Off-label prescribing of Epidiolex® (pharmaceutical cannabidiol) comes with both potential benefits and risks for patients. The aims of this study were to: (1) identify the percentage of people prescribed Epidiolex® who do not have diagnostic indications for Epidiolex® (Lennox Gastaut Syndrome [LGS], Dravet Syndrome [DS], and Tuberous Sclerosis Complex [TSC]) and (2) examine potential co-prescribing of medications that may interact with Epidiolex | Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, UK

How Bat Guano Turned Deadly For Two Men Growing Marijuana

Two men have reportedly died after inhaling bat guano used to grow marijuana, raising concerns about the safety of natural bat guano and commercially available fertilizers | Forbes, USA

Breaking the vape habit: Challenges faced by young adult users

High stress, heavy dependence, and mental health concerns shape the quitting journey for young adult e-cigarette users, emphasizing the need for targeted and supportive interventions | News Medical, USA

[Open access] How did China reduce per capita drinking by a third and resultant deaths by nearly a quarter over the last half of the 2010s, “abrupt and massive changes”? Analysts suspect these were largely side-effects of the government's extensive anti-corruption campaign | Alcohol, USA

Providing Sterile Syringes in Prison Is Not Only Right—It Also Saves Money

Providing sterile syringes in prison is an efficient way to keep people who use drugs safer and healthier, just as it is in the wider world, new research underlines. But if policymakers don’t find that motivating, there’s also the fact that these programs save far more money than they cost | Filter Magazine, USA

Australian-first study shines light on why some drug traffickers are more likely to be reconvicted than others

One in two ‘typical’ drug traffickers convicted in NSW between 2000 and 2023 will have no further contact with the criminal justice system after release, according to an Australian-first study published in The International Journal of Drug Policy. The authors also found that people convicted of trafficking heroin or amphetamine-type substances are more likely to commit further offences than those convicted of cannabis, ecstasy or cocaine trafficking | UNSW, Australia

Blogs, comment and opinion

Alcohol prescribing for severe withdrawal – what the research shows

In rare and severe cases of alcohol withdrawal, one NHS trust is prescribing alcohol to treat patients. A specialised team at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust prescribes carefully controlled doses of alcohol in a medical setting to a select group of patients. The goal? To prevent life-threatening complications. This unconventional approach has sparked discussions surrounding its safety and effectiveness. But a review by my colleagues and I found that alcohol prescribing was as effective as standard treatments in most cases | Conversation, UK

The role of courts in tackling addiction

Stuart Harrington says decriminalising drugs would be more productive than specialist courts, while Jane Lawson remembers a pioneering court that kept families together | Guardian Letters, UK

Opioid settlement funds will be “a really nice tailwind”

The NYT recently published an article on allegations of ethics violations and fraud in Acadia Healthcare’s methadone clinics. It’s a big deal because Acadia is big, really big. “The for-profit chain of 165 methadone clinics — the country’s largest — has generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue since 2022.” | Recovery Review blog, USA

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