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Weekly news - 29th September 2023 |
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In date order, Monday to Friday
Rishi Sunak considers banning cigarettes for next generation
Exclusive: Sources say law would gradually increase smoking age to ultimately prevent sales to people born after 2008 | Guardian, UK
Superdrug to stop selling single-use vapes in UK and Ireland
Retailer responds to concerns about environmental impact of millions of e-cigarettes thrown away each week | Guardian, UK
‘Nicotine-free’ vapes sold on Amazon found to contain nicotine
Guardian investigation finds six of seven tested vapes were being sold in breach of UK law | Guardian, UK
Keir Starmer says no to UK drugs reform
U.K. Labour Party boss Keir Starmer said he has “no intention” of changing drug laws in the country if his party wins at the next election | Politico, UK
Cannabis brain effects study struggles to attract black UK users
Exclusive: Fears findings will represent only white population if too few people of colour take part | Guardian, UK
NHS Fife chosen to co-ordinate new £5m challenge to tackle drug deaths across the UK
The Health Board has been chosen to manage the UK wide Reducing Drug Deaths Innovation Challenge, which will see 12 projects from across the UK share £5 million funding to take forward potentially ground-breaking new approaches to help reduce fatal drug overdoses. NHS Fife was selected by the Chief Scientist’s Office and UK Office of Life Science following a competitive selection process involving a number of other Scottish Health Boards | NHS Fife, UK
Recovery Voices - new website
Recovery Voices, developed by David Clark and Wulf Livingston, captures conversations about what works in supporting recovery from addiction, and in the development of peer-led recovery communities. We highlight common messages and learnings, providing a resource for people working with, and supporting, recovery and recovery communities | Recovery Voices, UK
Would you support or oppose raising the legal smoking age by one year each year, effectively making it so that smoking is illegal for those born on 1 January 2009 or later?
Graph showing responses to the question by age, gender, politics etc | YouGov, UK
Government reponse to UK naloxone implementation report
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has undertaken a review of the availability and implementation of naloxone in the UK. Here is the Government's response | ACMD, UK
National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
11,230 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 5,835 (52%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 4,179 (37%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,216 (11%) for co-dependency | Public Health Scotland, UK
Review of smoking cessation services in Scotland
Public Health Scotland were commissioned by Scottish Government to carry out a review of smoking cessation services and make recommendations for the delivery of services going forward. This report presents the findings of the advisory group that led the review | Public Health Scotland, UK
The Today Debate: Drug deaths in Scotland - is decriminalisation the answer? - audio
Broadcast live from Glasgow, Mishal Husain is joined by a panel of guests to discuss the best approach to drug abuse and drug deaths in Scotland | BBC, UK
Police powers and procedures: Stop and search and arrests, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2023
In total, including searches under section 1 PACE and section 60 CJPOA, police in England and Wales conducted 547,003 stop and searches, an increase of 3% compared with the year ending March 2022 (up 16,033 from 530,970) | Home Office, UK
UK's first consumption room for illegal drugs given go-ahead
The UK's first official consumption room for illegal drugs including heroin and cocaine has been approved by authorities in Glasgow | BBC, UK
Action taken to help promote no and low-alcohol drinks
More people could be encouraged to purchase alcohol-free drinks under government proposals to make alternatives to alcoholic drinks more widely available | Department of Health and Social Care and Neil O'Brien MP, UK
A mentally healthier nation
Mental health in the UK is getting worse. Sickness absence due to mental illness is soaring, rates of mental health difficulties are increasing at an alarming rate, and already overstretched services are struggling to meet rising demands. Along with over 30 organisations with an interest in mental health, we have developed a plan to address this and build a mentally healthier nation | Centre for Mental Health, UK
Policy must tackle root causes of England’s record mental ill-health, says report
Coalition of experts publish action points including tackling inequality, poor housing and child poverty | Guardian, UK
Smoking in pregnancy increases risk of premature birth threefold, study finds
Risk of smoking double the previous estimate, but research finds no link between above average caffeine intake and pre-term babies | Guardian, UK
Assessing the reach and engagement with the ‘How To Save A Life’ mass media campaign on drug-related death prevention in Scotland
[Open access] ‘How To Save A Life’ (HTSAL) was a mass media campaign on drug-related death prevention which ran in Scotland from August 2021 to January 2022. It aimed to increase awareness of how to respond to an opioid overdose, and the uptake of take-home naloxone (THN). The objective of this study was to determine the reach and engagement with the campaign | DEPP, UK
Science to identify harmful substances and reduce drug-related deaths in North Yorkshire and York
Seized drug samples are to be analysed in a bid to reduce drug-related deaths in North Yorkshire and York as part of a new 12-month project. The North Yorkshire Drug Analysis Project (NYDAP) will see drug samples found or seized by North Yorkshire Police, examined for harmful substances in a Home Office licenced drug-testing facility at Manchester Metropolitan University | MMU, UK
Social media may increase the risk of teenage alcohol use and binge drinking
The latest study, which is led by the University of Glasgow and published in the European Journal of Public Health, analysed how often teenagers used social media every day at 14 years and investigated if it influenced their reported use of alcohol at 17 years, including potentially dangerous behaviours such as binge drinking | University of Glasgow, UK
Open consultation: Updating labelling guidance for no and low-alcohol alternatives
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is consulting on options for updating guidance on low-alcohol descriptors. Our aim is to increase substitution of alcoholic drinks with ‘alcohol free’ or low-alcohol (‘NoLo’) alternatives among people who drink above low risk levels | OHID, UK
Disposable vapes as an environmental as well as public health threat: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 | Scottish Government, UK
TikTok videos on deadly bodybuilding drugs viewed 89m times by young people in UK
Report into toxic content aimed at young men finds drug use being promoted and risks downplayed | Guardian, UK