Daily news - 25th February 2016 |
 |
UK news
Club Drug Use Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) People (PDF)
This document has been written as part of the wider suite of clinical guidance and tools that aim to provide evidence-based knowledge to inform the management in clinical practice of harms related to the use of ‘club drugs’. It is a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, Guidance on the Clinical Management of Acute and Chronic Harms of Club Drugs and Novel Psychoactive Substances (www.neptune-clinical-guidance.co.uk) | Neptune Project, UK
Women Involved in Prostitution and Multiple Disadvantage (PDF)
The purpose of the good practice briefings is to provide organisations supporting those affected by domestic and sexual violence with information to help them become more sustainable and contribute with making their work more effective | AVA, UK
HMP Ranby report: Legal highs 'could overwhelm prison'
A prison's problems with new psychoactive substances (NPS) have led to high levels of violence, according to a report. [Report here (PDF) ]| BBC, UK
Ranby jail reduces population after inspectors' warning over 'legal highs'
Emergency measures put in place to prevent Nottinghamshire jail being overwhelmed by surge in psychoactive substances | Guardian, UK
Drinking two cups of coffee a day 'drastically reduces risk of liver cirrhosis', according to experts
Four cups a day could lower the risk by 65 per cent, researchers say | Telegraph, UK
HIV support services face closure as councils withdraw funding
Potentially thousands of people with the virus cut adrift at the very time the transmission rate is increasing | Independent, UK
Do e-cigarettes help smokers kick the habit? - slideshare
More than half of people who use e-cigarettes say they turned to vaping to help them stop smoking cigarettes. The latest ONS survey of Adult Smoking Habits in Great Britain 2014 revealed that 53% of the 2.2 million vapers relied on the product to try to quit their nicotine addiction | ONS, UK
Electronic cigarettes: A briefing for stop smoking services
This briefing makes recommendations for stop smoking practitioners and services, provides common questions and suggested answers about e-cigarettes, and summarises the evidence upon which these recommendations are drawn | NCSTC, UK
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Health Education
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve teaching in schools on the risks of drug and alcohol abuse | They Work For You, UK
Liquor Licensing Legislation
Mrs Cochrane asked the Minister for Social Development, following his Department's consultation on the reform of liquor licensing legislation in 2012, whether he intends to implement the changes as outlined in the 'Proposed Changes to the Law Regulating the Sale and Supply of Alcohol in Northern Ireland | They Work For You, UK
SMMGP and National Substance Misuse Non-Medical Prescribing Forum in new partnership
SMMGP announces with pleasure that the National Substance Misuse Non-Medical Prescribing Forum has formalised links with SMMGP in a new partnership to pursue our stated aims to uphold standards of quality as a hallmark of good clinical practice in the field of drug and alcohol treatment | SMMGP, UK
Super-strength drinks removed from stores near Clapham hostel
Super-strength drinks are being taken off the shelves of local stores around Thames Reach's Robertson Street hostel in Clapham after being linked with poor health, anti-social behavior and deaths | Thames Reach, UK
Ealing councillor calls for cannabis to be legalised to help pay for the NHS
Councillor Gary Malcolm, who represents the Southfield ward, wants to see cannabis legalised as a way of moving money out of criminal hands and into the NHS | Get West London, UK
Jail for man who hid prison drugs under stamps
A man has been jailed for sending cannabis to his brother in prison by hiding the drug under postage stamps | BBC, UK
Prison drug smuggler caught after inmate choked on heroin package
A man who smuggled drugs into prison was caught after the inmate he handed them to began to choke on the package, a court heard | BBC, UK
Chemicals dealer 'sold more benzocaine to cocaine gang than GlaxoSmithKlein uses in a year'
Gary King, 26, is accused of selling huge quantities of chemical used as a cutting agent to cocaine dealers | Telegraph, UK
Primary school supply teacher who 'turned up drunk' on first day
Hannah Elizabeth Day slurred her words while reading a story at the school in Liverpool, a disciplinary panel has heard | Independent, UK
International news
Canadian medical marijuana users have right to grow, federal judge rules
Government has six months to appeal decision that restrictions forcing patients to buy cannabis from licensed producers is arbitrary and unconstitutional | Guardian, UK
Six Britons held after police raid on rave in China
UK embassy in Beijing providing consular support to Britons after hundreds of partygoers were detained in Chinese city of Shenzhen | Guardian, UK
Cancer survival rates worse for people in poorer areas, study finds
Cancer Council research shows disadvantages in lower socioeconomic areas include higher drinking and smoking rates and poorer access to healthcare | Guardian, UK
Knowing your limits
The fact that heavy drinking is harmful during pregnancy is widely known but there is still some confusion as to whether any alcohol at all is a good idea when you're expecting | Independent, Ireland
Special Session of the General Assembly UNGASS 2016
Webcast, videos and photos from this year's events | UNODC, Switzerland
Availability of Internationally Controlled Drugs: Ensuring Adequate Access for Medical and Scientific Purposes
"Indispensable, adequately available and not unduly restricted" these are the words used in the international drug conventions to underline the importance of making controlled substances available for medical purposes. INCB is launching the Availability of Internationally Controlled Drugs report today in Vienna. The report is a supplement to the 2015 Annual Report of the INCB and was prepared to follow up on the implementation by Governments of the Board's recommendations contained in the 2010 Availability Report | INCB, USA
Research pinpoints devastating impacts of fetal alcohol syndrome
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are affected by a range of problems, including anxiety, depression, aggression, delinquency and diminished learning capacity a new review of evidence reveals | Science Daily, USA
Ketamine for the difficult-to-sedate ER patient
For the small segment of the emergency population whose acute behavioral disturbance does not respond to traditional sedation, ketamine appears to be effective and safe, according to an Australian study published online last Thursday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Ketamine for Difficult to Sedate Severe Acute Behavioral Disturbance in the Emergency Department") | EurekAlert, USA
Marijuana Legalization 2016: Colorado Tourists More Likely To Visit Hospitals For Cannabis-Related Incidents Than Residents
Hospital emergency rooms in Colorado are treating more tourists for pot-related ailments than state residents, says a new study by the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado | IBTimes, USA
Study Finds Many New York Clubgoers Are Unknowingly Using Bath Salts Instead of MDMA
Four out of ten people are unwittingly taking bath salts and other legal highs thinking they're just taking MDMA, according to a study published last week by New York University | Thump, USA
Ithaca's Plan To Open A Safe Site For Heroin Users Faces Legal Hurdles
If Mayor Svante Myrick wants the injection site to see the light of day, there are major legal hurdles he's going to have to surmount, says Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. The facility needs some kind of authorization or exemption from the state of New York, either by changing state law or as an executive action from the governor. Then Ithaca will need similar exemption at the federal level | NPR, USA
Can Baltimore Provide Addiction Treatment On Demand?
Across the U.S., more than 20 million people abuse drugs or alcohol or both. Only about 1 in 10 is getting treatment | NPR, USA
Lancet review of substance use in young people highlights burden of alcohol among Australian teens; need for more research evidence to tackle the issue
A major global review of substance use in young people, published last week in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, confirms that adolescence is a critical period for developing substance use related problems which can affect later health outcomes, and highlights the need for more research and better prevention and intervention worldwide. In Australia, alcohol made up the largest burden among young people, with males being most affected. Illicit drug use in Australia accounted for more health harms among young people than in any other region of the world | NDARC, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
Should we stigmatise smokers?
Many public health institutions advocate the denormalisation of tobacco use and aim to change social norms around smoking, in an effort to reduce smoking rates and combat the negative effects of tobacco use. These approaches include warning labels and plain tobacco packaging, media campaigns and smoke free policies | Mental Elf, UK
Local alcohol licensing policies associated with reduction in alcohol-related hospital admissions
The hazardous and harmful use of alcohol is a major public health issue. It is estimated that around nine million adults in England drink to potentially harmful levels, and the cost of alcohol misuse to the NHS is around £3.5 billion every year. A further £11 billion per year is spent as a result of alcohol-related crime and £7.3 billion due to lost productivity | Mental Elf, UK
My son takes heroin - Friday 24th February 1967
Research in the United States has shown that drug addiction there is usually an attempt to escape from intolerable social conditions. Most of the mistakes we in Britain are making in handling this problem arise because so much of the American research and experience is accepted as valid here, In fact, young addicts in Britain are usually from "good homes" - comfortable Welfare State homes, including upper and middle class ones where the parents are (within the limits of human frailty) kind and devoted and infinitely well-intentioned | Guardian Archive, UK
Is the Home Office copying and pasting drug arguments from a website?
When you call the Home Office and ask them to comment on a drug story, you always get the same response. They have a boilerplate statement which they stamp on any drug report they can get their hands on. Their drug strategy is working. Use is falling. They will continue to protect hard-working British families from the perils of drugs. You know the line. You've heard it a million times before. It's there at the end of every drugs item in every newspaper: the obligatory Home Office spokesman coda | Politics.co.uk, UK
New Bill That Proposes Amnesty For Drug Users Who Overdose is Just Common Decency
I know it's a bit '[extremely VICE writer voice]' to shout about the benefits of a more liberal approach to drug laws, but you, the faithful readers, are just as complicit in this cliché as me. And the fact of the matter is that the world's moving so slowly towards common sense policy based on harm reduction that the subject continues to be a veritable goldmine for lazy left-leaning opinion hacks | VICE, USA
Opinion: Supervised injection not a panacea
After 14 years of operating in legal purgatory, the Dr. Peter’s supervised injection facility was finally granted an exemption under section 56 of Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the same exemption that allows people to possess illicit drugs at Insite | Vancouver Sun, Canada
A short history of darknet markets and the impact of disruptions along the way
The Drugs and New Technologies project (under the auspices of the Drug Trends program) at the NDARC has been monitoring darknet markets since 2013, and has a long series of data on the size of these markets over time. Data is collected weekly and figures represent snapshots of specific points in time. We monitor larger markets (with 100 or more listings) that are in English language | NDARC Blog, Australia
It’s no guess Leyonhjelm’s tobacco inquiry will recommend reducing the tax
When it comes to tobacco control, you can determine the most effective policies by using the litmus test of how the tobacco industry reacts. This has long been called the “scream test” | Conversation, Australia
Does cannabis cause mental illness?
Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in Australia, with one in three adults using it at some point in their life. It’s legal in some places around the world, and offered medicinally in others. But what does smoking pot do to your mental health? | Conversation, Australia