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Weekly news - 6th December 2024

In date order, Monday to Friday

'Synthetic opioid was a death sentence for our dad'

Siblings Alex and Keeley regularly visit their dad's grave in a peaceful Essex cemetery to remove weeds and lay new flowers. Their father is one of 179 people in England recorded as having died from nitazenes in the past year, with the highest number of deaths occurring in the East of England | BBC, UK

Impact of ‘street’ benzodiazepines on drug-related deaths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

‘Street’ benzodiazepines (BZD) are structurally and pharmacologically related to BZDs licensed for human use. In this study we investigated how street BZDs contribute to overall BZD use and death prevalences in England, Wales and Northern Ireland | DAR, UK

A Message from The Princess of Wales for Addiction Awareness Week 2024

In support of Addiction Addiction Awareness Week 2024 (30th November - 7th December), we are delighted to share a new message by Royal Patron of The Forward Trust, HRH The Princess of Wales | Forward Trust, UK

Who is the drug user activist?: recounting the conceptualisation of drug user activism in the United Kingdom

The British model of harm reduction has been referenced as a pioneering approach to substance use in Europe. While many have described the development of UK drug policy through different governments, few studies have focused on the role that drug user activists played in the UK drug policy reform movement. We examine the different conceptualisations of UK drug user activists in literature, including published academic journals and grey literature (news articles, podcasts, websites and unpublished dissertations) | Harm Reduction Journal, UK

Making a difference in Middlesborough

Recovery Solutions deliver an integrated substance use service in Middlesbrough, the local authority area with the highest proportion of deprived neighbourhoods in England. Andrea Clark, a Blue Light caseworker, describes how she applies Alcohol Change UK’s Blue Light Approach to make a difference in the town | Alcohol Change, UK

Drink and Drugs News - December 2024/January 2025

We’re familiar with the devastating effect cocaine can have on lives. What’s interesting is the cultural normalisation that’s contributing to the statistics (p6). If drug use starts in a safe setting and escalates, at what point is intervention relevant – or possible? Using it as a way to avoid drinking too much...is a twist on harm reduction that we may not have contemplated, but it’s risky. The two substances combine to form toxic cocaethylene, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke – but who’s familiar with that? It’s complicated, but we need to look at the stats and focus on an effective response – cocaine-related deaths increased by a third last year. As we look back on the year we’re grateful for inspirational partnerships and individuals who tackle obstacles at full tilt and don’t take ‘go slow’ for an answer. Keep going – we’re right there with you! | DDN, UK

New poll reveals toll of addiction across the UK

As Addiction Awareness Week 2024 begins, we commissioned research into the scale of dependency in the UK. On our behalf, Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 2,139 UK adults aged 16 to 75. Just over one in 10 (11%) had experienced addiction to alcohol, drugs, medication, or gambling at some point in their lives | Forward Trust, UK

Research Briefing - Misuse of drugs: regulation and enforcement

This briefing outlines current UK legislation to control drugs, the enforcement of drug laws and calls for reform to the classification of drugs in the UK | House of Commons Library, UK

Alcohol Profiles for England: short statistical commentary, December 2024

New data has been added to the Alcohol Profile tool on the Fingertips platform. This update shows: In 2023, there were 8,274 alcohol-specific deaths (deaths wholly due to alcohol) in England, which was an increase of 63.8% from 5,050 deaths in 2006 and a 4.6% increase since 2022. This equates to a rate of 15.0 per 100,000 population in 2023. This was the highest rate for alcohol-specific mortality since the start of the data series in 2006 (10.7 per 100,000) | OHID, UK

Still ambitious for recovery - How to address illegal drug addiction and strengthen law enforcement’s role (PDF)

This report sheds light on the scale of the illegal drug addiction crisis we face today, not only in terms of the lives lost to overdoses and drug poisonings, but also the lives blighted by stigma and a lack of support It echoes the findings of Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs, which so starkly warned that the Government must invest in tackling the problem or keep paying for the consequences | CSJ, UK

Recovery Is Possible - Addiction Awareness Week 2024 - Taking Action on Addiction - video

Ant and Dec, and more than 75 other individual contributors, kindly shared their own uplifting, remarkable and inspiring stories of their own or a loved one’s recovery from addiction | Forward Trust, UK

National naloxone programme Scotland - Quarterly monitoring bulletin

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number of take-home naloxone kits issued by the National Naloxone Programme (NNP) in Scotland. Figures are presented separately for kits issued from community outlets, kits issued in prisons at the point of liberation, kits dispensed via community prescription, and kits issued by Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) | Public Health Scotland, UK

Scottish Public Health Observatory update - Estimated quarterly numbers of people prescribed opioid substitution therapy in Scotland (12-month period)

In the 12-month period ending 30 June 2024 (the end of 2024/25 Q1), Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) was prescribed to an estimated minimum of 29,470 people in Scotland. In the 12 months to the end of the previous financial year quarter (2023/24 Q4) an estimated minimum of 29,817 people were prescribed OST. The NHS Board areas where the highest estimated numbers of people prescribed OST lived were Greater Glasgow & Clyde (8,579), Lothian (4,570) and Lanarkshire (3,032) | Public Health Scotland, UK

[Open access] Recent reports suggest that the prevalence of alcohol consumption has reduced among young people in England. We used whole population, English substance use treatment data to examine whether there has been a corresponding decrease in the number of young people accessing specialist alcohol treatment. We also examined the trend among young people with the highest levels of alcohol treatment need | IJDP, UK

Liver disease profile, December 2024 update

Among the indicators investigated it was found that the number of premature deaths from alcoholic liver disease rose by 3.6% in 2023 to 5,984 compared to 5,776 in 2022. Also, the England rate of premature deaths from alcoholic liver disease between 2001 to 2023 has increased by almost 60% | OHID, UK

The effect of proportional pricing on alcohol purchasing in two online experiments

[Open access] Buying smaller-sized alcohol products can reduce alcohol consumption, but larger products have better value for money, which presents a barrier to switching. We tested whether proportional pricing prompts drinkers to buy smaller alcohol products and reduce alcohol purchasing | Addiction, UK

Collective Voice responds to the Government’s 10-year health plan consultation

This week, Collective Voice has responded to the consultation on the Government’s 10-year health plan. You can read our full submission here, but we thought it would be helpful to outline the key points we made in response to each question | Collective Voice, UK

Man 'dismissed by hospital because of drug use'

A man who died after a hospital failed to carry out "important" medical checks was "discriminated against" because of his history of Spice use, his sister has said | BBC, UK

Russian criminals helped UK drug gangs launder lockdown cash

A multi-billion-dollar money laundering operation that formed when UK gangs were struggling to offload cash during lockdown has been uncovered by the National Crime Agency | BBC, UK

Opioids in Europe: Preparing for a third wave

European approaches to drug policy include a role for law enforcement, but they have historically opted more than the USA for medical and harm reduction strategies than punitive measures. For example, Europe was quicker to adopt opioid agonist therapy (using methadone, buprenorphine, and—less frequently—heroin/diamorphine itself to treat opioid use disorders). However, concerning signs are emerging of a new wave of synthetic opioid deaths. The curbing of Afghan heroin supply may bring dramatic changes to European drug markets | Brookings, USA

Official Statistics - Health Survey Northern Ireland: First Results 2023/24

First results from the 2023/24 Health Survey Northern Ireland. The survey covers a range of topics including general health, smoking, drinking, mental health and emotional well-being | Department of Health (Northern Ireland) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, UK

North East tops alcohol-related deaths table again

The North East continues to have the highest number of alcohol-related deaths anywhere in England, figures have revealed | BBC, UK

Real terms funding cut and missed opportunities amount to disappointing budget which fails to take Scotland’s alcohol harm emergency seriously

Alcohol Focus Scotland has questioned the Scottish Government’s commitment to addressing Scotland’s alcohol harm emergency following yesterday’s draft Scottish Budget. The charity says that a mix of funding cuts and missed opportunities amount to a disappointingly lacking budget which will miss the mark in tackling alcohol harm | Alcohol Focus Scotland, UK

Trust 'inadequate' after patients smoke on wards

Mental health wards where staff were unable to stop patients smoking and did not know what to do when fire alarms went off have been ordered to "rapidly improve" | BBC, UK

Beyond punishment: From criminal justice responses to drug policy reform

This report exposes how punitive drug policies have driven mass incarceration and grave human rights violations. In 2023 alone, over 3.1 million people were arrested for drug-related offenses, with 20% of the global prison population detained for such crimes - nearly half for simple possession | Global Commission on Drug Policy, Switzerland

Is the BBC institutionally stigmatising?

We recently complained to the BBC about an article that focused on the topic of substance use, mental health, organised crime and shoplifting. Our complaint focused on a range of stigmatising language and tropes in the reporting on the BBC website and Radio 4 Today programme. Key to our concern was that one only person with lived experience of substance use was included in the piece and he was unfairly presented as representative of the majority people who shoplift. We felt this stereotyped both the participant and denied other people their own personal life experiences | AntiStigma Network, UK

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