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Weekly news - 21st March 2025

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In date order, Monday to Friday

Press release: More officers on streets to smoke out illicit tobacco and vapes

More officers trained and funding provided as clampdown on illegal tobacco and vape trade accelerates | Department of Health and Social Care and Ashley Dalton MP, UK

Current and future trends in the consumption, sale and purchasing of alcohol-free and low-alcohol products in Great Britain, 2014 to 2023

[Open access] The UK Government has committed to reducing alcohol consumption by 2025 through increasing the availability of alcohol-free and low-alcohol (no/lo) drinks. This study estimated current and future trends in key indicators of the availability, sale, purchasing and consumption of no/lo products in Great Britain | Addiction, UK

Food matters in the fight against alcohol harm: Alcohol Change UK publishes handbook for alcohol services to help deliver cooking, eating and food sharing activities

A new handbook to support local treatment services with delivering cooking and eating activities for people experiencing alcohol harm has been published by the charity Alcohol Change UK | Alcohol Change UK, UK

Suffolk County Council: Using public health data to reduce alcohol availability and tackle health inequalities

Suffolk’s public health and communities team are using a data-driven approach to review local premises licence applications, focusing their influence on areas with the worst alcohol-related health harms and health inequalities. This work has been welcomed by local partners, including licensing officers and the police, for helping to reduce alcohol-related harm | LGA, UK

National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times

9,429 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 4,727 (50.1%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 3,397 (36.0%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,305 (13.8%) for co-dependency (use of both alcohol and drugs) | Public Health Scotland, UK

How effective are remote and/or digital interventions as part of alcohol and drug treatment and recovery support? A systematic review and meta‐analysis

[Open access] When they add to in-person treatment rather than replace it, remote interventions (delivered by telephone or computer) have a record of reducing relapse, though most findings were vulnerable to bias | Addiction, UK

Ending the sale of tobacco will increase UK jobs

A new study, conducted by Landman Economics on behalf of Action on Smoking and Health and part-funded by the SPECTRUM research consortium, finds an additional bonus to the British economy of creating a smokefree country – supporting the Government’s growth mission | ASH, UK

NHS figures show further drop in spending on dependency-forming medicines

NHS data has shown a further fall in prescribing costs for dependency-forming medicines. A quarterly update from the NHS Business Services Authority showed that while there had been little change in the numbers of items prescribed, costs of the drugs, which include opioid pain medicine, benzodiazepines and gabapentinoids, fell by £2m in October to December 2024 | Pulse Today, UK

[Open access] This study applied a network analysis approach to the study of individual self-reported alcohol-related harms (ARHs) across four waves of data. Interventions aimed at improving the capacity to self-regulate alcohol consumption, and actively challenging the planning of drunken episodes, may be pivotal in reducing the emergence of both acute and chronic ARHs in adolescence | DAD, UK

Some children vaping in class, say teachers

A survey of members of the NASUWT teaching union found most respondents believed vaping continued to be an issue in their school | BBC, UK

People urged to learn about anti-overdose drug

Naloxone is an antidote which can reverse the effects of overdoses of opioids, such as heroin. The Torbay Naloxone Tribe are training people how to inject the drug while also providing them with a free naloxone kit. Torbay Council member Hayley Tranter said they "want everybody in Torbay to know how to administer the medication" | BBC, UK

ASH welcomes progress of historic smoking bill

MPs voted to pass the historic Tobacco and Vapes Bill which will phase out the sale of tobacco to the next generation. 366 MPs from across the house voted in support of the legislation with just 41 voting against | ASH, UK

National Mission on Drugs: Annual Monitoring Report 2023-2024

1,172 people died of a drug death in 2023. Increase of 12% since 2022. Drug deaths are lower than at the start of the National Mission but remain at a high level. Measuring progress towards the improving lives aspect of the National Mission is more challenging | Scottish Government, UK

The impact of drug-related law enforcement activity on serious violence and homicide: A systematic review

This report presents the findings from a systematic literature review on the impact of drug-related law enforcement activity on serious violence and homicide. The report was prepared for the UK Home Office to inform work undertook to implement the Drugs Strategy ‘From Harm to Hope: a 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives’, published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government (HM Government 2021) | RAND Europe, UK

Latest study on Europe's ecstasy market reveals new trends in production and trafficking

Criminal groups in Europe are adapting and expanding MDMA production, refining trafficking methods and extending their reach to new countries and regions. These are among the issues explored in a new analysis — EU Drug Market: MDMA — released by the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) and Europol | EUDA, Portugal

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