Daily news - 30th June 2016 |
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UK news
Taking away the chaos: The health needs of people who inject drugs in public places in Glasgow city centre (PDF)
2015 saw a significant HIV outbreak among people who inject drugs in Glasgow, with 47 new diagnoses compared to a previous annual average of 10. New cases continue to occur. Initial investigations suggested a link between the outbreak and injecting in public places in the city centre, with the majority of cases interviewed reporting this risk factor | NHS Glasgow and Clyde, UK
Case examined for drug injecting area in Glasgow city centre
A substance abuse group is to explore the case for opening an injecting facility for drug users in Glasgow | BBC, UK
You and Yours: Legal highs ban, Stamp duty confusion, Shopping local - iPlayer broadcast at 12.15 today
Earlier this year so-called legal highs were hit with a nationwide blanket ban. It's now an offence to produce, sell, import or export new psychoactive substances and anyone convicted can get up to seven years in prison. When the new Bill was introduced there were fears it would create a black market with the drugs still being sold on the streets. Now, some charities say that's exactly what's happening. The charity Changing Lives in Newcastle says they're still being sold despite the ban, affecting the most vulnerable people. The Home Office says arrests are being made and many head shops, selling the drugs, have now closed down | BBC radio 4, UK
Are take-home naloxone programmes effective? Systematic review utilizing application of the Bradford Hill criteria
[Now open access] Take-home naloxone provision directly to opioid users for emergency use has been implemented recently in more than 15 countries worldwide, albeit mainly as pilot schemes and without formal evaluation. This systematic review assesses the effectiveness of take-home naloxone, with two specific aims: (1) to study the impact of take-home naloxone distribution on overdose-related mortality; and (2) to assess the safety of take-home naloxone in terms of adverse events | Addiction, UK
Tobacco industry shrinking thanks to smoking bans
Smoking bans are not only shrinking tobacco firm’s market at home but limiting their ability to invest in markets abroad, according to new research | University of Warwick, UK
Management of alcohol screening and brief interventions
Third part of the fortnightly course on the evidence for alcohol treatment. Selects, explores and explains seminal and key research on the influence of how screening and brief interventions are managed | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Psychoactive Substances Act Briefing (PDF)
Complete guide to the Act and its application | KFx, UK
Hepatitis: Drugs
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether procurement exercises have taken place to reduce the prices paid by the NHS for new hepatitis C medicines | They Work for You, UK
Alcohol Consumption Guidelines
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alan. I am delighted to have secured this topical and timely debate following the conclusion of the public consultation on the proposed new guidelines on alcohol consumption | They Work for You, UK
Euro 2016 boosts supermarket sales as football fans stock up on booze
Euro 2016 helped supermarkets to their first sales increase in over a year, new monthly data shows | Independent, UK
Trips and Traps: Psychedelics Seek Legitimacy in the World of Modern Medicine
For anyone tracing the fortunes of psychedelic research, the last few years have been a whirlwind ride. Once considered a great hope for psychiatry, this line of enquiry came to an abrupt end in the 1960s – a casualty of anti-hippie sentiment and the ‘war on drugs’. More recently, though, we seem to have come full circle, with a new wave of scientists and thinkers picking up where their predecessors left off | Volte Face, UK
Sex and drugs off limits for undercover police
Undercover police officers can never be authorised to start sexual relationships with those they are targeting under official guidelines published for the first time. The instructions, in an 80-page document, also state that taking drugs cannot be approved as a tactic for covert units | Guardian, UK
Is Plymouth turning its back on drugs?
The number of drug seizures by Plymouth police have plummeted over the past year, The Herald has learned | Plymouth Herald, UK
Noah Serra-Morrison death: Cannabis joint photographed behind baby's ear
A mother accused of murdering her baby boy had a photograph of him with a cannabis joint behind his ear, a jury heard | BBC, UK
Three men held after Isle of Man ferry cannabis seizure
Three men from the north west of England have been arrested after drugs with a street value of £15,000 were seized at the Isle of Man Sea Terminal | BBC, UK
International news
Rooms with a view to giving ice addicts a future
Two leading drug reformers want drug consumption rooms to include inhalation rooms for those who smoke illicit substances such as ice, crack and heroin | Guardian, UK
California to vote on legalising marijuana for recreational purposes
By next year, the Golden State could be the world's largest legal marijuana market | Independent, UK
Jamaica proposes marijuana dispensers for tourists at airports following legalisation
The kiosks and desks would give people a license to purchase up to 2 ounces of the drug to use during their stay | Independent, UK
The Phillippines' new president is already making good on his promise to kill drug dealers
The bodies of dozens of suspected drug peddlers have turned up in the Philippines in recent weeks, providing an eerie backdrop to the swearing-in on Thursday of Rodrigo Duterte, who has warned of a bloody presidency in his bid to eradicate crime | Business Insider, UK
Ex-Honduras president's son and police allegedly conspired to bring drugs to US
US prosecutors say officers ensured the safe passage of cocaine by capitalizing on bribes along with leaked information about investigations and checkpoints | Guardian, UK
Consultation process ‘is due’ on drugs strategy
Minister of State in the Department of Health Catherine Byrne will shortly be announcing details of the consultation process on the new National Drugs Strategy, which is intended to be “broad, comprehensive and inclusive” | IMT, Ireland
Stepping Up to the Opioid Crisis
US surgeon general urges clinicians to be leaders in ending addiction | Harvard Medical School, USA
Cannabinoids remove plaque-forming Alzheimer's proteins from brain cells
Salk Institute scientists have found preliminary evidence that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other compounds found in marijuana can promote the cellular removal of amyloid beta, a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer's disease | Medical Xpress, USA
Greater alcohol use may reduce heart attacks, increase atrial fibrillation
In a study of Texas counties either permitting or prohibiting the sale of alcohol, researchers at UC San Francisco have found residents of permitting counties had fewer heart attacks, but increased atrial fibrillation (AF) | Medical Xpress, USA
"Drunkorexia" Linked To Both Eating and Substance Use Disorders
Researchers from the University of Kansas have found that “drunkorexia,” a behavior pattern of repeatedly fasting or purging to compensate for the amount of calories consumed during binge drinking, may be linked to both eating disorders and substance abuse disorders | Psychiatry Advisor, USA
Drunkorexia 101: Increasing Alcohol’s Effects Through Diet and Exercise Behaviors
While many people view college drinking as the norm, less understood is that how students drink can place them at a higher risk for multiple problems. A growing trend among college drinkers is called “drunkorexia,” a non-medical term that refers to a combination of alcohol with diet-related behaviors such as food restriction, excessive exercising, or bingeing and purging | Science Daily, USA
E-cigarette vapors could be toxic to mouth, study finds
A new UCLA study suggests that e-cigarettes may not be significantly safer than tobacco cigarettes. The research, which was conducted on cultured cells, found that e-cigarettes contain toxic substances and nanoparticles that could kill the top layer of skin cells in the oral cavity. Based on their findings, the researchers believe that similar results could happen in a human study and that e-cigarettes could increase users' risk for oral disease | Medical Xpress, USA
Drug abuse program explores problems such as racism, incarceration
The creators of a novel substance abuse treatment program have received an infusion of funding from a federal agency for an expanded study of their intervention, which targets marginalized populations who struggle with problems such as racism, sexism, poverty and histories of incarceration | Medical Xpress, USA
Could Supervised Injections Help San Francisco's Homeless Drug Users?
Cities across the U.S. are pondering legalized, sterile street-drug injection sites to fight the overdose epidemic | City Lab, USA
But what do THEY think? Social norms about college drinking
Social norms are rules and ideas that describe what people consider acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Some norms are injunctive norms – perceptions of what other people approve and disapprove of | BASIS, UK
Drug experts plan Australia's first ice smoking room despite Government opposition
Drug law reformers Matt Noffs and Dr Alex Wodak are pushing ahead with Australia's first supervised ice smoking room, in a move which directly contradicts the NSW Government's stance on such a centre | ABC News, Australia
Herald Sun: ‘Real improvements’ in drinking culture among Australians in their 20s, lowest level since the 1960s
An analysis of the drinking habits of 124,440 Australians aged 14-79 years across 18 years, shows Australia’s per capita alcohol consumption is at its lowest level since the 1960s | VAADA, Australia
The Psychiatry of 'Breaking Bad' - Raj Persaud talks to Professor Michael Farrell - video
Raj Persaud interviews Professor Michael Farrell on crystalline methamphetamine | Raj Parsaud, Australia
Meth crackdown: Police get increased stop-and-search powers on country roads
Tough laws designed to strangle the flow of meth into WA will be introduced in State Parliament today, including increased stop-and-search powers for police on country roads | West Australia, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
The latest global drug trends
The Global Drug Survey is becoming an increasingly important fixture in the drugs calendar. It serves a very different purpose from, for example, the EMCDDA European Drugs Report, or the Crime Survey for England and Wales | Russell Webster, UK
How can we rebuild public trust in charities?
There’s no way to sugar-coat this: the public trust in charities has fallen. Today we’ve published the latest research in our series tracking public trust and confidence in charities since 2005. It shows public trust and confidence in charities has fallen from 6.7 in 2014 to 5.7 this year (where 10 is complete confidence and 0 is none) | Charity Commission Blog, UK
Gïk Live – the wine that really could make you feel blue in the face
Blue curaçao, blue vodka, blue gin, now there is blue-pigmented wine. But why? We explore the psychology of weirdly coloured booze | Guardian, UK
Turkey’s opium trade: successfully transitioning from illicit production to a legally regulated market
Turkey’s move from illicit to licit opium production for medicinal use demonstrates that an orderly transition, with a range of benefits for the producer country, is possible in places with the institutional capacity to deliver the right regulatory framework | Transform Blog, UK
Marijuana Liberalization Policies: Science Doesn’t Have Your Answers Yet
“Hello?” I warily answered a call from an unknown number as I left a lecture I had just delivered on youth and marijuana policies. “Have you ever smoked pot?” came the voice of a reporter who had just taken one of my business cards | Huffington Post Blog, USA
And finally...
Euro 2016: Drunk Englishman breaks into French police officer's house - thinking it's his rented apartment
Dane Robertson, a 25-year-old graduate from Peterborough, used a fire extinguisher to make his presence known before a brief struggle at the doorway with a person he believed to be an intruder of his Airbnb apartment in Nice | Independent, UK