Daily news - 16th November 2015 |
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UK news
Focus on the families
For this hot topic the focus is not on problem drinkers or drug users themselves, but on the welfare of their families - their children, partners, and parents, and what a British report called the “forgotten carers”. Less forgotten certainly than they were, but still under-emphasised in policy and practice | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Effectiveness Bank 2015 user survey
Our user survey is one of the most important ways we and our funders assess the service we provide. The results are critical to its survival and development. Please take a minute or two to give us your feedback | Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK
Cannabis compound could treat kidney failure
Cannabis compounds are being used to tackle kidney failure amongst diabetics in a major new research project | Scotsman, UK
Top drug expert says: the war on drugs is just a war on the poor
Scotland’s war on drugs amounts to a war on the poor, according one of the country's leading authorities on substance abuse | Herald, UK
Chemsex parties, where gay men take drugs and engage in group sex, are being arranged through apps in Liverpool, a doctor has warned
Medic suggests some people have started going to private "chemsex" parties instead of a night out in town and they should be a public health priority | Liverpool Echo, UK
The Dark, Inspiring Story of the London Gangster Who Spent a Million Pounds on Drugs
Last week I spoke to four former London gang members to see if their experiences tallied with the media depiction of the city's gang situation. They were all interesting characters, but one guy in particular struck me as having a story to tell that went way beyond his involvement in gangs | VICE, UK
100 arrested in legal highs crackdown in Southside
A crackdown on legal highs and other drugs in Southside has seen 100 people arrested by police | Edinburgh News, UK
International news
Australians fight back against crystal meth epidemic
Residents in a small New South Wales town nicknamed "Antarctica" say informing on dealers is pushing back the flow of the drug known as "ice" | Telegraph, UK
Major drug seizures likely do not reduce numbers who end up in hospital – study
Researchers examined monthly emergency department presentations for drugs, and monthly arrests and seizures for same drugs in NSW over decade to 2011 | Guardian, UK
Kate Holden: 'There are drugs out there now I don’t even know the names of'
Her drugs and prostitution memoir, In My Skin, has sold 80,000 copies in a decade, but Kate Holden insists it was her ordinariness that gave it power | Guardian, UK
DEA chief faces resignation demands after calling medical marijuana ‘a joke’
Activists have started a petition calling for Chuck Rosenberg's resignation | Independent, UK
Celebrity pot wars: which stars are the real high flyers?
Some stars have come out in favour of weed being legalised in America. For others, the whole issue is a drag… | Guardian, UK
Bucharest: drug users in sewers and squats around Gara de Nord – in pictures
Romania’s capital is in the grip of an epidemic after a steep rise in HIV rates in the past eight years, particularly in underground communities where drug use is rife | Guardian, UK
Meet the Only Doctor in the World Legally Allowed to Use LSD to Treat Patients
It's not hard to get acid in 2015. A lot of people sell it and a lot of people do it. But there's only one man in the world who's legally authorized to offer up a healthy dose of lysergic acid diethylamide | VICE, UK
How do you smuggle 48,000 cans of Heineken into Saudi Arabia? Disguise it as Pepsi
As silly as that sounds, the punishment for smuggling alcohol can be severe | Independent, UK
HIV and young people who inject drugs. Technical brief
This brief aims to catalyse and inform discussions about how best to provide health services, programmes and support for young people who inject drugs. It offers a concise account of current knowledge concerning the HIV risk and vulnerability of young people who inject drugs; the barriers and constraints they face to appropriate services; examples of programmes that may work well in addressing their needs and rights; and approaches and considerations for providing services that both draw upon and build the strengths, competencies and capacities of young people who inject drugs | WHO, Switzerland
Latin America’s Crackdown on Drugs Defies Its Progressive Rhetoric
“We were having dinner—my daughter, grandchild, and me,” says Ramona, a 67-year-old Mexican woman who is serving a sentence of four-and-a-half years in one of Mexico’s most dangerous prisons. “I was lying on the couch watching a soap opera … when I realized that there were several men inside the house yelling at me to hand over the drugs.” | OSF, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
Results of the Opinion Survey on Drug Consumption Rooms (DCRs) for Scotland
Many thanks again to everyone who contributed their opinions for this survey, the results of which I present to you below | Kirsten Horsburgh Blog, UK
How and why I changed my mind on e-cigarettes
I want to see an end to the misery, death, disease and disability caused by tobacco. My dad died (a soldier, miner then bus driver) as a result of it, and my grandfather (a farm labourer then miner all his life) too | Jim McManus Blog, UK
Wreckheads Rejoice! Scottish Labour Just Lost Its War on Buckfast
Fans of Buckfast can sleep easy tonight. A mammoth crusade by Scottish Labour to effectively ban Buckie fell apart this week, after Scottish Government ministers flat out rejected moves from an MSP that would've seen imports of the tonic wine halted at the Scottish border and, presumably, returned to the Devon monks who famously produce it | VICE, UK
We cannot decriminalise drugs without having a proper debate first
Is it true that 82pc of Irish third-level students have tried illegal drugs? That's a massive figure. It comes from a study called the National Student Drug Survey | Independent Opinion, Ireland
Saudi Arabia confiscates Heineken beer at the border: Is it so wrong to want a drink in the modern Middle East?
The company’s latest slogan is 'open your world' - to which the thirsty beer-lovers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates might reasonably respond: if only! | Independent Voices, UK