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Daily news - 21st February 2024

UK news

Daniel Spargo-Mabbs: Drugs forum launched to mark overdose death

A drugs education forum is being launched to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of a boy who overdosed on MDMA. Daniel Spargo-Mabbs's mother Fiona has campaigned for better education since the 16-year-old's death in 2014 | BBC, UK

Codeine linctus (codeine oral solutions): reclassification to prescription-only medicine

Advice for healthcare professionals on the reclassification of codeine linctus to a prescription-only medicine (POM), following a public consultation | MHRA, UK

Codeine cough syrup abuse prompts ban on UK sales

Cough syrups containing codeine linctus will no longer be sold in chemists in the UK because of concerns people are becoming addicted to the medicine | BBC, UK

National naloxone programme Scotland: annual

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number of take-home naloxone (THN) kits issued by the National Naloxone Programme in Scotland | PHS, UK

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to target support to people with adverse childhood experiences to prevent alcohol harm | They work for you, UK

Alcoholic Drinks: Health Education

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on (a) reducing alcohol harm among children and (b) providing effective education for young people on that subject | They work for you, UK

Electronic Cigarettes

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what NHS support is available for people wanting to give up vaping | They work for you, UK

Forward awarded contract for integrated adult & young people substance misuse service in Thurrock

The Forward Trust has announced it has been awarded the contract to deliver an integrated substance misuse services for adults and young people in Thurrock, in partnership with Open Road | DDN, UK

Take part in the world’s first hepatitis stigma survey

We’re looking for people with experience of hepatitis C and hepatitis B who are willing to take part in a survey about stigma | Hepatitis C Trust, UK

Supporting people with alcohol dependence and co-morbidities

Monday, 18 March · 2:00 PM. Join us to discuss : how can we improve support for patients with alcohol dependence and co-occurring mental and physical illness? | NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London, UK

5-MeO-DMT with Patrick Cox

In this episode, we meet with Patrick Cox, a fashion designer with a background collaborating with Vivienne Westwood. Patrick shares his personal journey from his lifestyle in fashion, led to confronting deep-seated intergenerational trauma. Patrick opens up about undertaking the highly secretive Hoffman Process, and the transformative impact this had on him. From there, he further recounts his journey through the healing use of psychedelics, emphasising the transformative power of ego death | Drug Science, UK

‘It changed my life’: how a UK charity is helping female gambling addicts

For women put off by male-dominated Gamblers Anonymous meetings, a treatment centre in Wolverhampton offers a lifeline | Guardian, UK

Sloshed, plastered and gazeboed: why Britons have 546 words for drunkenness

Combine ribald humour with peculiar sentence construction and a genuinely horrifying drinking culture, and what do you get? A dictionary’s worth of ‘drunkonyms’ | Guardian, UK

Brighton murder trial: Stabbed teen had £20,000 drug debt, court hears

A teenager who was stabbed to death in Brighton had a shared £20,000 drug debt, a court has heard | BBC, UK

Illegal cigarettes and vapes seized in crackdown

More than 58,000 cigarettes and 1,767 vapes have been seized in a clamp down on illegal tobacco products | BBC, UK

International news

New York man pleads guilty to running ‘Breaking Bad-style’ meth lab

‘Brilliant’ scientist Matthew Leshinsky turned himself in after calling the police to report a burglary at his lab in Suffolk county | Guardian, UK

EMCDDA participates in COPOLAD III events in Bolivia

This week, EMCDDA experts will join over 150 officials from Latin American, Caribbean and EU agencies in the annual COPOLAD III meeting, taking place from 20–21 February in La Paz, Bolivia. The event, focusing on the theme ‘More humane and effective drug policies’, will underline the importance of international cooperation in the face of the global drug phenomenon | EMCDDA, Portugal

CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers® Launches New Ads to Encourage People to Quit Smoking

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tips From Former Smokers® (Tips®) campaign returns with new ads to encourage people to quit smoking. This year, seven new people are featured in the ads sharing their stories about how cigarette smoking and smoking-related diseases have negatively impacted their lives | CDC, USA

Study finds menthol cigarette ban would lead a lot of people to quit smoking

A new paper published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research finds that banning the sale of menthol cigarettes would likely lead to a meaningful reduction in smoking rates | Medical Xpress, USA

As the overdose crisis unfolded, narratives mischaracterizing neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) as “addicted babies” with echoes to the “crack babies” panic proliferated in mainstream media. This study examines NAS misinformation dynamics and characteristics over a seven-year period | IJDP, USA

It's tougher for non-white americans to get opioid addiction drug

Americans addicted to opioids who need the anti-addiction med buprenorphine are far more likely to find it if they live in a predominantly white neighborhood, new research finds | Medical Xpress, USA

Young adults with cognitive disabilities and major depressive episodes found more likely to vape nicotine

In 2022, 14% of high school students and 3% of middle school students reported using e-cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is part of a growing trend of adolescents and young adults increasingly using e-cigarettes, also known as nicotine vaping | Medical Xpress, USA

Accessibility of Opioid Treatment Programs Based on Conventional vs Perceived Travel Time Measures

In this cross-sectional analysis of 1018 individuals, 26% of the sample could not access an OTP within 180 minutes. For those who could access these facilities, the average 1-way travel time was 45.6 minutes, with individuals spending approximately 70% of their trip duration on out-of-vehicle travel components | JAMA Network Open, USA

Anxiety and depression are prevalent mental health problems in people who use illicit stimulants. Improved understanding of the temporal relationship between methamphetamine, ecstasy/MDMA, or cocaine use with anxiety or depression informs public health interventions and treatment options for those experiencing this co-occurrence. This narrative systematic review sought to examine associations and temporality between the use of methamphetamine, ecstasy/MDMA, or cocaine, with anxiety or depressive symptoms | Addictive Behaviors, USA

Drug overdose deaths higher among American visitors to Florida than rest of US, researchers find

American visitors to Florida who died in the state were 63% more likely to have died from a drug overdose compared to visitors to all other states during the first two decades of the 2000s, according to researchers. They published their findings in the journal Injury Prevention | Medical Xpress, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

Ireland’s reputation on alcohol policy under threat

Ireland has gained a degree of global attention for its strides in recent years to address long-standing alcohol issues. In common with many European countries, we have high levels of alcohol consumption along with particularly risky patterns of drinking | IAS blog, UK

Unveiling the Hidden Struggles: Lived Experience, impact and coping amongst children of parents who use substances

This paper, from Muir and colleagues (2023), details a systematic review exploring the lived experiences of children and young people whose parents use substances. We know from a wide range of research and policy, that parental drug and alcohol use has wide ranging impacts on young people throughout their lives, and this study, which includes the experience of 737 children & young people, considers the issue from the perspective of the lived experience and narrative experience of individuals | Mental Elf, UK

How council funding impacts public health

While focus often falls on the NHS, cuts to local authority budgets have had serious consequences for the UK's healthcare systems | New Statesman, UK

Could 2024 Be the Year for Biden’s Cannabis Legacy?

2024 may be another historic year for American cannabis, with many implications for social and criminal justice. Recent findings from the American Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) highlighted that more than 30,000 healthcare professionals across the US can currently recommend the medical use of cannabis for at least 15 medical conditions to more than six million registered patients. It further recommended that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reschedule cannabis to Schedule III, placing it in the same controlled status as ketamine and testosterone | Talking Drugs, UK

Uganda's new Narcotics Law will undermine access to healthcare for people who use drugs

In yet another dramatic development for minoritised communities in Uganda —still reeling from the shock of the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, on 2nd February 2024 the President signed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) bill into law, another draconian piece of legislation that threatens the health and wellbeing of Ugandans | IDPC blog, UK

A Wolfpack Called Ernesto review – disturbing tales of children groomed by Mexico drug gangs

Men and women involved in narcotrafficking explain how they were recruited in this compelling documentary | Guardian, UK

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