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Daily news - 11th April 2025 |
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UK news
Trends in alcohol-specific deaths in England, 2001–22: an observational study
[Open access] Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries saw large increases in rates of alcohol-specific deaths, including England. This study aimed to examine whether there have been changes in the characteristics of those dying by specific cause of death, age, sex, and area-level deprivation | Lancet, UK
Drug alert – fake ketamine
Cranstoun are aware of multiple reports in recent days from people experiencing unusual and potentially dangerous effects after using what they thought was ketamine. There appear to be two batches in circulation in multiple parts of England, in a wide variety of different areas | DDN, UK
'Ketamine left me needing a bladder transplant'
Amber Currah wants to raise awareness of the dangers of using the powerful anaesthetic - which can be prescribed medically - as a recreational drug | BBC, UK
Public backs action to tackle tobacco, unhealthy food and alcohol amidst health crisis
New public polling published by the Health Foundation and Ipsos highlights overall public support for the government to tackle tobacco, unhealthy food and, to a lesser extent, alcohol to improve the health of the nation | Public Health Foundation, UK
Brixton: Boosting support for people with drug and alcohol dependency
Lambeth Council has worked to ensure more people than ever are being supported into drug treatment, as well as making services ever more available as part of ongoing work to ensure the local authority plays its role in tackling anti-social behaviour in Brixton town centre | Love Lambeth, UK
Penny Mordaunt takes job advising one of world’s largest tobacco firms
Former Tory leadership contender, who abstained on smoking ban vote last year, will work for British American Tobacco on ‘harm reduction’ | Guardian, UK
Low Alcohol Drinks: Labelling
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2025 to Question 41063 on Low Alcohol Drinks: Labelling and Marketing, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of amending labelling regulations on pubs | They work for you, UK
Petition - Do not restrict vape flavours
We want the Government to not give Ministers powers to restrict vape flavours in the Tobacco & Vapes Bill, as we believe it will undermine efforts to help smokers quit | UK Parliament, UK
Alcohol's blind spot - podcast
Sir Ian Gilmore talks about a lifetime making the case for action on alcohol harm - for the NHS and our wider society. We talk the drinking culture in this country, the need for an alcohol strategy and the Swedish model! In pod surgery, the team talk men's health and NHS health-checks, emergency contraception and an NHS that might just knock on your door | Prevention is the New Cure podcast, UK
127. Psychedelic Therapy in the UK with Dr Laurie Higbed and Dr Owain Winfield - podcast
Join us in the latest episode of the Drug Science Podcast where David Nutt meets with Psychedelic psychotherapy experts Laurie Higbed and Owain Winfield to dive into how to use psychedelics in psychotherapy. In this episode, they discuss the different techniques used with different psychedelics for different conditions to optimise this type of therapy and why these differences are necessary. They discuss MDMA, Ketamine and Psilocybin in a range of applications including trauma and addictions | Drug Science, UK
Recognising the exceptional: Forward Staff & Volunteer Awards 2025
The Forward Trust were delighted to celebrate our incredible staff and volunteers at our annual staff awards | Forward Trust, UK
Police raid barbers and vape shops suspected of being fronts for crime gangs
Det Insp Daniel Fenn, on his ninth raid of the week, says some barber shops such as this are claiming income of £100,000 to £150,000 a month. "They aren't getting that amount of customers to warrant that amount of money." | BBC, UK
Gang member hid £2.1m of cannabis in lorry floor
A gang member who posed as a lorry driver in an attempt to smuggle more than £2m worth of cannabis from South Yorkshire to Northern Ireland has been jailed | BBC, UK
Thousands of illegal cigarettes hidden in shops
A trading standards team in Southend-on-Sea uncovered them at three shops, hidden in cavity walls and ceiling voids | BBC, UK
International news
Money laundering plays a key role in every part of the illegal drugs industry – here’s how it works
The global trade in illicit drugs is estimated to be worth at least half a trillion US dollars, much of which is laundered under the radar of law enforcement and the media; Bournemouth University Lecturer in Criminology Dr Mark Berry, and University of the West of Scotland Senior Lecturer Dr R.V. Gundur, take an in-depth look at money laundering in the drug trade, and explain why law enforcement and governments should be focusing on money as well as drugs | Policing Insight, UK
Diagnostic validity of drinking behaviour for identifying alcohol use disorder: Findings from a representative sample of community adults and an inpatient clinical sample
[Open access] Alcohol consumption is an inherent feature of alcohol use disorder (AUD), and drinking patterns may be diagnostically informative. This study had three aims: (1) to examine the classification accuracy of several individually analysed drinking behavior measures in a large sample of US community adults; (2) to extend the findings to an adult clinical sample; and (3) to examine potential sex differences | Addiction, UK
FBI director Kash Patel removed as director of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Decision transfers control of ATF away from US justice department to the defense department for first time | Guardian, UK
How does heavy drinking affect the brain?
Eight or more drinks per week linked to signs of injury in the brain | American Adademy of Neurology, USA
Simultaneous alcohol, cannabis use may fuel more drinking
Many young adults drink alcohol and use cannabis together, at the same time, as a coping mechanism or to relieve stress. A recent study from the University of Missouri School of Medicine found that people may perceive fewer negative effects of alcohol if they are also using cannabis at the same time, potentially leading to alcohol use disorder, alcohol-related harms and drunk driving | Medical Xpress, USA
Hospital Addiction Consultation Service and Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
A large, multi-site US trial tested whether people with an opioid use problem hospitalised for a medical issue could be diverted into post-discharge treatment by seeing medical and social care addiction specialists. The answer was a clear ‘Yes’, but this difference in treatment access did not result in significantly less post-discharge opioid use | JAMA Internal Medicine, USA
Three-quarters of survey respondents supported an overdose prevention center in their neighborhood
Overdose prevention centers (OPCs) offer life-saving interventions in the event of an overdose along with on-site harm reduction services. While studies of OPCs in other countries have shown that they can reduce overdose deaths without increasing crime, they remain a novel concept in the United States | Medical Xpress, USA
Epicenter of US opioid epidemic shifts from Northwest to East with drug preferences
The heart of the opioid epidemic that killed 665,341 people in the United States between 2005 and 2020 shifted geographically from the Northwest to the East, according to a new geographical analysis | Medical Xpress, USA
Smear Tactics Against THR Advocates Reflected in NZ Media Ruling
Tobacco harm reduction (THR) advocates don’t just face misinformation in the form of false and misleading claims about safer nicotine products. Too often, they’re also subjected to smears | Filter Magazine, USA
More support needed to reduce high smoking burden in low-income households
Disadvantaged households have higher rates of smoking, putting pressure on their household budgets, University of Queensland research has found. Professor Coral Gartner from UQ’s School of Public Health, said reducing smoking among households in lower income areas was important because of the enormous health and financial toll | University of Queensland, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
OPINION: ‘Vape ban – swapping one problem for another?’
Ahead of the UK single-use vape ban in just under two months, Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, warns that the work is far from over | Lets Recycle, UK