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Daily news - 4th March 2025

UK news

DDN March 2025

We’re in it together to improve mental health. The idea that we may have become desensitised to mental health suffering – even if it’s because we’re overstretched and under intense pressure – is unpalatable (cover story, page 6). So what do we do with this knowledge that patients/clients are being stripped of dignity and hope of recovery, bounced from one crisis to the next – and being made homeless, criminalised, isolated, dehumanised? | DDN, UK

Alcohol-specific and Alcohol-related deaths: What does it all mean?

Drinking alcohol is a leading cause of premature and preventable deaths. Two main measures are used to estimate the number of deaths caused by alcohol consumption: alcohol-specific deaths and alcohol-related deaths | IAS, UK

Nine people ill after 'taking drugs' police say

A number of people fell ill after taking a substance "believed to be heroin", police said. The Metropolitan Police said it was so far aware of nine cases in the Camden area of north London | BBC, UK

NHS Scotland warning after contaminated heroin leading to 'sudden collapses'

Health professionals have said that the 'sudden collapse' overdoses have occurred immediately upon injection come amid similar cases across Scotland | Daily Record, UK

A qualitative study of benzodiazepine/z-drug and opioid co-use patterns and overdose risk

[Open access] Co-use of benzodiazepines and/or ‘z-drugs’ along with opioids is linked to the rise in drug related deaths (DRD) in the UK. Understanding patterns of co-use could inform harm reduction strategies for reducing DRDs. This study explored how people co-use, including dosages, timings, methods of administration, use of other substances and desired effects sought | Harm Reduction Journal, UK

Collective Voice appoints new Chair of Trustees

Collective Voice is delighted to announce the appointment of Rosanna O’Connor as its new Chair of Trustees. Rosanna has held leadership roles across our sector, including in the voluntary sector and in local government, all focussed on championing the rights of disadvantaged communities to excellent services | Collective Voice, UK

The shops that sold us illegal cigarettes and vapes as black market hides in plain sight

One seller said he could get us 20,000 of the illicit cigarettes, 'no worries' | Wales Online, UK

Drugs worth £6.5m found in food packaging

A man has been arrested after a cross-border policing operation seized an estimated £6.5m (€7.8m) of suspected drugs in County Antrim | BBC, UK

International news

The effectiveness of Transcranial Photobiomodulation therapy (tPBM) on reducing anxiety, depression, and opioid craving in patients undergoing methadone maintenance treatment: a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial

In Iran, exposing the heads of methadone patients to red and near-infrared light a kind of laser therapy significantly reduced craving for opioid drugs among methadone patients. The effects remained significant three months later | BMC Psychiatry, UK

Finland to ban nicotine pouch flavours

The Finnish Ministry of Health has tabled a revised version of the country’s Tobacco Act, which will bring pouches under much tighter regulation | Clearing the air, UK

Quantifying the impact of a large-scale opioid agonist treatment program on suicide prevention in New South Wales, Australia: A data-modeling study

[Open access] This study aimed to quantify the population-level impact of a large-scale opioid agonist treatment (OAT) program on suicide-related mortality among people with opioid use disorder (OUD) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia | Addiction, UK

Documenting the early impact of the united states foreign aid directives on harm reduction programming - survey

On January 24, U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, issued an immediate halt to most foreign aid programmes for 90 days, pending a comprehensive review to ensure alignment with the current administration’s values and policies. Since then, it has been made public that approximately 10,000 US foreign aid grants, awards and contracts have been, or will be terminated. We’ve developed this survey to get a better sense from harm reduction organisations and networks of people who use drugs of how these recent US funding directives are affecting them | INPUD, UK

One-in-five people who use alcohol and other drugs have symptoms of ADHD

Professor Catherine Comiskey and a research team at the School of Nursing and Midwifery in partnership with the national Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign called for Immediate training in neurodiversity for drugs services’ staff at all levels | Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelics in Treating Substance Use Disorders: A Review of Clinical Trials

Clinical and randomised trials published between 2013 and 2023 in English "demonstrate that psychedelics, such as psilocybin, ayahuasca, and ketamine, can significantly reduce substance use and cravings and promote psychological well-being" | Medicina, Lithuania

Naloxone Knowledge, Carrying, Purchase, and Use

In this survey study of a national sample of 1515 adults with 512 adults oversampled because of self-reported opioid dependence, 10.6% of the national sample and 60.5% of respondents reporting opioid dependence currently carry naloxone. Among those who have ever carried naloxone, 42.4% in the national sample and 22.6% reporting opioid dependence had ever purchased naloxone | JAMA Network Open, USA

[Open access] Interviews with patients who within the last year had left and then restarted an opioid maintenance programme in Canada reveal why sometimes they sell or pass on their medication ('diversion'). Typically they "discussed diversion in the context of compassion and meeting needs" rather than irresponsible transgression | IJDP, USA

Recommendations for use of opioid-agonist treatment in prisons

In Australia, more than 40,000 people are imprisoned every day. More than half of these people experience drug addiction, including addiction to heroin or opioids | Medical Xpress, USA

Millions of children live with parents who have a substance use disorder, says study

Nearly 17 million children and adolescents in the United States are estimated to live with a parent who has a substance-use disorder, according to a study led by Texas State University, University of Michigan and Wayne State University | Medical Xpress, USA

Community “Bad Batch” Alerts Contrast With Algorithmic OD Prevention

In 2020, Ohio-based nonprofit the SOAR Initiative launched a pioneering “bad batch” alert system. Its platform allows anyone to submit secure, anonymous reports of drugs they’ve encountered in the local supply, which may be dangerously adulterated or sold as something other than what they are. These reports are vetted by SOAR’s outreach staff, and those deemed reliable are texted to thousands of subscribers in the community | Filter Magazine, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

National Careers Week 2025: ‘Forward are partnering, mentoring, upskilling, and empowering younger people to have a better future’

In support of National Careers Weeks 2025, The Forward Trust are taking proactive steps to address youth unemployment, especially in light of the concerning statistics reported in February 2025. The rise in the youth unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds from 11.9% to 14.8% highlights a significant challenge that needs urgent attention | Forward Trust blog, UK

Could Mexican Cartels Flood the UK and Europe with Fentanyl?

The tightening of the US-Mexico border under Donald Trump’s policies raises an urgent question for Europe: could Mexican cartels shift their fentanyl distribution networks to the UK and the continent, leveraging existing cocaine trafficking routes? | Tony D'Agostino, UK

Our vaping delusions have gone up in smoke. The Kiwis have a better idea (PDF)

A landmark study published in the journal Addiction has revealed that the smoking rate in New Zealand fell twice as fast as in Australia between 2016 and 2023. Over this seven-year period, NZ’s adult daily smoking rate plummeted by an astonishing 10 per cent per year, from 14.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent. In contrast, Australia’s smoking rate declined by only 5 per cent per year, from 12.2 per cent to 8.3 per cent | Colin Mendelsohn, Australia

Retailers will soon need a licence to sell cigarettes. But more is needed to control the illegal trade

Dubbed “the tobacco wars”, the illegal trade in untaxed tobacco products is reportedly booming in Australia | Conversation, Australia

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