Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 1st March 2024 |
 |
UK news
Questions raised about whether GPs will be ready for influx of people seeking vaping prescriptions
Doctors admit helping patients quit vaping is a ‘new experience’ ahead of a near-total ban coming into force on 1 July | Guardian, UK
71% of adults support the PM’s ambition to stamp out smoking
Parliamentarians across both houses urge the Government to listen to the public and put the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to Parliament without further delay, as polling shows overwhelming support for stamping out smoking in Britain | ASH, UK
We asked ravers what drugs they were taking over a weekend
In a North London warehouse party, our resident drugs columnist asked partiers what drugs they had on them and what they were planning to take to alter their states of mind | The Face, UK
How the ‘alcoholism’ model evolved and why it prevents public health progress - podcast
In February's podcast we spoke to Dr James Morris, Research Fellow at London South Bank University, about how the model of ‘alcoholism’ evolved and led to beliefs about alcohol problems being heavily focused on the severe end of the spectrum | IAS, UK
Psychedelic Histories: A Conversation with Mike Jay
Tue, 5 Mar 2024 18:30 - 20:00 GMT. JZ Young Lecture Theatre, Gower Street #G29 London WC1E 6XA. Join us for a talk from a world-leading expert in the history of the science and culture of psychedelics | UCL Society for the Application of Psychedelics, UK
Official Statistics: Rough sleeping snapshot in England: autumn 2023
The number of people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2023 was 3,898, which has risen for the second year in a row, but remains lower than the peak in 2017 | Department for Levelling Up,
Housing & Communities, UK
West Yorkshire drugs gang leader jailed over Lincoln cocaine supply
Aqeel Zaman, 34, from Bradford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and a second offence of possessing over £57,000 in criminal property | BBC, UK
Blackpool shop that sold illegal vapes to children closed by council
A shop that sold vapes and cigarettes to children has been ordered to close for two months | BBC, UK
Brighton: Karen's Diner closes as drugs found on baby changing table
A restaurant in Brighton Marina, East Sussex, will close after high drug readings were taken by police | BBC, UK
International news
This man could be about to make MDMA legal for therapy. Are we ready for it?
Rick Doblin is a psychedelic pioneer – and he thinks it can help us save the world, one trauma-ending trip at a time | Guardian, UK
‘No intention of stopping’: New Zealand online vape seller vows to ignore Australia’s new import ban
Health department rejects seller’s taunt ‘new rules don’t apply to us’ and points to ‘escalated enforcement action as appropriate’ | Guardian, UK
Drugnet Europe - February
Latest monthly drug news round-up from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction | EMCDDA, Portugal
Q&A: How war worsened the opioid crisis in Ukraine
In Ukraine, which has the highest prevalence of HIV in Europe, war and the resulting disruptions to medical care have created a crisis for patients with drug use disorder and those who treat them | Medical Xpress, USA
Horse sedative use among humans spreads in deadly mixture of 'tranq' and fentanyl
Andrew McClave Jr. loved to lift weights. The 6-foot-4-inch bartender resembled a bodybuilder and once posed for a photo flexing his muscles with former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan. But the hobby took its toll. According to a police report, a friend told the Treasure Island Police Department that McClave, 36, suffered from back problems and took unprescribed pills to reduce the pain | Medical Xpress, USA
Inside the pushback against drug re-criminalization
A bill aimed at rolling back key components of voter-approved Measure 110, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of illicit drugs, like heroin, fentanyl and meth, is expected to receive a vote in the Oregon House this week | Axios Portland, USA
Endo to pay $2 bn to settle US charges on opioid crisis
US officials announced Thursday that Endo Health Solutions (EHSI) agreed to pay around $2 billion to settle civil and criminal charges it mislabeled pain reliever drug Opana, which has contributed to the opioid epidemic | Medical Xpress, USA
Overdose mortality incidence and supervised consumption services in Toronto, Canada: an ecological study and spatial analysis
Supervised consumption services (SCS) prevent overdose deaths onsite; however, less is known about their effect on population-level overdose mortality. We aimed to characterise overdose mortality in Toronto, ON, Canada, and to establish the spatial association between SCS locations and overdose mortality events | Lancet, Canada
New report finds concerning levels of alcohol-related harms
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has just released the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS). The survey is done every 3 years, and collects information related to alcohol and other drug (AOD) use in Australia | ADF, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
LGBT+ History Month at Humankind
Our LGBT+ North East service is dedicated to improving the lives of people from the LGBT+ community by providing a safe and welcoming space for them to access support and resources | Humankind blog, UK
Is smoking ‘cool’ again? Why cigarettes have been dominating on our screens and catwalks
As London Fashion Week designers fill their shows with cigarettes, Olivia Petter asks whether smoking is really becoming ‘trendy’ in 2024, or if it’s more of a nostalgic nod to a bygone era of hedonism | Independent, UK
How to do research around drug issues
In 2022-2023, our team of researchers from the University of Bristol and Transform Drug Policy received seedcorn funding from the Brigstow Institute for a project exploring drug policy, ethics and storytelling in Bristol | Anyone's Child blog, UK
Valuing the Forest and Not Just the Individual Trees
The recovery community is like a vast, hidden forest that is creative and innovative. It has a lot of resources that have never been fully recognized for their value in the broader world. The rise of peer services, a focus on shifting from acute care models of short term, fragmented care to the Recovery Model (long term disease management and recovery management) and other innovations have risen from the broad based and diverse recovery community over the last generation | Recovery Review blog, USA
Fentanyl Production Leaves Sinaloa
Last fall, news outlets reported that Mexico’s most powerful cartel was ceasing fentanyl production in its territory | Ben Westhoff & Luis Chaparro, USA
Meth use is declining in Australia – but the public still sees it as the most worrying drug
Methamphetamine, also known as ice or meth, is the drug Australians most associate with a drug problem and the drug they’re most concerned about, according to the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey | Conversation, Australia
Could messages from social media influencers stop young people vaping? A look at the government’s new campaign
Vaping is on the rise among young Australians. Recent figures from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey show current use of e‑cigarettes among teenagers aged 14–17 increased five-fold from 1.8% in 2019 to 9.7% in 2022–2023. For young adults aged 18–24, use quadrupled from 5.3% to 21% over the same time period | Conversation, Australia