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Daily news - 6th January 2025

UK news

UK's first drug consumption room to open in Glasgow

Located on Hunter Street in the city’s east end, the facility – known as the Thistle – will open on January 13 and operate between 9am and 9pm, 365 days a year | ITV, UK

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for using evidence to make classification, scheduling and other recommendations (accessible version)

A document developed by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to outline the governing process for preparing evidence-based advice. Updated to include the Classification Standard Operating Procedure | ACMD, UK

Upcoming Webinar: Exploring Cultural Experiences of Stigma

Thursday 23rd January 2025, 12:30PM - 2:00PM. Navi Dhesi, founder of No More Pretending will host guest speakers Ann Marie Sweeney, Aunee Bhogaita, Heewr Bag and Stella Kityo as they discuss how the stigma of drug and alcohol use within some minoritised communities can create barriers to treatment, leading to poorer health outcomes and inequality of access to support needed | AntiStigma Network, UK

Mental Illness: Drugs

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of(a) the utilisation of psilocybin-based treatments for mental health conditions and (b) commissioning further research into the therapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs | They work for you, UK

Podcast 120. Ask David Anything

Tune in to the latest episode of the drug science podcast where Prof Nutt meets with several Drug Science Community members for a session of “Ask David Anything”. Together, they explore questions such as the use of cannabis as a psychoactive substance in psychedelic therapy and the latest developments in regulatory decisions on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy | Drug Science, UK

Hundreds of drink and drug drivers arrested

Hundreds of motorists were arrested in December after being found over the limit for alcohol or drugs | BBC, UK

Dangerous metals found in batch of illegal vapes

The results are from a joint study into the dangers of unregulated e-cigarettes, carried out by the University of Derby, and public health and trading standards officers at the city council | BBC, UK

Men appear in court over £5m drugs bust

Three men have appeared in court after police recovered cocaine with an estimated street value of £5m from a vehicle on the A1(M) and a house in North Yorkshire | BBC, UK

Dealer used key worker during Covid to move drugs

A woman who used her key worker status to transport cocaine and heroin for a drug dealer throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has been jailed | BBC, UK

Cannabis dealers jailed for 'lucrative conspiracy'

Two men have been jailed for leading a criminal enterprise to supply cannabis to potentially thousands of users | BBC, UK

International news

Alcohol should carry warning label for cancer risk, US surgeon general says

Advisory from US surgeon general also says alcohol should carry a label warning consumers about their cancer risks | Guardian, UK

US teen drug, alcohol and tobacco use continues to decline

Record numbers of teens are abstaining from drugs, alcohol and tobacco, according to a survey from Monitoring the Future, an ongoing project at the University of Michigan Survey Research Center. The survey, conducted annually since 1975, released its latest findings based on responses from about 24,000 students in grades 8, 10 and 12 across the US | Guardian, UK

Daily or near-daily cannabis and alcohol use by adults in the United States: A comparison across age groups

[Open access] Patterns of daily or near-daily (DND) use of alcohol and cannabis among adults in the United States have been changing. The current study measured how these shifts have occurred across developmental periods of adulthood | Addiction, UK

Changes in socio-economic inequality in alcohol-attributable mortality in periods of increasing and decreasing alcohol affordability

Confirmation from Finland that alcohol affordability matters when it comes to alcohol-related deaths across a population. Since the impact was greatest among poorer men, the effect was to widen income-related health inequality as alcohol became more affordable | Addiction, UK

With smoking regulations looming across EU, how does vape consumption compare in Europe?

Belgium became the first EU country to ban the sale of disposable vapes, while Luxembourg, Estonia, and Czechia report the highest vaping rates | Euronews, Belgium

US surgeon general sounds alarm about link between alcohol and cancer

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Friday warning Americans that alcohol consumption can increase their cancer risk and called for an updated health warning label on alcoholic beverages | CNN, USA

Stimulant users are caught in fatal ‘fourth wave’ of opioid epidemic

In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, near a storefront advertising "free" cellphones, J.R. sat in an empty back stairwell and showed a reporter how he tries to avoid overdosing when he smokes crack cocaine. KFF Health News is identifying him by his initials because he fears being arrested for using illegal drugs | News Medical, USA

Feeling self-conscious is linked to teen binge drinking

A study published in the journal Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research shows that young adults who are more self-conscious appear to binge drink more often. However, these same self-conscious people had lower rates of binge drinking as they grew older, researchers discovered in a psychological experiment | Medical Xpress, USA

Does substance use change the brain's structure, or does brain structure predispose some to substance use?

A study led by researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, and other institutions has identified neuroanatomical differences in children associated with early substance use initiation | Medical Xpress, USA