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Daily news - 5th November 2024 |
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UK news
DDN November 2024
Twenty years ago I was sitting in our little office in London, typing my first editorial (p20). ‘This issue we catch up with Caroline Flint at the Home Office, who shares some interesting thoughts on drugs and crime…’ Remarkable that back then you could speak with the drugs minister directly! Now we’ve been round the block a few times but some things have changed very little. We still need a robust alcohol strategy. We still talk about harm reduction as if it’s optional. We still rediscover a link between substance use and mental health. We’re still finding that releasing people from prison without all-round support is leaving them to sink. And did we actually leave the old harm reduction v abstinence debate behind – or just go via recovery to change the language? | DDN, UK
Press release: Smoking ban introduced to protect children and most vulnerable
The government will introduce plans for tougher action to protect people from the harms of smoking in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill today | Department of Health and Social Care and The Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP, UK
Protecting children, families and vulnerable from tobacco harms
Professor Sir Chris Whitty writes for The Times on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill | Department of Health and Social Care and Professor Chris Whitty, UK
Plans to ban smoking outside schools and hospitals
The government has announced plans to make it illegal to smoke in children's playgrounds and outside schools and hospitals in England, with some places also becoming vape-free | BBC, UK
The agony of ketamine addiction: ‘I felt like I was peeing glass’
It is gen Z’s recreational drug of choice in the UK and US – and with rising use come big problems, including incontinence, bladder damage, renal failure, depression and extreme pain | Guardian, UK
Portraits celebrate people who survived addiction
A charity helping people get their life on track after suffering from addiction is hosting a portrait exhibition to celebrate its anniversary. Developing Health & Independence (DHI), based in Bath, has been around for 25 years, providing housing and drug and alcohol treatments for people across Somerset and Bristol | BBC, UK
Drug Education Forum Event Autumn 2024
Tue, 19 Nov 2024 15:30 - 17:00 GMT, Online. We are pleased to announce our autumn Drug Education Forum event, bringing together drug education providers, educators and practitioners from across the UK to provide excellent, evidence-based, age-appropriate drug education. The keynote speaker is Professor Adam Winstock, CEO and Founder of Staying Safe and the Global Drug Survey: 'From zero tolerance to honest communication - the changing landscape of student substance use education and policy'. Adam will speak on the development and launch of the Staying Safe programme. The event will also feature three short speakers, including Jason Kew (Hon MFPH), Hanna Head, SOS-UK & Renato Masetti, - EPUT | Drug Education Forum, UK
Pair sentenced for drug supply after teenager died
Two young men have been given custodial sentences for supplying ecstasy to a group of teenagers, including a 16-year-old schoolgirl who died after collapsing in a nightclub | BBC, UK
Stolen mops and brooms used to collect drugs from drones at Lancashire prison
One inmate says stream of drones at HMP Garth is like ‘an airport’, according to chief inspector of prisons | Guardian, UK
Sex worker claims she met murder victim for drugs
A sex worker accused of murdering a man said she had arranged to meet him to buy drugs, but denied killing him | BBC, UK
Illegal vapes and cigarettes worth £1.6m seized
About 100,000 packs of illegal cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco and hundreds of non-regulation vapes were found in what Lancashire County Council said was one of the biggest ever trading standards seizures in the Hyndburn borough | BBC, UK
Open letter to the chancellor on the impact of increased employer National Insurance Contributions for charities
Sign NCVO and ACEVO’s open letter to the chancellor calling for urgent action on the planned increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for the voluntary sector | NCVO, UK
International news
Singapore: Authorities must end human rights crackdown and unlawful drug related executions
Seven organizations, including Amnesty International, are greatly alarmed at the deteriorating human rights situation in Singapore. In October the authorities carried out two more executions for drug related offences, in violation of international law and standards; and posed further restrictions to the exercise of the right to freedom of expression by anti-death penalty activists | Amnesty International, UK
HRB National Drugs Library - October
Our newsletter includes links to Irish and international publications related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs | HRB, Ireland
Cooperation with Chile enhanced through new Working Arrangement with SENDA
The European Union and Chile took a significant step forward in addressing drug-related challenges today, with the signing of a Working Arrangement between the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) and the Servicio Nacional para la Prevención y Rehabilitación del Consumo de Drogas y Alcohol (SENDA) | EUDA, Portugal
Smoking Cessation and Incident Cardiovascular Disease
In this cohort study of extracted data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database with more than 5 300 000 participants, ex-smokers who had accumulated less than 8 pack-years (PY) did not exhibit a significantly increased risk of CVD compared with never-smokers. However, for ex-smokers who had accrued at least 8 PY, more than 25 years were needed for the residual CVD risk of smoking to disappear | JAMA Network, USA
Medicaid funding for addiction treatment hasn't curbed overdose deaths, study finds
For generations, the federal government has largely refrained from paying for mental health and substance use treatment in large residential facilities. That changed in 2015, when in response to increasing overdose deaths nationwide from illicit drugs, the federal government allowed states to waive a longstanding prohibition against using federal Medicaid funding for services in so-called institutions of mental diseases. In turn, states were required to improve their addiction care with an emphasis on increasing treatment with medications | Medical Xpress, USA
Influx of mobile methadone clinics bring treatment to the streets
There's a small line forming outside a plain white box truck in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. A half-dozen folks are waiting on a gusty October morning for their turn to go inside and receive red liquid in a cup, medication that will help them get through the next 24 hours without opioids | Medical Xpress, USA
Researchers develop high-tech methods to stem the flow of fentanyl
Fentanyl kills. Make that: Fentanyls kill. The threat is plural and potent, as illicit laboratories continually concoct new forms of the drug that sidestep today's best detection techniques and protect drug dealers from prosecution. It's a loophole that drug dealers are quick to step through—creating new drugs faster than the law and health care providers can keep track of them | Medical Xpress, USA
How We Practice Tobacco Harm Reduction in Prison, With No Vapes
Harm reduction can always be practiced, regardless of whether you have government approval and specially designed products. I know this is true because I live in a place without either, yet I do it every day | Filter Magazine, USA
Tobacco stores firebombed in Adelaide as organised crime networks battle to control illicit trade
When business owner Sam Pande woke in the early hours one morning to find a series of missed calls on his phone, he immediately knew something was wrong. A call from police told him his office had been hit by a homemade Molotov cocktail... | abc.net.au, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
Drug-related deaths have risen by record numbers in England and Wales – latest data
New figures have revealed that drug-related deaths in England and Wales have reached record levels, with a significant increase in deaths linked to cocaine use among the worrying figures; Ian Hamilton, Honorary Fellow (Associate Professor) at the University of York, and Professor Harry Sumnall of Liverpool John Moores University, explore the possible reasons behind the latest data, and consider what can be done to address the challenges | Policing Insight, UK
Global Harm Reduction Growing Yet Still Punitive, According to New Report
Harm Reduction International’s (HRI) 2024 edition of the Global State of Harm Reduction highlighted how Indigenous people and youth lack essential access to critical life-saving harm reduction services that prevent drug-related overdose deaths and the spread of infectious diseases | Talking Drugs, UK