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Daily news - 15th January 2025

UK news

Circular 002/2025: The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 Order 2024

Changes to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to control 22 substances, with 2-benzyl benzimidazole variants (nitazenes) falling under a new generic definition | Home Office, UK

The implementation of safer drug consumption facilities in Scotland: a mixed methods needs assessment and feasibility study for the city of Edinburgh

[Open access] Scotland currently has amongst the highest rates of drug-related deaths in Europe, leading to increased advocacy for safer drug consumption facilities (SDCFs) to be piloted in the country. In response to concerns about drug-related harms in Edinburgh, elected officials have considered introducing SDCFs in the city. This paper presents key findings from a feasibility study commissioned by City of Edinburgh Council to support these deliberations | Harm Reduction Journal, UK

Is it still illegal to possess drugs in Scotland?

Police officers are concerned about pressure to search those who may be carrying illegal substances | STV, UK

File on 4 Investigates: Cannabis Kids: The parents breaking the law to help their children with epilepsy

For those with intractable epilepsy the options for treatment are limited and the risk of a catastrophic seizure is very real. But a growing body of evidence has pointed to cannabis having a positive effect on preventing seizures even in people who don't respond to other drugs. In 2018, medicinal cannabis was legalised following a high profile campaign led by parents of children with intractable epilepsy. They hoped the change in the law would lead to the drug becoming widely available on the NHS. But more than six years later File on 4 Investigates has discovered families going to extreme lengths to access a drug they say is keeping their children alive | BBC, UK

Is 'The Sesh' starting to catch up with Millennials?

Attitudes to drugs have changed significantly since the late '80s, becoming more widely used and socially acceptable. But while Gen Z are embracing sober curiosity, the toll of sustained drug use is becoming more pronounced in older generations | MixMag, UK

EXCLUSIVE: ITV News investigating vapes containing synthetic cannabis in the UK

In correspondence seen by Clearing the Air, a researcher from ITV News contacted a number of laboratories in the UK asking them to test samples of vapes for the presence of Spice, a synthetic cannabinoid | Clearing the Air, UK

NHS South East London unveils plan to tackle alcohol harm

NHS South East London (NHS SE London) is set to take action against the growing public health impact of alcohol, following a new report outlining measures to improve treatment, reduce harm, and alleviate costs on health and care services | NHS SE London, UK

Cannabis: Medical Treatments

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of restrictions on the use of electronic prescriptions for the issuing of medicinal cannabis products | They work for you, UK

Cannabis Possession

Mr Carroll asked the Minister of Justice whether, given that it was revealed in an answer to a question for written answer that some 10,000 people were prosecuted for the personal possession of cannabis over the past five years, that is an adequate and good use of Department of Justice resources | They work for you, UK

Alcoholism: Rehabilitation

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of people referred for alcohol addiction support | They work for you, UK

Addictions: Stoke-on-Trent South

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to fund improved provisions for addiction support services in Stoke-on-Trent South | They work for you, UK

Cannabis farm worth £3m found in business unit

Officers followed a vehicle which they said was acting suspiciously to the premises in High Brooms, Tunbridge Wells, on 10 January | BBC, UK

International news

Do smoking bans work?

Since 2007 there have been moves towards stricter regulations on smoking in public spaces across the world. But have any of these had noticeable health impacts? | BMJ, UK

The Inquiry: Is fake alcohol a global threat? - audio

Drinks with toxic ingredients have been linked to deaths and poisonings in Turkey, Laos and India in 2024. Fake alcohol is unrecorded and unregulated alcohol that hasn’t been registered in official statistics for sales, production or trade. The range of unrecorded alcohol includes alcohol smuggled across borders, counterfeit alcohol and homemade brew. This week of The Inquiry we look at how toxic and widespread fake alcohol is. What are the health risks of drinking contaminated alcohol? | BBC, UK

Drugs, Dead Drops and the Battle Over Russian Darknet Markets - podcast

If you were to walk around a Russian city, you might not realise it but hundreds of small packages of drugs, could be just below the surface, buried in the ground, or maybe attached to the back of a nearby drainpipe with magnets, or hidden inside a hole in a wall. These little "treasures" have been ordered online from a vendor operating on a darknet platform and then hidden by couriers known as 'Kladmen' all over the place waiting to be collected - this is the "dead drop" method | Deepdive: Exploring organised crme, UK

WHO Technical Advisory Group on Alcohol and Drug Epidemiology

Deadline: 20 January 2025. The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve as members one of the Technical Advisory Group on Alcohol and Drug Epidemiology (TAG-ADE). This “Call for experts” provides information about the advisory group in question, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the process of selection | WHO, Switzerland

How medical marijuana is reducing opioid prescriptions

In states where medical marijuana is legal, payments from opioid manufacturers to physicians have decreased significantly — suggesting that marijuana may be emerging as a viable alternative to opioids for pain management, according to new research from the School of Management | University of Buffalo, USA

Virtual reality pilot program shows promise for preventing substance misuse and violence

Health-risk behaviors such as binge drinking, drug use, and violence are common among college students. These issues are especially prevalent among first-year students living away from their families for the first time. According to the American Addiction Centers, nearly half of all college students would qualify for at least one substance use disorder | Medical Xpress, USA

Knowledge and Use of Menthol-Mimicking Cigarettes Among Adults in the US

This cross-sectional survey study of 3200 US adults (≥21 years) found that a considerable proportion of adults were aware of and susceptible to and had experimented with or were currently using synthetic cooling agent menthol-mimicking cigarettes. Being Black or African American, being a man, being a younger adult, using menthol and nonmenthol cigarettes, and living in states with a menthol cigarette ban were associated with these outcomes | JAMA Network Open, USA

[Open access] The influence of age on brief motivational interventions (BMI) effects remains unknown. In the present study, we explored whether change in alcohol consumption after BMI differs across age groups and whether these differences are reflected in motivational interviewing (MI) counsellor skills | Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, USA

Overdose as a complex contagion: modelling the community spread of overdose events following law enforcement efforts to disrupt the drug market

[Open access] The opioid overdose mortality crisis in the USA is an ongoing public health epidemic. Ongoing law enforcement strategies to disrupt local unregulated drug markets can have an iatrogenic effect of increasing overdose by driving consumers towards new suppliers with unpredictable drug products of unknown potency | J Epidemiol Community Health, USA

Evidence-based Interventions for Youth With Concurrent Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders: A Scoping Review

[Open access] Thought to be the first systematic attempt to outline the extent and type of research evaluating interventions for teenagers and young adults with symptoms considered indicative of both substance use and mental health disorders | Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Canada

Blogs, comment and opinion

Alcohol’s contribution to climate change

Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. From once in a lifetime floods and bushfires, to species extinction, pollution and proliferation of disease – it is becoming harder to ignore the environmental impacts of our fast-paced consumerism and the industries that sustain this | IAS blog, UK

Scotland’s safe consumption room won’t solve the drugs crisis

Quarterly reports from the office of National Records of Scotland confirm time and again the existence of an ongoing drug deaths crisis north of the border. And, time and again, the Scottish government reveals itself to be devoid of ideas for how to tackle it. Now, however, there has been a flicker of progress with the opening of the UK’s first safe drug consumption room in Glasgow this week. But will it make any real difference to the national drugs death crisis? | Spectator, UK

After Assad; What Next for Syria’s Captagon?

As Bashar al-Assad flees for Russia, Syrian rebel groups – primarily the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – have begun uncovering large stashes of captagon, a popular amphetamine-like pill which the Assad regime has long been accused of being complicit with the illicit trade or actively producing | Talking Drugs, UK

A New Roadmap for Cannabis and Cannabis Policy Research

The greatly increased availability of cannabis over the last two decades has outpaced our understanding of the public-health impacts of the drug. It is now available for medical purposes in most states, and adults may now purchase it for recreational use in nearly half the states. With greater availability has come decreased public perception of harm, as well as increased use | NIDA blog, USA

Labor’s conspiracy-based vape policy is free from facts — but not consequence

Does the Albanese government believe in evidence-based policy? It claims to. It established the Australian Centre of Evaluation to return evaluation to the policymaking process. Its ranks contain Andrew Leigh, an ardent advocate for evidence-based policymaking and randomised trials in public policy. On health policy and particularly vaping, however, that goes out the window. What we have instead is policy guided by conspiracy theories | Crikey blog, Australia

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