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Daily news - 9th April 2025 |
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UK news
‘Knowing how it works for me’: a qualitative interview study of the use of personalised approaches to manage common challenges during Dry January
[Open access] Participation in temporary abstinence challenges such as Dry January is associated with benefits including enduring reductions in alcohol consumption. However, undertaking temporary abstinence requires people to negotiate certain challenges. Building on previous research, we examined how and why particular strategies were used to address challenges and how use developed following January. Given differences in reported outcomes, we also explored differences and similarities in strategy use between ‘official’ UK Dry January registrants and those attempting an ‘unofficial’ alcohol-free January | Addiction Research & Theory, UK
Drugs were found at gig before teen died - inquest
More than 80 people were found with drugs at an amusement park event where a teenager was believed to have overdosed, an inquest heard. Emily Stokes, 17, died in hospital in June after attending a gig at Dreamland in Margate, Kent. She was thought to have taken MDMA | BBC, UK
NHS Englands Hepatitis C Journey - podcast
In this podcast Professor Ashley Brown discusses the development of the hepatitis C elimination programme nationally, and within the operational delivery network (ODN) | Inclusion MPFT, UK
Pub apologises for drink with date-rape drug name
The Catherine Wheel pub on St Augustines Street, Norwich, posted a picture of the drink "Rolyhypnol" on Instagram on Friday to promote it as the establishment's "cocktail of the month" for April | BBC, UK
Teacher who let pupils drink alcohol avoids ban
A sports teacher who let private school pupils drink alcohol on an overseas trip to Belgium has narrowly avoided a ban from the profession | BBC, UK
Operation Venetic: Drug dealer caught with five kilos of cocaine found to have imported a further £17m worth
A south London drug dealer convicted for supplying cocaine has been jailed after his seized encrypted phone showed he had imported more than half a tonne of the class A drug | NCA, UK
Illegal cigarettes and vapes worth £25k seized
Lancashire Trading Standards officers worked with the police carrying out an operation last week | BBC, UK
International news
Tracking the world's major cocaine route to Europe - and why it's growing
"The Albanian mafia would call me and say: 'We want to send 500kg of drugs.' If you don't accept, they kill you." | BBC, UK
Explainer: why vape prices will more than double with Trump tariffs
Trump’s tariffs look set to ruin the US vaping industry and send consumers back to cigarettes en masse thanks to sky high price rises. To understand why, and in particular why this is so acutely bad for vapes in particular, we need to understand two things: the role of China and the role of taxes | Clearing the air, UK
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan opens Community Safety Fund 2025 for applications
The Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan TD has opened the nationwide funding call for the Community Safety Fund 2025 during a visit to Ballymun Garda Station and the Ballymun Implementation Board in Dublin. The annual fund allows for the proceeds of crime, seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and An Garda Síochána, to be directed into local projects to support and enhance community safety. This year, €4 million is available, which is double the original allocation of €2 million when the fund first opened for applications in 2022, and grants range from €20,000 to €150,000 | Gov.ie, Ireland
Policy Briefing: The sale and marketing of zero-alcohol drinks (PDF)
Zero-alcohol products are being marketed in areas that are deemed child-protected by the Public Health (Alcohol) Act (2018), exposing children to alcohol marketing which is a known driver of alcohol consumption in children and young people. Zero-alcohol products that use the same branding as their full-strength alternatives must be subject to the same marketing regulations under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act | Alcohol Action Ireland, Ireland
Nitazenes in Europe – How Should We Prepare? - webinar
May 9, 2025 11:00 AM GMT. In recent years, Europe has seen early warning signs of an emerging synthetic opioid crisis. The rise of nitazenes—potent synthetic opioids with unpredictable effects—poses a growing threat. To explore this topic, Correlation-European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN), in collaboration with the Ana Liffey Drug Project, the Trimbos Institute and the City of Zurich, is organising a webinar with leading European experts. The webinar will provide an evidence-based overview of the situation around nitazenes in Europe, examine emerging trends, and discuss which policy, healthcare, and harm reduction responses are needed to prepare | C-EHRN, The Netherlands
New Study Shows Alcohol Industry’s Drink-Driving Ads Weaken Safety Efforts
Drink driving is a major risk factor for road traffic crashes, contributing to 27% of the 20 to 50 million crash injuries every year. To appear socially responsible, the alcohol industry sponsors drink-driving mass media campaigns—but a new analysis by Vital Strategies reveals these efforts are largely ineffective and fail to follow best practices in road safety communication | Vital Strategies, USA
Hit hard by opioid crisis, Black patients further hurt by barriers to care
Purple flags, representing the nearly 300 Mecklenburg County residents who died of opioid overdose in 2023, fluttered in the humid breeze last August in recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day on the city's predominantly Black west side | Medical Xpress, USA
University of Wisconsin develops AI opioid screening tool for at-risk adults
The tool was designed to detect identical data patterns to how the brain processes visual data | Medical Device Network, USA
Global Drug Policy: “Countries are being freed up to actually speak their minds” - podcast
For the second year in a row, what had been an uneventful, consensus-driven United Nations meeting on drug policy saw unexpected drama and signs of real change. At the 68th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna in March 2025, governments approved the formation of an independent expert commission to recommend changes to the architecture of global drug policy, which has changed little since the early 1960s | WOLA, USA
The Long, Strange History of Nitrous Oxide, a Popular Drug Users Have Been Inhaling for Hundreds of Years
Galaxy Gas has brought the drug back into the spotlight, and scientists are raising alarms about its health risks | Smithsonian Magazine, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
Leading Forward – Mike’s monthly vlog - March
If we put the billions we are spending into warehousing 80,000 people into proper rehabilitation, we will have less crime, less victims of crime, and more people getting out of a lifestyle of crime and back into a positive, socially included lifestyle | Forward Trust, UK
Despite what many parents think, allowing teenagers to try alcohol at any age is harmful
Researchers at the Adolescent and Family Development Lab from the University at Buffalo have considered whether allowing teenagers to sip and taste alcohol, and the age at which parents allow such behaviour, is an effective harm reduction strategy | IAS blog, UK