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Daily news - 24th March 2025 |
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UK news
Press release: More officers on streets to smoke out illicit tobacco and vapes
More officers trained and funding provided as clampdown on illegal tobacco and vape trade accelerates | Department of Health and Social Care and Ashley Dalton MP, UK
Current and future trends in the consumption, sale and purchasing of alcohol-free and low-alcohol products in Great Britain, 2014 to 2023
[Open access] The UK Government has committed to reducing alcohol consumption by 2025 through increasing the availability of alcohol-free and low-alcohol (no/lo) drinks. This study estimated current and future trends in key indicators of the availability, sale, purchasing and consumption of no/lo products in Great Britain | Addiction, UK
Food matters in the fight against alcohol harm: Alcohol Change UK publishes handbook for alcohol services to help deliver cooking, eating and food sharing activities
A new handbook to support local treatment services with delivering cooking and eating activities for people experiencing alcohol harm has been published by the charity Alcohol Change UK | Alcohol Change UK, UK
Population-level policies on risk factors for dementia could reduce costs
Population-level interventions that target risk factors for dementia (such as high blood pressure, smoking and obesity) save money and give people extra years in good health, a modelling study found | NIHR, UK
Drugs: Young People
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of recent trends in the level of underage drug use across the UK | They work for you, UK
Buprenorphine
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 March 2025 to Question 31856 on Buprenorphine, if he will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of ensuring Buvidal is made available on release from prison to all people who have received Buvidal whilst in prison | They work for you, UK
Cannabis: Medical Treatments
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing electronic prescriptions for medicinal cannabis | They work for you, UK
Ketamine - Episode 1: The basics - podcast
Welcome to episode one, the basics of Ketamine. Learn about the history and how Ketamine affects people. Hear from interviews with Peter Furlong, Lisa Buckley and James Mawhinney from Change, Grow, Live, and Jo Moore and Jack Randles from Birchwood @ Kaleidoscope House. We also hear from four people who are currently at Birchwood receiving support for their Ketamine use | Frontline Podcast, UK
Everyone’s drinking mid-strength – but what actually is it?
Health trends are turning people off high ABV drinks in increasing numbers, which is where mid-strength tipples come into their own | Guardian, UK
Alcohol Review Conference 2025
Video presentations from the recent conference are now available to view online | Alcohol Review, UK
New Beginnings Easter celebration and open day
Doncaster residents are invited to an Easter celebration and open day event with a service that supports the recovery and wellbeing of people with drug and alcohol issues. New Beginnings, which is part of Aspire Drug and Alcohol service run by our trust in partnership with registered charity The Alcohol and Drug Service (ADS), provides a specialist rehabilitation and detox service. New Beginnings is opening its doors on Thursday 17 April between 1:30pm to 4:30pm for the celebration event on Marshall Avenue in Balby. It’s open to everyone, just simply drop in to join | Aspire, UK
End of hedonism? Why Britain turned its back on clubbing
In an old gun barrel factory in Sheffield's industrial heartland, hundreds of people are raving under the fluorescent lights of Hope Works club for one of the last times before it closes. One young woman has dressed all in black to signify the loss of her "favourite place" | BBC, UK
Sainsbury's Glasgow stores move vapes behind till as licensing change approved
A new UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill will come into force to restrict displays, flavours, and packaging of vapes to help keep them away from children | Glasgow Live, UK
Alcohol Change UK appoints new chair
The board of trustees at national alcohol harm reduction charity Alcohol Change UK has elected Mick Urwin as its new chair | DDN, UK
Prison is warned again of inmate drug death risk
A report said known drug user Max Marchant, 26, from Essex, died from an overdose shortly after he was moved to a wing "overrun" with psychoactive substances at HMP Mount in Hertfordshire | BBC, UK
Couple 'terrified' after mistaken drug raid at home
A couple said they were left "terrified" after police burst into their home as part of a drugs raid, acting on a tip-off that turned out to be "not fully accurate" | BBC, UK
International news
Combined pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for alcohol use disorder
[Open access] Rigorous synthesis of randomised trials comparing combined pharmacological and psychosocial interventions against either alone or usual/no treatment suggests that “adding pharmacological to psychosocial interventions is safe and helps people with [alcohol use disorder] recover | Cochrane Library, UK
Cocaine worth £2m seized after flight from France
Two men were arrested after 30kg (4.7st) of the Class A drug was found stashed in packages underneath a seat on the aircraft | BBC, UK
Man appears in court following €10.6m cocaine seizure
Investigators believe the drugs were loaded in Spain and transported to Ireland on behalf of several organised crime groups, Gorey District Court heard on Sunday | BBC, UK
China executed four Canadians for drug crimes, says Ottawa
Four Canadians were executed in China on drug-related charges earlier this year, Canadian authorities have confirmed. All of them were dual citizens and their identities have been withheld, Canada's foreign minister Mélanie Joly said | BBC, UK
Amphetamine use and mental health difficulties across adolescence and young adulthood: An integrative data analysis of four Australasian cohort studies
[Open access] The use of amphetamines (including amphetamine and methamphetamine) has been consistently associated with mental health difficulties; however, the direction of potential causal relationships has not yet been established. This study aimed to assess the direction relationships between illicit amphetamine use and mental health difficulties across adolescence and young adulthood | Addiction, UK
Dublin amongst top twenty cties in Europe for cocaine usage
Significant detections of ketamine and MDMA were also found in sewage samples from the Ringsend treatment plant when compared with 127 other cities | NewsTalk, Ireland
The Netherlands leads call for EU to clamp down on vapes
Twelve counties, led by the Netherlands, are pushing the European Commission to revise tobacco legislation, warning that existing rules should include new nicotine products | Politico, Belgium
Fatty acids in the blood may predict risk of developing schizophrenia from cannabis use
The UPV/EHU study, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, has analyzed and compared the fatty acids in the blood of individuals with schizophrenia, of those with cannabis use disorder and of those with both diagnoses, with the aim of shedding light on new biomarkers and improving the understanding of the biological relationship between the two disorders. The study also offers a powerful tool for identifying new biomarkers | News Medical, USA
Recovery housing for substance use disorder: a systematic review
Supported accommodation with a requirement for abstinence “is the most widely available form of substance use disorder recovery support infrastructure”, but this review could find just three randomised trials of how well they promote recovery. The sparse evidence was, however, promising | Frontiers in Public Health, USA
If you find me on the floor, stick some sugar in my mouth: The social production (and protection) of insulin risk among IPED communities
[Open access] Insulin is used among image and performance enhancing drug (IPED) communities for its anabolic effects, but its use carries significant risks, with the acute danger being hypoglycaemia, which can be life-threatening if not properly managed. Within these communities, harm reduction practices and informal peer knowledge exchange play a critical role in the way substances are consumed. This qualitative study sought to understand these community practices regarding non-medical insulin use among people who use IPEDs | DEPP, USA
Alcohol treatment in Australia: Client characteristics and patterns of service use, 2013–14 to 2022–23
Clients accessing alcohol and other drug treatment services often receive multiple episodes of treatment over a number of years. This report describes the characteristics and patterns of service use for 3 client cohorts between 2013–14 and 2022–23 where alcohol was a principal drug of concern (either alcohol only or alcohol and another principal drug of concern (PDOC)) | AIHW, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
The Great Cigarette Filter Fraud
Did you know that cigarette filters provide no health benefit at all? They don’t actually ‘filter’ the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes, despite what their name suggests. In fact, they’ve been dubbed ‘the deadliest fraud in human civilisation’. Yet, most people still believe that filters make smoking safer. This is no accident; clever marketing by tobacco companies has kept this myth alive for decades. If you thought filters made smoking less harmful, you’re not alone | ASH blog, UK
Is smoking cool again?
Attempts to stamp out cigarettes could be having unintended consequences | The Critic, UK
CND68: Historic vote initiates overdue review of UN drug control “machinery”
Against a backdrop of global turmoil and multilateral rupture, the 68th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs ended on Friday 14th March with a turning point in the history of global drug policy. With a striking majority of 30 votes in favour, 18 abstentions, and 3 votes against - Argentina, Russia, and the United States - the United Nations’ main drug policy-making body decided to create a panel of independent experts to rethink the global drug control regime | IDPC blog, UK
From hempseed gruel to CBD: the curious history of cannabis as health product
The cannabis-derived product CBD has been hailed “the wonder drug of our age”, offering potential health benefits without the high. From juices and coffee to truffles and ice cream, CBD products have flooded the market for consumers looking for an answer to health problems from anxiety to insomnia | Conversation, UK
The tobacco lobby claims vaping is displacing youth smoking – a close look at the evidence tells another story
E-cigarette companies, including giants such as British American Tobacco, have actively lobbied governments in New Zealand and Australia to weaken existing vape regulations while preventing the introduction of stricter ones. As part of their argument, they claim that for adolescents in New Zealand, the use of e-cigarettes (vaping) might be “displacing” cigarette smoking. They argue young people are opting for vapes over traditional cigarettes | Conversation, Australia