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Daily news - 15th May 2025 |
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UK news
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee - video of the debate
The Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill as heard on 13th May 2025: The Committee took evidence from— Kirsten Horsburgh, Chief Executive Officer, Scottish Drugs Forum; Tracey McFall, Chief Executive, Scottish Recovery Consortium; Justina Murray, CEO, Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs; and then from— Lee Ball, Director of Addictions, Salvation Army; Graeme Callander, Policy and Public Affairs Lead, WithYou; Jan Mayor, Practice and Innovation Lead Alcohol and other Drugs, Turning Point Scotland; Annemarie Ward, CEO, Faces & Voices of Recovery UK | Scottish Parliament, UK
Tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food and drink: how commercial interests impact mental health (PDF)
Commercial determinants of mental health describe how the actions of private companies positively and negatively affect people’s mental health. Business practices influence our economic, social, environmental, and cultural surroundings. This includes how companies pay and treat workers to produce, advertise and sell products that may directly harm the health of consumers, lobby for laws and regulations, shape consumer preferences, and more | ASH et al, UK
Barod Bitesize – Neurodivergence and Substance Use: Why People with Autism / ADHD Use Substances - video
Barod is pleased to offer a series of bitesize learning opportunities as part of Learning @ Work Week 2025. This video is a bitesize learning about some of the reasons why neurodivergent people (people with autism and/or ADHD) might use substances, delivered by our L&D Team | Barod, UK
Drug-laced vapes warning as children hospitalised
Police were called to Unity City Academy on Ormesby Road, Middlesbrough - which caters for 11- to 16-year-olds - at about 09:00 BST, following reports of three pupils becoming unwell | BBC, UK
'My son was killed by criminals making cannabis'
Seven-year-old Archie York was killed in a blast in Newcastle caused by his neighbour's illegal attempts to make cannabis sweets. As one of his killers is jailed, Archie's mother says her son's death should serve as a warning to other criminals | BBC, UK
Why 'shatter cannabis' poses a triple threat as a deadly new breed of weed
The newly released footage of little Archie York's Newcastle home being blown apart last October looks like the kind of images you associate with black and white shots of a military missile strike | ITV, UK
Teacher banned from the classroom after drinking cider in school and walking into door
Jon Downs, from Westhoughton High School in Bolton, has been banned indefinitely | Independent, UK
Drug gang spared jail after four-year court delay
Kelly Wilkinson, 39, and her partner John Hunstone, 46, ran a crack cocaine gang in Northumberland with their friend Ashleigh Weatherstone, 35, and her ex-partner in late 2020 and early 2021, Newcastle Crown Court heard | BBC, UK
International news
US overdose deaths fell 27% in 2024 in largest one-year decline ever
An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year – down from 110,000 in 2023 – but still above pre-Covid level | Guardian, UK
British teen arrested in Georgia for drug offences
Bella Culley, 18, from Billingham, who is understood to have gone missing in Thailand, is accused of illegally buying, possessing and importing large quantities of narcotics including marijuana | BBC, UK
Amsterdam’s rebel mayor on sex, drugs and tourists
Femke Halsema, the Dutch capital’s first female mayor, doesn’t shy away from radical yet rational policymaking. Here she tells us how she aims to take drug distribution out of criminal hands and cut overtourism | Monocle, UK
A NEW CHAPTER FOR THR EDUCATION | Chimwemwe Ngoma highlights KAC's brand new THR course - video
Building on the strength of its popular Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship programme, Knowledge•Action•Change's brand new foundational course 'Understanding Tobacco Harm Reduction' is a free-to-use educational platform designed to help advocates expand their knowledge base. Joining us today to highlight this key new resource is one of its key authors, Chimwemwe Ngoma of KAC | GFN, UK
ESPAD–EUDA webinar: European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) — 30 years of monitoring and 2024 findings
20 May 2025. Online. The main aim of this webinar is to present the 2024 findings of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). This edition marks 30 years of monitoring, during which ESPAD has continuously evolved to reflect the changing realities of adolescent life. In response to growing public health concerns, this year's study expands its focus to include new areas, including mental well-being and the reach of prevention interventions | EUDA, Portugal
Statement from CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control on Provisional 2024 Overdose Death Data
Today's provisional data release from CDC's National Vital Statistics System shows a remarkable nearly 27% decrease in predicted drug overdose deaths in 2024 compared to 2023 on average, this decline suggests more than 81 lives saved every day | CDC, USA
About Overdose Data to Action
Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) supports jurisdictions in implementing prevention activities and in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and timely data on nonfatal and fatal overdoses and in using those data to enhance programmatic and surveillance efforts | CDC, USA
Cannabis Use Among Older Adults
In this cross-sectional study of 4503 respondents aged 65 to 84 years from the Veterans Health Administration (2020-2023), 10% reported past 30-day cannabis use, 36% of whom had CUD. Odds for CUD were higher among younger respondents, those reporting anxiety, those with 1 or more deficits in activities of daily living, those with past month illicit drug use, and those with frequent, inhaled, or recreational cannabis use | JAMA Network Open, USA
Digital Integrated Interventions for Comorbid Depression and Substance Use Disorder: Narrative Review and Content Analysis
Details the variety of methods using digital technologies which have been researched in the attempt to simultaneously address depression and problem substance use | JMIR, USA
Association Between Alcohol Consumption, Cognitive Abilities, and Neuropathologic Changes
[Open access] Heavy alcohol consumption is a major global health concern linked to increased morbidity and mortality. However, the long-term impact of excessive alcohol consumption on cognitive abilities and dementia-related neuropathology is unclear. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between alcohol consumption and age-related neuropathologic outcomes in a population-based autopsy study | Neurology, USA
Famous film helps reveal brain region biased towards drug cues in individuals with heroin use disorder
Mount Sinai researchers have found that a brain region that is implicated extensively in value-based decision-making and craving in people with heroin use disorder—known as the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)—shows synchronized responses biased toward drug content, outcompeting other typical subjects of attention and motivation, in a group of individuals with heroin use disorder who watched "Trainspotting," the Academy Award-nominated 1996 movie about people who use heroin in Scotland | Medical Xpress, USA
A Brief History of LSD Treatment for Alcohol Addiction at the VA
Characteristics of the “psychedelic renaissance” of recent years have included numerous studies indicating benefits of psychedelic drugs for therapeutic use—with substance use disorders, among other conditions—and policy developments predicated on these drugs’ ability to help veterans | Filter Magazine, USA
InSight Crime’s 2024 Cocaine Seizure Round-Up
Despite record cocaine seizures in production and transit countries, huge quantities of the drug arrived in consumer markets in 2024 | Insight Crime, Colombia
NDARC Webinar: Examining the pathways of young people referred to AOD treatment - video
The presentation includes linked data analyses from the Youth Pathways ARC funded study, including a focus on mortality, hospitalisations and convictions data. It also includes a discussion of the experience of Aboriginal young people in mainstream programs | NDARC, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
Stigma, Grief and Love: a conversation with my mum
I’m sitting with my mum, Kim, ready to talk about my brother, Karl, who passed away 13 years ago this month. The ripple effects of his loss are still deeply felt across our family. His absence is a shadow that never quite lifts — especially around this time of year | AntiStigma Network, UK
Men bear the brunt of alcohol harm – so why the focus on women?
Men consume more alcohol and experience more alcohol-related harms than women. However, a recent review of 1,267 single-gender alcohol studies by our team at La Trobe University in Australia found more published journal articles on women’s alcohol consumption than men’s over the past decade (2014-2023). That is, although men tend to drink more, recent alcohol research has focused more on women | IAS blog, UK