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Daily news - 24th January 2024

UK news

Disposable vapes ban ‘could lead to relapse in people trying to quit smoking’

Study suggests proposal to prevent uptake by children in UK may discourage use of e-cigarettes instead of tobacco among adults | Guardian, UK

Lancaster teens ill after using contaminated vapes

Five teenagers required hospital treatment after using vapes believed to be contaminated with dangerous Class B drugs, police have said | BBC, UK

Drug deaths are everyone’s business

Turning Point’s latest Safer Lives Conference took place at a time of worrying changes in the UK drug market. The way we work will need to change too, says Deb Hussey | DDN, UK

HHC is being touted as a legal alternative to weed. Is it legal? Is it more dangerous than traditional weed? Here’s everything we know

If you’re unfamiliar with HHC, don’t sweat. It’s a relatively new substance, with not a huge amount of information readily available online. And yet TikTok is full of clips with titles such as “what happens when you try HHC?”, while HHC vapes are available in the same online shops selling the more widely-known CBD pens | The Face, UK

Drugs: Misuse

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help local authorities tackle substance misuse | They work for you, UK

Prescription Drugs: Internet

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent the online sale of prescription drugs without a prescription | They work for you, UK

Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food

Nicholas Saunders was a counterculture pioneer with an endless stream of quixotic schemes and a yearning to spread knowledge – but his true legacy is a total remaking of the way Britain eats | Guardian, UK

Alcohol law changes plea to save Jersey nightlife

A Jersey DJ is calling for the government to "step up" and help the dwindling nightlife industry | BBC, UK

UK Medical Cannabis, Patients First - Research Opportunity

Volteface are conducting a piece of research, looking to hear from UK medical cannabis patients that have private healthcare insurance | Volteface, UK

Blackpool drugs raids: £262k cannabis seized after tip-off

Police said the electricity supplies had been tampered with in the two buildings, leaving them "dangerously unsafe". No arrests have been made | BBC, UK

Gambling treatment need and support: prevalence estimates

Updated report to change the way it refers to people who gamble. Also, provided more information about which people could benefit from treatment or support in the ‘Types of support and treatment for harmful gambling’ section | OHID, UK

International news

How British American Tobacco lobbied Kenya to water down nicotine pouch warnings

Exclusive: tobacco giant said it would pull investment from a Nairobi factory if its request for smaller health labels was not met, leaked documents show | Guardian, UK

President Biden is pressured to enact menthol cigarettes ban by over 20 Democrat states including Gavin Newsom's California as proponents held FUNERAL for flavored tobacco outside White House

President Biden is facing increasing pressure to ban flavored tobacco by top Democrats as his proposal is hanging in limbo due to the threat of alienating black voters ahead of the 2024 election | Mail Online, UK

Almost half of cancer survivors in the US report using cannabis at least once during treatment

A survey of cancer survivors from across the USA has shown that nearly half reported using cannabis at some point in their lifetimes and that the most popular form of delivery is via smoking joints | Leafie, UK

Dublin Simon Community’s ‘first-of-a-kind’ health and addiction care facility to open mid-year

The 100-bed facility should be completed by the middle of the year, pending finding confirmation | Journal, Ireland

HSE data management and performance profile reports 2023

Data on Substance use treatment, numbers of clients, waiting times etc | HSE, Ireland

More women seeking help for 'problem drinking'

Fiona O'Neill from Co Tipperary wants to warn others of how a bad habit can quickly lead to a serious problem | RTe, Ireland

AA attendance lower among African American, Hispanic and young populations: Study

Alcoholics Anonymous has long been a cornerstone of treating alcohol use disorders in the United States. But even today, Americans are not accessing it equally, according to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs | Medical Xpress, USA

Q&A: Drug overdose deaths remain high—fentanyl test strips may help

The Massachusetts state Senate voted unanimously to legalize fentanyl test strips across the commonwealth earlier this month. The paper indicators had been considered illegal drug paraphernalia as they could be used to test whether the highly powerful, dangerous synthetic opioid was present in a sample | Medical Xpress, USA

Q&A: Researcher discusses the relationship between cannabis use and psychosis in young adults

As director of the Program for Early Assessment, Care, and Study (PEACS), a University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry clinic that focuses on young people at risk of psychotic disorders, Michelle West, Ph.D., has seen the effects—good and bad—that cannabis can have on teens and adolescents who are showing signs of psychosis, a condition defined as "a cluster of symptoms that involve difficulties knowing what is real and what is not real." | Medical Xpress, USA

Lawmakers Are Urging the FDA to Take ‘Action’ on ‘Gas Station Heroin’

Five members of Congress wrote a letter to the FDA asking what it’s doing about tianeptine, an unapproved drug that can cause overdoses and severe withdrawal | VICE, USA

More K-12 Schools Receiving Narcan, If Not the Best Education About It

As of January 6, all New York City public schools are required to carry naloxone. This was already a requirement for the city’s high schools but has now been expanded to middle and elementary schools, which for many jurisdictions has been a point of contention | Filter Magazine, USA

New York’s Proposed Rules for Growing Cannabis in Your Home

New York regulators have released a preview of proposed rules for home cultivation of marijuana by adults ahead of the plan’s formal consideration by the state Cannabis Control Board (CCB) at a meeting set for January 24 | Filter Magazine, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

10% of drinkers consume over half of all alcohol consumed in Australia

Despite the ubiquity of alcohol consumption in Australia across the general population, the majority of alcohol is consumed by a small subset of heavy drinkers. In 2019, we found that the heaviest drinking 10% of the Australian population drank 54.1% of all alcohol consumed and the heaviest drinking 5% drank 36.1% of all alcohol consumed | IAS blog, UK

How Gender Affirming Care Is Harm Reduction

There is a significant lack of research into our community’s use of drugs. My own experiences as a queer person have always impacted what, how, where and why I use drugs. When I first came out as a transgender woman and made my first, formative steps into the world, drug-using spaces and people who use drugs were among the first to accept me as a woman | Talking Drugs, UK

Is the czech republic taking a step backwards in legalising cannabis?

In this video we speak to Lukas Hurt, Publisher of Magazine Konopí and Cannabis Therapy Magazine, manager of CzecHemp. He tells us exactly what is happening on the ground in the Czech Republic, outlining how and why adult cannabis legalisation might be taking a step backwards | Volteface, UK

Untrained bystanders can administer drone-delivered naloxone, potentially saving lives of opioid overdose victims

An onlooker – even one without prior training – can successfully administer naloxone to an overdose victim within about a minute of a drone delivering the lifesaving opioid reversal agent. That’s the key finding of my team’s newly published study | Conversation, USA

It’s a story we have heard countless times in recent years from young people – accessing vapes is easy, common, and happening at school, online, and through convenience retailers. The widespread availability and retailing of vapes across Australia has gone hand in hand with the rapid rise in young people vaping | Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health editorial, Australia

For the new vape laws to succeed, these 3 things need to happen – or users may look to the illicit market

This year, the Australian government will progressively ban the retail sale of all e-cigarettes, known as vapes. Vapers will only be allowed to use nicotine vapes that comply with Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) product requirements – and only to help them quit or manage their nicotine dependence, if prescribed by a doctor and dispensed by a pharmacy | Conversation, Australia

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