Daily news - 27th August 2015 |
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UK news
MESAS alcohol sales and price update 2015
This MESAS report updates previously published alcohol sales and price band analyses with 2014 data. It was published as part of NHS Health Scotland’s commitment to monitoring and evaluating Scotland’s alcohol strategy | NHS Health Scotland, UK
National Forum on Drug-Related Deaths response to National Records of Scotland 2014 drug death figures
Reports from almost all parts of Scotland have been suggesting what the NRS and previous National Drug Related Deaths Database findings have confirmed- that outcomes for drug users not engaged in treatment and care are becoming increasingly concerning | SDF, UK
Figures show Dundee is still drug deaths capital of Scotland
The average number of people dying because of drug abuse in Dundee has more than trebled over the last decade, shock statistics have revealed | Courier, UK
Alcohol sales up amid rise in booze-related deaths
The Scottish Government said the statistics reinforced the need for minimum unit pricing to tackle the sale of cheap, strong alcohol | Herald, UK
The two million Britons hooked on painkillers: Prescription drugs acquired from friends, dealers and online are used to get high
The number of people abusing medication doled out by doctors to someone else has reached almost two million. [Harry Shapiro quoted] | Mail Online, UK
The great e-cigarette war
E-cigarettes are far less harmful than tobacco and could be prescribed to help smokers quit, a report in England found. But the Welsh government wants to ban their use in public places. Why are approaches in the neighbouring countries so different? | BBC, UK
Use of electronic cigarettes (vapourisers) among adults in Great Britain (PDF)
Factsheet | ASH, UK
Use of electronic cigarettes among children in Great Britain (PDF)
Factsheet | ASH, UK
Is incense smoke more dangerous than tobacco smoke?
"Incense may need a health warning over 'toxic' smoke, claims research," The Daily Telegraph reports. Analysis of incense smoke, used in both western and Asian religious ceremonies for possibly thousands of years, found it contains many chemicals, some of which may be harmful | NHS Choices: Behind the Headlines, UK
Naloxone legal changes
As a member of the Naloxone Action Group (NAG) England, I have been waiting a year for Regulations to widen the provision of Naloxone, ever since the Department of Health advised that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) would be drafting these. In truth, the wait has been even longer as in 2012 the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recommended "actions for government to take to consider naloxone's role in steps to make an impact on drug-related death rates." | Injecting Advice, UK
Call You and Yours: Are you drinking more than is good for you?
Do you drink more than is good for you? Research suggests that around one in five people over the age of 65 who drink consume unsafe levels of alcohol. There's concern that people can easily slip into a routine | BBC Radio iPlayer, UK
Legal highs: Cases on the rise, say West Midlands paramedics
West Midlands Ambulance Service has had 39 calls regarding a legal high called Black Mamba this month already | Independent, UK
Use of online recovery resources - survey
A survey looking at what online resources people use related to substance use, and at what stage they are in their recovery. The aim of this is to create a document for recovery and health services about what online resources are available for service users and which resources provide the most beneficial outcomes for those at different stages in their recovery | Breaking Free Online, UK
Glasgow victims of drug abuse remembered during overdose awareness week
Relatives and friends of drug abuse victims in Glasgow are remembering lost loved ones during overdose awareness week | Evening Times, UK
Video: Recovered drug addict skydives for Rugby charity that helped him
A Rugby man who has triumphed over a life-long drug addiction faced his fears when he leapt out of a plane this summer | Rugby Advertiser, UK
International news
Amazon trials alcohol delivery in Seattle for Prime Now customers
Amazon is to begin delivering alcohol as part of its Prime Now service | BBC Newsbeat, UK
Mexico lost its war on drugs 75 years ago, author claims
A US ultimatum demanding that Mexico ban previously legal narcotics ‘forced addicts and producers to take up arms’ | Independent, UK
Smoking cessation in opioid dependent patients - survey
We are delighted to invite you to participate in our new research-based 'brief encounters' free CME programme in collaboration with PCM Scientific Medical Education Team and the European Opiate Addiction Treatment Association (EUROPAD). The activity is designed to address the well-documented gap in the management of smoking among opioid-dependent patients, a much-underestimated cause of significant harms in this patient group, through a series of brief educational encounters | Europad, Italy
Do Icelanders really smoke more cannabis than anyone else?
Earlier this week the Daily Mail ran a story with the headline, Forget Amsterdam! Iceland smokes the most cannabis“. According to the story the reason is that attitudes to cannabis smoking in Iceland are very liberal and its use tolerated by the authorities | Iceland Magazine, Iceland
New Documentary Makes The Case For Supervised Heroin Injection Sites In New York
"If we don't come up with a plan, we're going to lose a lot of human life." | Huffington Post, USA
Cannabis and the brain, two studies, one editorial examine associations
Two studies and an editorial published online by JAMA Psychiatry examine associations between cannabis use and the brain | Medical Xpress, USA
Artist Used LSD And Drew Herself For 9 Hours To Show How It Affects Brain
Countless artists have experimented with the effect drugs have on their work. User whatafinethrowaway, inspired by the “Nine Drawings” series which was the result of an experiment by the US government in the 1950’s, asked her friend to draw self-portraits while on LSD. The friend took 200µg of LSD and drew 11 self-portraits over nine-plus hours | Bored Panda, USA
Marijuana Legalization 2015: Is It Time For The Cannabis Industry To Grow Up And Go To College?
It's a university far off the radar of the Princeton Review annual college rankings -- yet it boasts more than 25,000 graduates, all lured by the promise of careers in the rapidly-growing cannabis industry. Through sheer force of academia, marijuana-centric Oaksterdam University in Oakland, California, is determined to foster a sense of legitimacy in a line of business that struggles with stigma | IBTimes, USA
Botanists conduct first large-scale genetic study of marijuana, hemp
A study by Canadian researchers is providing a clearer picture of the evolutionary history and genetic organization of cannabis, a step that could have agricultural, medical and legal implications for this valuable crop | EurekAlert, USA
Illicit Version Of Painkiller Fentanyl Makes Heroin Deadlier
Angelo Alonzo, a resident of Portland, Maine, says he nearly died last month after injecting what he believed to be a safe dose of heroin — the same amount he's taken before. But this time, he says, the drug knocked him to his knees | npr, USA
One in four hepatitis C patients denied initial approval for drug treatment
Nearly one in four patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV) are denied initial approval for a drug therapy that treats the most common strain of the infection, according to a Yale School of Medicine study | Medical Xpress, USA
National Drug Policy 2015 to 2020 (PDF)
Minimise alcohol and other drug-related harm and promote and protect health and wellbeing | Beehive.Govt.nz, New Zealand
Speech for the Release of the 2015-2020 National Drug Policy
Good afternoon and welcome to the launch of the new National Drug Policy | Scoop.co.nz, New Zealand
'Holistic' approach to govt drug plan
The Government is going to take a wider approach to the harm caused by alcohol and drugs | 3 News.co.nz, New Zealand
Blogs, comment and opinion
Offer support not stigma
With the Black review looking at alcohol, drugs, obesity and welfare (including the possibility of sanctioning the benefits) it is hard not to see this as an outrageous attempt to stigmatise people whose lives are often difficult enough. Many have recognised physical and mental health conditions underlying their drug, alcohol and obesity | Blenheim Blog, UK
Young adults are using more Ecstasy and legal highs
Last year’s Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) found an increase in the proportion of people using illegal drugs. This finding was in the context of a steady drop in levels of drug use over the previous 15 years and it wasn’t clear whether the rise was merely a blip or the start of a new upwards trend | Russell Webster, UK
Alternatives to punishment for drug using offenders
Different countries have been targeting the criminal justice system as a way of trying to engage drug users into treatment and prevent very high levels of crime for the last 40 years or so | Russell Webster, UK
Tobacco and schizophrenia - campfire discussion
How can we best explain the comorbidity of smoking and schizophrenia? Is it a shared aetiology? Is tobacco a way of self-medicating and relieving schizophrenia symptoms? Or, as recent studies suggest, is tobacco a risk factor for schizophrenia? In this campfire, Prof Marcus Munafò (Professor of Biological Psychology at the University of Bristol) will present his analysis of recent research, which supports the possibility that smoking may be a causal risk factor for schizophrenia | Mental Elf, UK
SMS texting to quit smoking: a meta-analysis of text messaging interventions for smoking cessation
The efficacy of different smoking cessation interventions is always a hot topic around our woodland campfire. We’ve blogged previously about the effectiveness of both pharmacological and psychological treatments for smoking cessation, as well as their effectiveness among different populations of smokers | Menal Elf Blog, UK
Comment: The government's response to the cannabis petition is fatuous, dishonest and misleading
Over 203,000 people have signed the petition on the government’s website to "make the production, sale and use of cannabis legal". All petitions that pass 100,000 signatures are considered for a debate in the House of Commons and when MPs return from their summer break, the petitions committee will have a hard time refusing a debate on a petition that has double the required threshold | Politics.co.uk, UK
Are the drug warriors ready to surrender?
A number of political leaders have come forward to decry mass incarceration and drug war policies. But the real question is what they will do about it | Socialist Worker, UK
Emotional health: the biggest issue of our time for children and young people
PSHE Association Chief Executive Joe Hayman reflects on recently published surveys offering insight into the lives of children and young people growing up in Britain today | Politics Home, UK
Alcoholism in Communist Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia had a problem with alcoholism. Or at the very least, that’s what the country’s psychiatrists generally thought. During the Communist era (from the end of the WWII through to the country’s collapse in 1991), leading Yugoslav physicians routinely warned about the population’s rapid descent into widespread alcoholism | Points: The blog of the alcohol and drugs history society, USA