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Weekly news - 26th May 2023

In date order, Monday to Friday

Former drug addicts to help mentor jobseekers

The £3.7m peer mentoring programme run by the Department for Work and Pensions is being trialled in 40 Jobcentres across England as part of wider efforts to support people back into work | Local Gov, UK

Local action towards a smoke-free future

These case studies describe the efforts of local councils across England to improve health and wellbeing through tackling smoking | LGA, UK

Guidance: Drugs strategy national outcomes framework

Document outlining the National Combating Drugs Outcome Framework, including supporting metrics to monitor progress towards the outcomes in From Harm to Hope | Home Office, UK

Vaping: High lead and nickel found in illegal vapes

Used vapes gathered at Baxter College in Kidderminster were tested in a laboratory. The results showed children using them could be inhaling more than twice the daily safe amount of lead, and nine times the safe amount of nickel. Some vapes also contained harmful chemicals like those in cigarette smoke | BBC, UK

Nearly 9,000 drivers caught drink or drug driving in six week police operation

Results from the latest national policing operation to target drink and drug driving across England, Wales and Northern Ireland reveal 8,713 positive results from those tested for drink and drug driving during the six week period which ran from 21 November 2022 – 1 January 2023 | NPCC, UK

Drug testing pilot rolled out to Irish festivals

Health officials in the Republic of Ireland have said a drug testing pilot, first introduced at Electric Picnic last year, will be rolled out to other festivals this summer | BBC, UK

Ireland set to become first country with mandatory health warnings on alcohol

Display of information on dangers of drinking will be required from 2026 | Irish Times, Ireland

Ban on TV and radio ads for alcohol before 9pm could be in place by next year

A ban on alcohol adverts on TV before a 9pm watershed could take effect before the end of next year, the Department of Health has said | Irish Examiner, Ireland

Drug injecting centre due in early 2024

The long-awaited pilot drug injecting centre in Dublin should be operational by early next year, the HSE boss over the project has said | Irish Examiner, Ireland

Alcohol treatment services (PDF)

For those in deepest need alcohol treatment services offer real hope. However, despite the alarming increase in alcohol-related deaths over the past twenty years and sharp rises since 2019, the number of people receiving treatment for alcohol dependency has generally been falling. A staggering 82% of the 600,000 dependent drinkers in England are not in treatment. This is despite success rates of around 60% and evidence that, on average, every £1 spent on treatment immediately delivers £3 of benefit and significantly more in the longer term | House of Commons, UK

Tories’ failure to tackle alcohol harm is causing public health crisis, say MPs

Problem drinking in England costs NHS £25bn a year, with deaths nearly doubling in two decades, Commons committee warns | Guardian, UK

Call for more action to curb teen vaping

Prof Linda Bauld, of the University of Edinburgh, said issues such as underage sales and the branding of e-cigarettes needed to be tackled. It came as a BBC investigation found vapes confiscated from school pupils contained high levels of lead, nickel and chromium | BBC, UK

2023 YouGov addendum to MUP cross-border report

This is an addendum to our 2022 report on the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) of alcohol in Scotland on cross-border purchasing. This paper describes updated data collected in March 2023 by putting survey questions about self-reported cross-border and online purchasing to a panel | Public Health Scotland, UK

Prime: Caffeine warnings should be clearer, says expert

Concerns have been raised that Prime Energy drinks don't display caffeine warnings clearly enough to show they are unsuitable for children | BBC, UK

Getting ahead of new drug trends

When a new recreational drug emerges, it can leave authorities and services struggling for a response. But researchers at Manchester Met have found a way to keep tabs on trends and help protect communities | MMU, UK

ASH Ready Reckoner

The ASH Ready Reckoner is an easy-to-use cost calculator, allowing you to see the costs of smoking to society at national, regional, and local authority levels | ASH, UK

Joint submission with Liberty on Government's Anti-Social Behaviour Plan

We've submitted a consultation response on the Government's Anti-Social Behaviour Plan jointly with Liberty due to the potential implications that the plan may have on our civil liberties, as they're implemented through drug control measures | Release, UK

Drug testing at festivals - podcast

The HSE will re-introduce their drug safety scheme at Irish Festivals this year as part of their safer night programme. This will be the 2nd year of it running. The UK have been doing this for the past 10 years and Harry Shapiro, Director of Drugwise, joined Anton to discuss how effective it is and if it leads to better safety measures around drug taking | NewsTalk, UK

[Open access] On November 8th, 2022, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement alerting healthcare professionals to the increasing prevalence of xylazine in illicit drug overdoses in the country. Xylazine is a veterinary medicine with sedative, analgesic and muscle relaxant properties that is used as a heroin/fentanyl adulterant on the illicit drug market in North America. Here we report the first drug-related death associated with xylazine in the United Kingdom | Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, UK

Impact of the cost-of-living crisis on the nature of attempts to stop smoking and to reduce alcohol consumption in Great Britain: A representative population survey, 2021–2022

Smoking and excessive drinking place a strain on household budgets. We aimed to examine the impact of the cost-of-living crisis in Great Britain on the nature of smoking cessation and alcohol reduction attempts, and explore changes in health professionals offering support | PLOS One, UK