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Weekly news - 10th May 2024 |
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In date order, Monday to Friday
Deadly opioid found in heroin linked to two deaths
Devon and Cornwall Police declared a major incident on 26 April after two men died and 10 others were admitted to hospital from what officers said was an "unusual batch" of heroin. Tests carried out on the substances found they contained nitazenes, a banned synthetic opioid, the force said | BBC, UK
Evaluation of the 2021–2026 National Mission on Drug Deaths
This document presents the evaluation framework for the PHS evaluation of the Scottish Government's National Mission on Drug Deaths. It sets out the main evaluation questions and explains how PHS will approach the evaluation | Public Health Scotland, UK
SDF releases resources for wound and injecting advice
SDF has released a What Workers Need To Know – Wound Advice booklet, a Wound Advice poster and launched its revised e-learning course ‘How are your sites?’ to help people working in services support people who inject drugs identify and manage injecting wounds and infections | SDF, UK
Drink and Drugs News - May 2024
This month we have strong and interesting articles on women’s services and housing/resettlement and it’s really heartening to hear of the great work going on across the country – with added inspiration from Australia on a thriving therapeutic community. Our contributions are evidence of a dynamic workforce making ‘hard to reach’ an irrelevant term | DDN, UK
Health risks of using cannabis are higher in adolescents than in adults – new study finds
Adolescents appear to be more vulnerable to cannabis use disorder than adults, and it's not because they smoke more or stronger weed | University of Bath, UK
The need for responsible alcohol delivery
The ways we shop for alcohol have changed, with more of us choosing to have alcohol delivered to our homes, our workplaces and elsewhere, instead of, and/or as well as, acquiring alcohol via the traditional means of physical shops, bars and pubs. This trend increased noticeably during the COVID-19 pandemic and has shown few signs of slowing down. Alcohol can now be ordered, online or via telephone, for delivery in as little as 15 minutes and at competitive prices. There had been some research into alcohol delivery in the US and Australia, but no-one had yet investigated the issue in the UK | Alcohol Change UK, UK
Alkyl nitrites: ACMD exemption consideration
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has provided an updated harms assessment of alkyl nitrites | ACMD, UK
Official Statistics: Alcohol Profiles for England: May 2024 update
Update of indicators in the Alcohol Profiles for England interactive tool. This new update now includes data on working years lost which shows: In 2022, there were 151,010 potential working years of life lost in England due to alcohol-related conditions which was an increase of 18.2% from 127,708 in 2016; the rate of potential working years of life lost due to alcohol among males was more than double the rate in females; For both males and females, the rate of potential working years of life lost due to alcohol was highest in the North East region and lowest in the London region | OHID, UK
Tobacco, e-cigarette and alcohol content in popular UK soap operas: a content analysis to explore changes in social norms and scene location
[Open access] Exposure to tobacco and alcohol on-screen promotes use and despite regulations and policies to limit impact, these behaviours remain common. We report a longitudinal analysis of tobacco, e-cigarette and alcohol content in three popular UK television soap operas, to examine changing social norms between 2002 and 2022 | DEPP, UK
The emergence of nitazenes on the Irish heroin market and national preparation for possible future outbreaks
On 9 November 2023, the Health Service Executive Ireland (HSE) was notified of an unusually high pattern of opioid overdoses occurring in Dublin city centre among people attending homeless services. This represented the very early signs of drug market changes and the emergence of N-pyrrolidino protonitazene in Ireland. During the following 5 days there were 57 overdoses among people who use heroin in Dublin city centre, followed by a second outbreak over 6 days in the Cork region in December. Rapid responses helped to protect people who use drugs through an urgent analytical review of samples, mobilization of frontline services to deliver tailored harm reduction measures and ‘Red Alert’ risk communications issued for these regions | Addiction letter, UK
Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) Alerts: Xylazine alert
This alert covers: Recognising and responding to an overdose; information for people who take drugs; actions for high-risk settings; actions for drug and alcohol service staff and actions for emergency service, clinical and healthcare staff | PHS, UK
Latest figures show cost of smoking in England up 25% to at least £21.8 billion
As the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee starts to scrutinise the Bill line-by-line, ASH publishes new calculations by Landman Economics. This shows that the estimated cost of smoking, as quoted by the Government in the Command paper, Stopping the Start, has increased from £17.0 Bn to £21.8 Bn, a rise of 25% | ASH, UK
WithYou launches new charity website to support people facing challenges with drugs, alcohol and mental health
A new website from charity WithYou will encourage more people to seek support with challenges around drugs, alcohol and mental health. During a comprehensive research phase, the charity spoke with its own clients, external stakeholders, staff and other people with lived experience of drugs, alcohol and mental health to enhance the user experience. As a result, the new site features improved functionality, easier access to essential information to help people access support and a modern design | WithYou, UK
Evaluating the impact of minimum unit pricing (MUP) on alcohol sales after 3 years of implementation in Scotland: A controlled interrupted time-series study
[Open access] On 1 May 2018, Scotland introduced minimum unit pricing (MUP), a strength-based floor price below which alcohol cannot be sold, throughout all alcoholic beverages. The legislation necessitates an evaluation of its impact across a range of outcomes that will inform whether MUP will continue beyond its sixth year. We measured the impact of MUP on per-adult alcohol sales (as a proxy for consumption) after 3years of implementation | Addiction, UK