Daily news - 1st February 2016


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UK news

Public calls for lower drink drive limit as Lords debate road safety law

29 January 2016: Research released today shows an overwhelming majority (77%) of the British public support lowering the drink drive legal limit, which would bring England and Wales in line with Scotland and the rest of the EU. The polling data, from the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, is published the same day the House of Lords will debate a Private Members Bill to lower the legal limit | Alcohol Health Alliance UK, UK

Road Traffic Act 1988 (Alcohol Limits) (Amendment) Bill [HL]

Second reading, House of Lords at 10:56 am on 29th January 2016 | They Work For You, UK

Films portraying smoking should get adult rating, says WHO

Cigarette companies are turning to film industry to recruit next generation of smokers, warns World Health Organisation | Guardian, UK

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

Department of Health written question – answered on 28th January 2016 | They Work for You, UK

Psychoactive Substances Bill (HL)

Home Office written question – answered on 28th January 2016 | They Work For You, UK

Prison officers 'hallucinate and go hysterical' after inhaling inmates' legal highs

'We had an officer who we believe was exposed to it, during the night he said he got a fierce burning sensation in his head which felt like his head was covered with nits'  | Independent, UK

How Harmful Is Alcohol? - iPlayer radio

New alcohol guidelines were issued recently which lowered the number of units recommended for safe drinking. But are the benefits and harms of alcohol being judged correctly? We speak to Professor David Speigelhalter | BBC Radio 4 iPlayer, UK

Concern over budgets for local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships in 2016-17

The Scottish Government draft budget published in December included a reduction in the combined drug and alcohol funding from £69.2 million in the current financial year to £53.8 million in 2016-17 | SDF, UK

Teenagers using untraceable currency Bitcoin to buy dangerous drugs online

Fears have been raised as children as young as 14 are getting parcels of legal highs delivered to their home | Mirror, UK

East Lancashire drug 'overdose' deaths investigated

Three men have died of suspected overdoses in East Lancashire after taking heroin, police have said | BBC, UK

Man's death in Bristol 'linked to legal high' drug

A man has died in Bristol after it is believed he took the legal high commonly known as "Spice", police said | BBC, UK

Heroin warning following two suspected drug-related deaths in Swansea

Police have issued an appeal for individuals and family and friends of anyone using heroin to seek advice following two suspected drugs-related deaths in Swansea | ITV, UK

E-cigarette ban won't apply in some pubs and bars under new Welsh Government plans

Health minister Mark Drakeford has laid out for the first time a list of places where the indoor vaping ban would apply | Wales Online, UK

Car smoking ban 'not being enforced' in South East

Drivers in the South East are escaping penalties under a new law banning smoking in cars with children present | BBC, UK

Tenants to face eviction for using legal highs

Officials at the YMCA in Hanley and the Salvation Army in Stoke will also be warning people looking to secure a room they face eviction if caught taking the psychoactive substances | Stoke Sentinel, UK

Scarborough’s Cambridge Centre merges with DISC

People who receive help from the Scarborough-based Cambridge Centre charity have been reassured that the services they use will continue unaffected as it merges with a larger charity this week | DISC, UK

Arrests over £618,000 cannabis find in Springburn garage

Two men have been arrested after police seized drugs with a street value of about £618,000 from a garage in Glasgow | BBC, UK

 

International news

Synthetic drugs death: police say using is 'a gamble with your life'

A teenager dies and two men are left seriously ill after using synthetic cannabis in the Hunter Valley | Guardian, UK

Six charged with drug offences after raids across Melbourne

Police say they have charged an alleged crime boss with trafficking and possessing meth and cocaine, having a gun and handling proceeds of crime | Guardian, UK

Warning about risks of drug tests in clubs

The testing of illicit drugs in clubs would need to be underpinned by quality control, a symposium in Dublin was told yesterday | Independent, Ireland

‘Arrest of right dealer can have major impact’, says senior Garda

As up to 50 street-level drug dealers were charged yesterday, a senior garda said the arrest of the right supplier can have a major effect on communities | Irish Examiner, Ireland

“I had a 14-day detox that sent me into horrible withdrawals… but I still went back to heroin”

Paul started snorting heroin aged 18. What followed was over 20 years of serious drug abuse before he finally decided to get clean | Journal, Ireland

Benzaldehyde Common in E-Cig Vapors

Vapers who choose "cherry" as their electronic cigarette flavor of choice inhale higher levels of the chemical benzaldehyde than those who choose other flavors, researchers report | MedPage Today, USA

Tragedy Moves A Community To Combat Drug Addiction

When it comes to fighting addiction, they say you have to hit bottom. For Rutland, Vt., a town of 17,000 devastated by heroin, the bottom came in September 2012 | npr, USA

Is cannabis addictive? Are there treatments? Answers in New journal's roundtable discussion

What are the symptoms, risks, and health consequences of "cannabis use disorder," and what is the status of current research efforts to identify effective treatments for cannabis addiction? | EurekAlert, USA

Marijuana survey finds medical users more likely to consume edibles and vaporize

A new study provides some of the first evidence about patterns of marijuana use in states that have legalized medical marijuana. It finds that medical marijuana users are more likely to vaporize or consume edible forms of the drug than recreational users. Researchers also found that 41 percent of people reported having used marijuana recreationally at least once, while only about 7 percent reported using marijuana for medical purposes | Science Daily, USA

New policies, educational programs help, but don't solve, problems with opioid abuse

Medical provider training, new clinic policies and efforts to 'taper' opioid use for pain treatment could significantly reduce the level of opioid medication that patients used -- a limited but positive step for a nation enmeshed in opioid use, abuse and overdose deaths | Science Daily, USA

Brief school-based interventions and behavioural outcomes for substance-using adolescents

Brief interventions have been shown to reduce problematic substance use among adolescents and are especially useful for individuals who have moderately risky patterns of substance use. Such interventions can be conducted in school settings. This review set out to evaluate the effectiveness of brief school-based interventions for adolescent substance use | Cochrane Library, USA

E-cigarettes 'poison the airways and weaken the immune system'

Electronic cigarettes expose the lungs to toxicity, reduce the effectiveness of the immune system and encourage bacterial activity, potentially making superbugs more deadly, according to research published in the Journal of Molecular Medicine | MNT, UK

The dose makes the poison: Opioid overdose study supports call for caution in Rx levels

When it comes to prescription painkillers, the difference between controlling pain and dying from an overdose may come down to how strong a prescription the doctor wrote, according to a new study in veterans | EurekAlert, USA

Police issue synthetic cannabis warning as teen dies, two more critically ill

A lethal batch of synthetic cannabis is suspected of contributing to the death of a youth in the Hunter Valley region and causing two others to become critically ill in a neighbouring suburb | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia

Pressure mounts to introduce drug amnesty bins at festivals

Drug disposal bins should be introduced at music festivals so revellers can discard illicit substances without fear of being caught by sniffer dogs, health promotion groups say | Age, Australia

Pharmacists in new bid to stop codeine prescription push

Pharmacists are rolling out a new reporting system for codeine-based painkillers such as Panadeine and Nurofen Plus in a fresh bid to convince drug regulators there is no need to make them prescription-only | Age, Australia


 

Blogs, comment and opinion

Drug and alcohol services cut would be a terrible false economy

According to the Scottish Government a cut to direct funding for drug and alcohol services is merely a bureaucratic measure. The Scottish Government wants all such services to fall under health, to be better coordinated and to ensure uniform high standards | Herald Opinion, UK

Does teenage cannabis use lower intelligence?

Although in recent years the number of young people (16 – 24 yrs old) using cannabis has declined, cannabis remains the most commonly used illicit drug, with up to 1 in 6 young people having used the drug in the last year (Home Office 2015) | Mental Elf, UK

What Happens to Your Body and Brain When You Combine Different Drugs?

People don't often take their drugs in isolation. In fact, polysubstance use—a grand term for "getting fucked up with more than one drug"—tends to be the norm rather than the exception for most drug users | VICE, UK

This is what it's like to give up coffee and alcohol

One man documented what he learned after he quit coffee and booze | Independent, UK

Does the British Public Really Want These Drugs Legalised?

According to a recent YouGov poll, a number of British people support the legalisation of illicit drugs, including Class A drugs like Cocaine, Ecstasy and even Heroin | Diversity in Care Blog, UK

A new deal on drugs is as vital as a climate change accord

A forthcoming UN summit is the opportunity for a radical approach to curbing the drugs trade | Guardian, UK

US drug overdose deaths: a global challenge

On Jan 19, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new country-level estimates showing unprecedented rates of drug overdose deaths, with 47 055 deaths in the USA in 2014. Since 2000, the age-adjusted drug overdose death rate has more than doubled, from 6·2 per 100 000 population in 2000 to 14·7 per 100 000 in 2014 | Lancet, UK

Is alcohol a necessary element of student life?

We need to have a discussion on how the promotion and consumption of alcohol is impacting our health | Irish Times, Ireland

Dangerous Treatment and the Science of Safety

We are concerned about the dangers of addiction as never before. For good reason–the opioid epidemic has become an overdose epidemic| Addiction & Recovery News Blog, USA