Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 17th April 2025 |
 |
UK news
How to save a life: emergency response to an overdose
RADAR (Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response) and the Simon Community Scotland worked together to create this resource on how to respond to a drug overdose, and how to reduce the harm from drugs | Public Health Scotland, UK
Changes in vaping trends since the announcement of an impending ban on disposable vapes: A population study in Great Britain
[Opem access] There has been a rapid rise in vaping prevalence among youth and young adults in Great Britain since disposable vapes started to become popular in 2021. In January 2024, the government announced plans to introduce new vaping policies, including a ban on disposable vapes, to tackle youth vaping. This study measured whether trends in current vaping and use of disposable vapes have changed since this announcement | Addiction, UK
Addiction Healthcare Goals - Innovate UK - Accelerated Knowledge Transfer 4 (AKT4)
Are you an Academic or Organisation with an innovative challenge that can help address the aims of the Addiction Healthcare Goals? The Addiction Healthcare Goals – Innovate UK – Accelerated Knowledge Transfer scheme opens on 12 May 2025, with an anticipated close on 2 July 2025 at 11am prompt. This call will fund projects exploring questions linked to treatment of, recovery from, and reduction or prevention of harm by drug and/or alcohol addiction(s); jointly delivered by Innovate UK and Innovate UK Business Connect and is funded by the Addiction Healthcare Goals from the Office for Life Sciences, with up to £2 million available in this round | Innovate UK, UK
Important work to tackle drug-related deaths in Northumberland
Dedicated addiction support delivered by Northumberland County Council and key partners is continuing to help reduce rates of fatal drug overdoses | Northumberland Gazette, UK
Championing positive masculinity to redefine how young men engage with support
What does it mean to be a man? And can positive masculinity play a role in encouraging young men to reach out for support? These are some of the questions at the heart of In Your Corner, an innovative project by Change Grow Live offering a fresh approach to drug and alcohol support by meeting men where they are – both physically and emotionally | Change Grow Live, UK
Royal Parks issue warning as thousands gear up for annual 420 cannabis protest in Hyde Park
The Royal Parks has warned that ‘people may be liable for prosecution or arrest’ | Standard, UK
Sombrero cocaine smuggler jailed for 10 years
Kritstopher Purvis, 35, landed at Edinburgh airport on 24 July 2024 on a flight via Paris, with a plastic bag containing four large souvenir hats | BBC, UK
International news
A systematic review of the economic evidence surrounding the management of alcohol withdrawal
What is the most cost-efficient way to withdraw patients from alcohol? One clear finding emerged from this review: “the main driver of more cost-effective programs is the ability to reduce the number of inpatient days”. | Addiction, UK
Prevalence of problematic opioid use in Ireland, 2020–2022
This report presents the findings from a study that aimed to estimate the prevalence of problematic opioid use in Ireland from 2020 to 2022 utilising a four-source capture-recapture methodology. The analysis incorporated three data sources from opioid substitution treatment (OST) records obtained from the Central Treatment List (CTL), which includes clinics, general practitioners (GPs), and prisons. The fourth data source was provided by the Probation Service | HRB, Ireland
Opioid addiction three times higher in Dublin than the rest of Ireland, new study finds
The number of people with problematic use of opioids like heroin is three times higher in Dublin than the rest of Ireland, according to the findings of a new study | Irish Examiner, Ireland
2024: a year of transformation
On 2 July 2024, the EMCDDA became the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) following the entry into force of Regulation (EU) 2023/1322 of the European Parliament and the Council. With an updated and more proactive role, we are ready to support the EU and its Member States in addressing emerging drug issues in an ever-changing world | EUDA, Portugal
Why Some Doctors Are Pushing to End Routine Drug Testing During Childbirth
Hospitals routinely report parents to child welfare authorities based on error-prone drug tests. Some hospitals are changing policy as a result | Marshall Project, USA
Barriers to Universal Availability of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder in US Jails
These findings suggest that even within jails that have MOUD, there are barriers to making all 3 types of medication available to everyone, resulting in many people not receiving recommended care while detained; policy, regulatory, financing, staffing, and educational solutions are needed to address this ongoing crisis | JAMA Network Open, USA
Listening to favorite music activates the brain’s opioid system
Music can evoke intense pleasure, sometimes experienced physically as pleasant "chills." While the effect of music on pleasure is clear, the brain mechanisms behind musical enjoyment are not yet fully understood. The brain's opioid system is known to be involved in pleasurable experiences related to survival-critical behaviours, such as eating and sex. This new study from the Turku PET Centre in Finland demonstrates for the first time that listening to favorite music also activates the brain's opioid receptors | News Medical, USA
BC Enters 10th Year of Overdose Crisis, as It Shutters Harm Reduction Policies
As people gathered in Vancouver’s Victory Square on April 14 to mark nine years since British Columbia declared the overdose crisis a public health emergency, an ambulance blaring its siren sped by. It may not have been a moment of silence, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) president Dave Hamm told the crowd, but it was a “pointed moment.” | Filter Magazine, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
Alcohol-related liver disease: a doctor’s view
In this blog, Dr Ewan Forrest, Consultant Hepatologist at Glasgow Royal infirmary and Alcohol Lead for the British Society of Gastroenterology, shares his personal reflections from the frontline — highlighting the human cost of alcohol harm, the urgent need for action, and how we can prevent more lives from being lost to this entirely avoidable disease | AHA UK blog, UK
Can we legalise psychedelics under the UN drug treaties?
In this edited extract from Transforms 2023 publication 'How to Regulate Psychedelics: A Practical Guide', we explore the unusual status of plant based psychedelics under international law, and the scope that provides for refrom | Transform blog, UK
Why Stress Awareness Month matters – and how you can take part
April is Stress Awareness Month in the UK. Max Pieri, Reach Out Coordinator, shares some tips that have helped him deal with stress, and some ways we can help others too | Forward Trust blog, UK
France’s drinking dilemma: Why young adults buck the global trend
Over the past two decades, alcohol use among young adults has declined in many Western countries. In England, for example, nearly one in three young adults aged 16–24 now say they don’t drink at all—a figure that has almost doubled since 2005... However, France—long known for its wine culture and close ties to the alcohol industry—tells a different story, as revealed in our recent study | IAS blog, UK
Ethics, Transparency, And Trust: A Call For More Open Science In Qualitative Research
In this blog, Dr Sharon Cox (BR-UK Deputy Director) expands on the challenges and possible solutions when adopting an open science approach to qualitative research | Behavioural Research UK Leadership Hub, UK