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Daily news - 7th January 2025 |
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UK news
Who’s asking me? Service user perspectives on safer injecting facilities
[Open access] This paper discusses the topic of safer injecting facilities with those who are likely to use them. Whilst more countries are adopting this harm reduction strategy, which is widely acknowledged for reducing drug-related death and injury, the UK have been resistant to their implementation. This qualitative discussion paper reflects on the overwhelming global evidence around safer injecting facilities whilst also capturing the voice of those likely to use such facilities | Drug Science, Policy and Law, UK
Choose from the list below to tell us what's important for future Addictions research - survey
In a survey in 2024, we asked people to tell us what they thought were important questions about addiction. We asked people with experience of addiction, and their friends, families, carers and healthcare professionals. We did this so that we can find out what the Top 10 priorities for future research about addiction to drugs and/or alcohol are. Based on what people told us, we have created a list of 65 questions. In this survey, we would like you to choose the 10 questions from the list which are most important in your experience | Office for Life Sciences and James Lind Alliance, UK
Innovation Fund to Reduce Demand for Illicit Substance: Phase 3 launch webinar
Jan 21, 2025 01:00 PM in London. NIHR has launched Phase 3 of the Innovation Fund to Reduce the Demand for Illicit Substances. The funding opportunity aims to fund projects that address demand for recreational drugs and are thereby likely to lead to reduced drug use and dependency. The NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) Specialist Centre for Public Health is hosting this online briefing event for prospective applicants. The webinar will provide information about the funding opportunity and the assessment process, and will give an introduction to the additional support NIHR can provide | NIHR, UK
Blue Light Resources
Westminster Council’s Rough Sleeping Team has launched a Blue Light Project to support staff working with vulnerable dependent drinkers. This project will deliver Blue Light training for staff and disseminate best practice while working with this client group. The resources below can be downloaded to help your work with vulnerable dependent drinkers | Groundswell, UK
The little-known side effects and benefits of Dry January on your brain
Excessive drinking can damage your health and organs including the liver, heart and gut. That’s already well-known to many. But what about the brain? | Independent, UK
Tobacco and Vapes Bill - live broadcast from Parliament
Follow along from 2pm today as Expert Witnesses give evidence on the Bill | Parliament.TV, UK
GFN News #127 | UK TOBACCO AND VAPES BILL EXPLAINED | Martin Cullip joins for part 1 of our UK special - video
The UK has announced a mammoth effort to combat tobacco use with its The Tobacco and Vape Bill including the eye-catching generational tobacco ban, which will prevent anyone born after 2009 from ever being able to purchase harmful combustible tobacco products. But with safer nicotine products such as heated tobacco products and snus included in this ban, will tobacco harm reduction efforts be caught in the crossfire? And can this ban even be realistically enforced? | GFN, UK
Boxing club saved me when drugs tore my family apart
Billy Ramsay joined the Lochee boxing club when he was 12 years old - around two years before his big sister died from a drugs overdose, age 17 | BBC, UK
Emotion Regulation in the Association Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Substance Use: A Systematic Review With Narrative Synthesis
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use commonly co-occur and represent a unique clinical challenge. Current interventions show modest effect sizes and high rates of dropout highlighting the need to better understand the mechanisms underlying the PTSD-substance use association. Evidence suggests emotion regulation may be an important factor underlying this association. This systematic review aims to examine the role of emotion regulation in the association between PTSD and substance use and to provide an understanding of differences in emotion regulation based on gender, trauma type, and social factors | Trauma, Violence and Abuse, UK
Meaningful Engagement with Community Stakeholders in Research
Wednesday, January 29 · 12 - 3pm GMT. Join us for an event dedicated to exploring the best practices for involving individuals with living/lived experience in substance use research. Through networking, interactive stalls, presentations, and table discussions, we will discuss the value of co-design and co-research in creating impactful studies and how we can best achieve this. We’ll explore the role of Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) groups in shaping research from the ground up and address the challenges and opportunities in fostering meaningful engagement | DRNS, UK
Dogs suffer 'cannabis poisoning' after illegal rave
Two dogs became very unwell and could not stand up after being poisoned by cannabis following a rave, their owners have said | BBC, UK
Thousands of illegal vapes seized in police raids
South Yorkshire Police worked with council officers to seize £560,000-worth of products that were unfit for sale in 2024 | BBC, UK
International news
“It’s a delicate balance”: clinicians’ experiences of providing heroin-assisted treatment
Once confined to the UK, prescribing heroin to treat heroin addiction has taken root in mainland Europe on the back of multiple evaluations. For clinicians in Norway the treatment is satisfying for its harm-reduction gains, but also difficult due partly to the risk of overdose | Harm Reduction Journal, UK
The Rastafarians opening up Caribbean cannabis farms to build a flourishing medical industry
After a 2018 amnesty, the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines is now backing Rastafarian growers’ efforts to promote the benefits of marijuana | Guardian, UK
Self-medicating in a difficult world
To me, as a systemic family therapist working in the substance misuse field, it seems that family therapy has always had somewhat of a dilemma when it comes to working with family systems where there is a substance misuse disorder present. In this paper, I will be describing current thinking in family therapy practice within the substance misuse field and how systemically informed substance misuse services are beginning to pay attention to issues of neurodiversity | Everything is Corrected Press, Ireland
Improvisational practice: engaging neurodivergent young people with addiction and mental health problems
Issues and trends in relation to substance misuse, normally develop in the transitional phase of adolescence, as young people begin looking to their peers for connection and simultaneously question the values/attitudes of their parents and other non-parental adults. Risk factors are predictors of the likelihood that an individual or group may become involved in activity leading to adverse consequences | Everything is Corrected Press, Ireland
Would cancer warning labels on alcoholic beverages reduce consumption—or be ignored?
Calling alcohol the third-leading preventable cause of cancer, the U.S. surgeon general on Friday recommended that alcoholic beverages come with the same type of warning label currently used on packs of cigarettes | Medical Xpress, USA
Switching to e-cigarettes may ease respiratory symptoms, offering hope for smokers
A new study finds that transitioning from conventional cigarettes to e-cigarettes could improve respiratory health, though further research is needed to understand long-term impacts | News Medical, USA
Non-opioid pain relievers beat opioids after dental surgery, trial shows
A combination of acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) controls pain after wisdom tooth removal better than opioids, according to a Rutgers Health study that could change how dentists treat post-surgical pain | Medical Xpress, USA
How legal pot is reducing opioid prescriptions
Study shows payments from opioid manufacturers to physicians decrease where medical marijuana is legal | University at Buffalo, USA
Massive study of adolescent brains puts “gateway drug" theory into question
Those who grew up when Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) pamphlets were common in the school counselor's office are probably familiar with the “gateway drug” theory, which suggests the use of one substance like cannabis or alcohol will send a person down the path to try “harder” drugs like cocaine or meth later in life | Salon, USA
In Rural Areas, People Who Use Drugs Face Particularly Severe Housing Crisis
Compared to the media spotlight on urban homelessness and drug use, rural areas have received far less attention. While this media coverage is often stigmatizing and problematic, the imbalance reflects how rural populations are largely overlooked, and their unique needs neglected | Filter Magazine, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
I tried ‘intermittent sobriety’. Here’s what I learned jumping on and off the wagon
While this is by no means health advice, these are a few things I’ve found helpful in case you’re also feeling sober curious | Guardian, UK
A Fresh Look at the Topic of “Recovery Orphans”
Back in 2021 I wrote a post consisting of four separate essays, each approaching the topic of “Recovery Orphans” from a different perspective. I coined the term “Recovery Orphan” some years ago after struggling with various events I’ve witnessed across the decades of my career. And while struggling to make sense of various things concerning people being “in recovery” or “not in recovery” as they or others claim | Recovery Review blog, USA