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Consumption rooms among ‘key interventions’ to prevent infections, says EMCDDA
[…] rooms, the other five key interventions are listed as sterile injecting equipment, voluntary and confidential infectious disease testing, infectious disease treatment, opioid agonist treatment – including in prisons – and finally, vaccinations against hep A and B, respiratory infections, tetanus, and the pneumococcal and the human papillomavirus vaccines for people living with HIV who inject […]
Why isn’t more being done to tackle hep C?
[…] definitely getting themselves in order and they do seem to understand that hepatitis C needs to be a priority – they’re certainly looking to really improve things in prisons, for example. When it comes to drug services, the report calls on them to establish peer support programmes and encourage testing, among other measures – does he […]
Muted response to first ungass since 1990s
The world needs global drug policies that ‘put people first’, UNODC executive director Yury Fedotov told the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs in New York, although many campaigning organisations have expressed disappointment at the event’s outcomes. The session, the first since 1998, was originally scheduled for 2019 but was brought forward following […]
The state we’re in
Paul Anders shares some key findings from, and the thinking behind, the Recovery Partnership’s State of the sector 2013 report. Drug treatment in the UK is regarded as world class – effective, evidence-based and supported by a wealth of data, with figures from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) showing how far the sector […]
COVID fails to dent ‘resilient’ European drug market
The European drug market has ‘continued to adjust’ to disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, says EMCDDA’s European drug report 2021: trends and developments. Traffickers in a ‘resilient and more digitally enabled’ market have adapted to border closures and travel restrictions, as reflected in changes to trafficking routes and less reliance on human couriers. While street […]
Making pathways for commissioning
Commissioners are on a mission to do things better. But how can they take on board the many complex health issues with less money in the pot? DDN reports. There’s much talk of developing innovative commissioning practice – prompted, in the main, by the need to ‘do more with less’. As part of the refining […]
Tailored treatment needed for prescription drug misuse, says ACMD
Prescription-only drugs are being widely diverted to supplement the use of illegal substances, according to a new report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). However, diversion and illicit supply remains a ‘much smaller problem’ than in the US, it states. Diverted prescription drugs are supplementing, rather than replacing, the use of […]
The new government drug strategy: a moment of recovery?
The Forward Trust’s Chief Executive Mike Trace welcomes the promise of investment in the addiction treatment sector but explains there is work to do to make sure this reverses the declines of the last 10 years. On Monday 6th December, the government launched a new 10 year drug strategy. This follows a couple of years of […]
Psychoactive Substances Bill
[…] penalties to many otherwise law abiding’ people. Closing ‘headshops’ could also simply displace the market, he says, while those in charge of clubs, festivals, pubs or even prisons could be liable to prosecution. The ACMD says it is willing to work with the government to draw up lists of substances to be included and […]
Home truths
Lack of stable accommodation makes it almost impossible to recover from substance issues. In the third of our latest commissioning series, we look at strong partnerships across the homelessness and substance misuse sectors. If it’s possible to draw any positives at all from the COVID pandemic, one might be that it demonstrated what proper joined-up […]
Letters, May 2016
Bull at a gate The ‘raging bull’ cover (March issue and Colin Miller-Hoare’s letter, April, page 12) was exactly what was needed to express the current state of the sector – a perfect expression of the passion and dedication that is evident, and indeed needed, to maintain our position in the current arena. Personally I’m […]
News in brief
Voicing concerns Public Health England (PHE) has not yet ‘found its voice’, developed a clear set of priorities or demonstrated that it is sufficiently independent of the Department of Health, according to a report from the Health Committee. There was now an ‘urgent need’ for PHE to show it could ‘speak truth unto power’, said […]
Stronger Together
Mike Trace sets out the vision for the newly merged Forward Trust and Action on Addiction.
Media Savvy
[…] schizophrenic or an alcoholic, defined by their diagnosis. Elizabeth Romer, BMJ, 12 February You can tell the state of a society, said Alexis de Tocqueville, by its prisons. Today you tell it by its attitude to drugs. Ten years ago the Labour government recklessly upgraded cannabis from class C to class B, ‘because of concerns […]
Pharmacists allowed to dispense methadone without prescription
Pharmacists are to be allowed to give out methadone, buprenorphine and other medicines containing controlled substances such as opioids or barbiturates without a prescription during the COVID-19 pandemic. The home secretary wrote to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) earlier this month asking them to urgently review emergency measures that would ‘ensure […]
Drug-driving arrests
Monthly drug-driving arrests top 400 More than 400 people a month are being arrested for drug driving in England and Wales, according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). The figure is based on statistics obtained from every police force area by IAM under a Freedom of Information request. More than 900 arrests were made […]
More choice, more options
New versions of drugs are constantly being developed and trialled, including injections of naltrexone and buprenorphine that can last up to six months, as well as a rapidly dissolving buprenorphine wafer, now approved in the UK as Espranor. It hasn’t always been the case, but opioid substitution therapy is now accepted as a key instrument […]
DDN Magazine October 2019
More than my past For a long time now we’ve been involved in initiatives to help remove barriers for those seeking to get back into work (page 6 and page 12). Remember the UKDPC’s work on tackling stigma and getting people who have used drugs back into employment? Remember the old heated debates in DDN […]
Fighting response
A Calderdale-based service is combining treatment provision with hosting an emerging recovery community. Michelle Foster explains the ‘warrior down’ concept I took a call from a friend in December, who had been contacted by the desperate mother of a 43-year-old daughter. The daughter, who we’ll call Rachel, had been out of a residential rehab for […]
Speaker Biographies
Steve Brinksman, GP Dr Steve Brinksman has been a GP in Birmingham for the past 20 years and is the clinical lead for the Substance Misuse Management in General Practice network (SMMGP), working alongside drug and alcohol users since the start of his career. He is also DDN magazine’s regular ‘Post-its from Practice’ […]
Dame Carol Black Review – Next Steps
Dame Black has spoken loud and clear. How policy makers respond will be crucial.
The main man
[…] the time. And it won’t be the Richard Bransons and the Russell Brands who’ll be using, it will be people who are in and out of our prisons and our psychiatric hospitals, it will the most vulnerable people who are most likely to succumb. I also fear the market may escalate very quickly, like […]
DDN010609
[…] waiting times from an average of nine weeks to two weeks were phenomenal, and the treatment penetration we have now â both in the community and in prisons â is unrivalled in the world. We forget sometimes how easy it is for people in this country to get free drug treatment especially for heroin […]
Room at the table?
[…] show off we’re in recovery,’ he said. ‘It’s important we change people’s view of what recovery’s about.’ Having an acceptance of the recovery culture was ‘crucial’ in prisons, said RAPt’s chief executive, Mike Trace. RAPt’s answer to building recovery communities was to have large peer networks, he said, supporting people to make the emotional […]
Prison Admin Support Volunteer
Do you have good administrative and interpersonal skills? Would you like to give 1 to 2 days of your time to help a Charity? This role is ideal for individuals who would like to make a difference by using their skills to support a leading Rehabilitation Charity and/or build a CV The Administration Volunteer will […]
A participant’s view: Highlights from the GPs’ conference
Lee Collingham shares his highlights from the GPs’ conference on managing drug and alcohol problems Dr Stephen Willott, clinical lead for alcohol and drug misuse at NHS Nottingham City and conference chair, introduced the event’s theme as addressing drug-related deaths, which not only continue to rise in England but are twice the European average. It […]