DS Daily - 1st May 2013 |
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"UK should welcome heroin room" say addicts
Brighton & Hove will today decide whether to open the UK's first drug consumption room. A handful of European cities have drug consumption rooms. Newsbeat's Declan Harvey has visited Frankfurt's biggest one, and spoke with some of the addicts who inject there | BBC, UK
LOOK: Newsbeat visits a Drug Consumption Room
The IDH Frankfurt is the biggest drug consumption room in the city. All day a group of addicts could be seen outside. It's open from 11am - 11pm | BBC, UK
HOT TOPICS for May/June 2013
This latest set of hot topics examines commissioning. Motivational interviewing is a favourite for commissioners looking for evidence-based practice, and the commonly poor mental health of patients is something their services must know how to address. Finally, the preventive promise of contrasting one’s substance use with population norms | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
More children in Scotland losing parents to drug deaths
More than 300 children in Scotland lost a parent or parental figure to a drug-related death in 2011, according to new figures | BBC, UK
The National Drug-related Deaths Database (Scotland) Report 2011 (PDF)
This is the third report from the National Drug Related Deaths Database (NDRDD) for Scotland which presents data for the calendar year 2011. The NDRDD was established to collect detailed information regarding the nature and social circumstances of individuals who have died a drug-related death | NDRDD, UK
Changing trends in fatal polydrug use could reflect increasing mental health issues among users
Changing trends in drug combinations featuring in Scotland’s drug deaths over the past two years may reflect increasing mental health problems among drug users, especially women, according to the National Drug-related Deaths Database (Scotland) Report 2011 published today | SDF, UK
New reduced hours for scottish drug and alcohol helplines from 1 May
New operating hours for the Scottish Government’s Know the Score (Drugs information and advice) and Drinkline Scotland (Alcohol information and advice) free, confidential helplines are to come into force from tomorrow, 1 May | SDF, UK
Rural drug funding cuts opposed by support group
Money to help drug users in parts of rural Wales is being cut by up to a third in a new Welsh government funding formula, a support charity has warned | BBC, UK
Smoking 'poses bigger risk to women'
Smoking may pose a bigger health threat to women than men, say researchers | BBC, UK
PHE Bulletin (PDF)
Welcome to the first issue of PHE Bulletin, Public Health England’s new regular update. PHE Bulletin will be a source of news and information on PHE and the public health landscape for all those concerned with public health | PHE, UK
Should fans be allowed to consume alcohol at football matches?
There has been a ban on the consumption of alcohol in Scottish football grounds since 1980, when violent clashes in the televised Cup Final between Rangers and Celtic forced authorities to outlaw the sale of drink at stadia | STV, UK
BMA urges MEPs to reject challenge to minimum pricing
The BMA is calling on MEPs to think about the public-health impact of alcohol as they consider Scotland’s wish to introduce minimum pricing | BMA, UK
Drugs 2.0, by Mike Power, review
Amid all the debate about Margaret Thatcher’s legacy, one contribution of her premiership to alternative culture was overlooked. In 1986, she presided over the opening of the M25 motorway encircling London, which swiftly became indispensable to eager young entrepreneurs unimagined in any department of business, innovation and skills | Telegraph, UK
Steroids: Concern over illegal production increase in Wales
The number of underground 'steroid labs' in Wales which sell illegal performance-enhancing drugs has risen and is a cause for concern, says Public Health Wales (PHW) | BBC, UK
Britain on the bottle: alcohol and the state - iPlayer radio
In the last decade or so Britain has experienced renewed social and political panic over the consequences of excessive drinking, and the concept of 'alcohol related harms' has entered the language. A coherent policy community has developed, and research has multiplied, around questions of alcohol control. But governments have seemingly been reluctant to listen | BBC, UK
School-based programmes for preventing smoking
Smoking prevention in schools reduces the number of young people who will later become smokers, according to a new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. For young people who have never smoked, these programmes appear to be effective at least one year after implementation | Cochrane Library, UK
Illegal markets
A rough guide to the value of various forms of illegal trade | Economist, UK
£450,000 of cannabis seized in Ahoghill
Cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £450,000 have been seized by police officers after a search of premises in Ahoghill, County Antrim | BBC, UK
Alcohol consumption accounted for 19,500 cancer deaths in the US in 2009
Alcohol, together with tobacco and obesity, is one of the most important modifiable causes of morbidity and premature mortality, and is estimated to account for around 4% of deaths worldwide | Mental Elf, UK
Kosovo: new tobacco control law introduces world’s strongest protection against tobacco industry interference
Kosovo has surged ahead in tobacco control with the introduction of a comprehensive tobacco control law | BMJ Blogs, UK
Irish scientists leading street drug research
Street drugs, such as ecstasy (MDMA) and cannabis, are being examined for their medicinal value | Irish Examiner, Ireland
EU drugs agency to launch European Drug Report 2013
The EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) has reshaped the way in which it reports on Europe’s drugs problem. On 28 May, the agency will present its annual overview of the European drug situation in a new information package designed to be ‘more timely, interactive and interlinked’ Video here | EMCDDA, Portugal
Heroin Overdose Prevention Kits Available To The Public
Overdose Prevention Kits that contain the heroin reversal agent naloxone are now available in Du Page County to anyone over the age of 18 | Chicago Tribune, USA
Specialty courts can be alternative to prison for some
Nicholas Rodriquez did not know Seneka Harrington three years ago, but both of their lives were spinning out of control. They were in serious trouble following arrests on various felony charges | Chicago Tribune, USA
Critique 110: Divergent effects of regular moderate and binge drinking – 30 April 2013
A prospective epidemiologic study relates alcohol consumption measured in young to middle-aged adults to mortality over a follow-up period of 20 years. The analyses are based on data from a large population in a region of Norway where the alcohol drinking pattern most commonly reported was binge drinking on infrequent occasions | Boston University School of Medicine, USA
Synthetic marijuana among top three substances abused by high schoolers
Synthetic marijuana ranked in the top three substances abused by the nation's high school students in 2012, according to a new report compiled by the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland, College Park | Baltimore Sun, USA
Mexico’s Curbs on U.S. Role in Drug Fight Spark Friction
In their joint fight against drug traffickers, the United States and Mexico have forged an unusually close relationship in recent years, with the Americans regularly conducting polygraph tests on elite Mexican security officials to root out anyone who had been corrupted | NY Times, USA
Addict’s Father, Now Advocate
Addiction swallows lives whole, and not only with overdose, illness and concentric cycles of rehab and relapse. A less onerous but still tenacious kind of post-traumatic stress disorder may develop as well, with recovered addicts and their families compulsively reliving the past in private | NY Times, USA
Drugged teenagers 'out of their minds'
Violent and psychotic teenagers high on synthetic cannabis are filling up police cells and hospital emergency departments | Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand
Kingpin jailed for 18 years over record ecstasy haul
John Higgs, a key figure in the world's biggest ecstasy haul where the drugs were hidden in 3000 tinned tomato cans, has been jailed for 18 years | Age, Australia