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Daily news - 10th January 2025

UK news

Inside the UK's first legal drug consumption room

Welcome to the Thistle - the UK's first and only drug consumption room. After nearly a decade of deadlock and wrangling over drug laws the centre is finally ready to open. On Monday it will welcome its first clients who will come in to inject illegally-bought heroin or cocaine under medical supervision | BBC, UK

‘All eyes are on Glasgow’: UK’s first legal drug consumption room ready to open

The Thistle will be available 365 days a year and provide a supervised space where drugs can be injected safely | Guardian, UK

Patient brokers exploiting vulnerable individuals and families in addiction treatment are finally under scrutiny in Parliament

On Tuesday, Dan Carden, MP for Liverpool Walton, raised concerns about unethical practices in the sector during oral questions in the House of Commons | EMCAT, UK

Community connections: Engaging hard-to-reach communities in Peterborough

Aspire’s new ‘Community Connector’ approach is helping people to access and engage with support – and tackling stigma within communities that the service was previously unable to reach | Change Grow Live, UK

Four Women’s Championship clubs to trial letting fans drink alcohol in stands

The Women’s Championship clubs Birmingham, Bristol City, Newcastle and Southampton will take part in a trial permitting fans to drink alcohol in the stands while watching games. It will start this month and run until the end of this season but apply to league fixtures only | Guardian, UK

More than 250 arrested for drink or drug driving

More than 250 people were arrested in West Yorkshire in December on suspicion of driving over the alcohol limit or having used drugs | BBC, UK

International news

Press release: Government must prioritise full implementation of PHAA

Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) welcomes the broadcast watershed ban on television and radio alcohol advertising which comes into force tomorrow (Friday, January 10) | AAI, Ireland

Flavored E-Cigarette Sales Restrictions and Young Adult Tobacco Use

Using a cross-sectional survey dataset covering 376 963 young adults (age 18 to 29 years), this quasi-experimental analysis found that state restrictions on flavored ENDS sales were associated with a 3.6−percentage point (ppt) reduction in daily vaping as well as a 2.2 ppt increase in daily smoking relative to trends in states without restrictions | JAMA Network Open, USA

Quarter 4 2024 Trend Reports NPS Benzodiazepines, NPS Opioids, NPS Stimulants & Hallucinogens, and Synthetic Cannabinoids in the U.S. (PDF)

This report provides up-to-date information regarding the status of NPS drug prevalence and positivity in the United States | CFSRE, USA

[Open access] Rates of suicide mortality and substance use have increased globally. We updated and extended existing systematic reviews of the association between substance use and suicide | Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, USA

Utility of Candidate Genes From an Algorithm Designed to Predict Genetic Risk for Opioid Use Disorder

Results suggest that the genetic variants included in the algorithm do not meet reasonable standards of efficacy in identifying OUD risk and that more clinically useful models are needed to identify individuals at risk of developing OUD | JAMA Network Open, 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 | Medical Xpress, USA

Syringe exchange fears hobble fight against West Virginia HIV outbreak

More than three years have passed since federal health officials arrived in central Appalachia to assess an alarming outbreak of HIV spread mostly between people who inject opioids or methamphetamine | Medical Xpress, USA

Managing xylazine-involved overdoses in a community harm reduction setting: lessons from Tijuana, Mexico

Xylazine is a α2-adrenergic receptor agonist, used for sedation in veterinary contexts. Although it is increasingly found in overdose deaths across North America, the clinical management of xylazine-involved overdoses has not been extensively studied, especially in community-based harm reduction settings. Here we present a clinical series of xylazine-involved overdose and share the clinical approach and lessons learned by a community overdose response team in Tijuana, Mexico amidst the arrival of xylazine | Harm Reduction Journal, USA

“Shifts in Personality” Could Be Key to Psilocybin Helping SUD Patients

Can psilocybin help people with alcohol use disorder who wish to reduce their drinking, and if so, how? While such treatment might sound counterintuitive to some, past research has indicated the psychedelic drug’s promise in this area. A new study has just shed light on the how | Filter Magazine, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

Collective Voice responds to the Independent Sentencing Review consultation

Collective Voice has submitted a response to the consultation being run as part of the Independent Sentencing Review. We include several recommendations in response to the questions asked by the review team, fundamentally looking to expand use of community sentences and ensure people receive tailored, effective support to help them improve their lives and reduce their offending, therefore reducing crime and making communities safer | Collective Voice, UK

Smoking’s pop culture revival is an unwelcome throwback for public health

The 1990s were characterised by a rise in teenage smoking rates. Nostalgia for that decade shouldn’t see us undo progress against this public health threat, writes Caroline Cerny | BMJ Opinion, UK

Beyond Stigma: Understanding and Using Human Rights in Recovery

In our latest blog, Tom Bennett, Rights in Recovery Development Officer at the Scottish Recovery Consortium (SRC), discusses the importance of overcoming stigma to understand the human rights of people with alcohol problems when accessing support. SRC's recent publication 'Using Human Rights in Recovery – A Guide' invites all those impacted by addiction to become better informed about their human rights so they can advocate for themselves and others | SHAAP blog, UK

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