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No apparent link between ‘toughness’ of drug laws and use, says Home Office report
[…] Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the US and Uruguay, looking at a range of issues including decriminalisation of possession for personal use, consumption rooms, heroin-assisted treatment, drug courts and supply-side regulation of cannabis. ‘Without exception, every country we considered sees drug use as undesirable,’ says the document, and while all were […]
A Sure Start
[…] Overdose Attitudes Scale (OOAS), a validated measure of overdose management competency. 6. Reading material: app users have free access to the book The Everyday Lives of Recovering Heroin Users, based on the lived experiences of people in recovery. • Ed Day is national drug recovery champion and clinical reader in addiction psychiatry at University […]
Afghan opium cultivation drops by 95 per cent
[…] the emergence of harmful alternatives, such as fentanyl and other synthetic opioids’. The experience of the US demonstrates how easily cheaper and readily available alternatives can displace heroin, the report states. ‘The emergence of fentanyl and other potent synthetic opioids has shown that markets can transform; heroin shortages could lead to increased infiltration of […]
Getting Engaged
[…] anyone has come so far has been the establishment of a ‘safe consumption’ van in Glasgow, which has made national headlines despite technically operating outside the law. Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) – widely accessible in the UK until 1967’s Dangerous Drugs Act put paid to it, and available elsewhere in Europe – is showing signs […]
A proud tradition
[…] as a vehicle for community outreach – the club responded to the needs of those who came through its doors, including around drug use and, in particular, heroin. From the outset Kaleidoscope’s focus was very much about harm reduction and it pioneered needle and syringe exchange and substitute medication. Kaleidoscope’s innovative approaches led Newport […]
Record drug deaths for England and Wales
[…] 4) and the highest number since records began. However, while drug-related deaths rose by ‘a statistically significant amount’ each year between 2012 and 2015 – mainly driven by heroin-related fatalities – rates since 2015 have only increased slightly and remain ‘broadly stable’, says ONS. Two-thirds of deaths were among men, and once again the North […]
Change of scene
[…] biochemist, then become a social worker before going to work for SCODA, the forerunner of DrugScope. Parts of Scotland were already in the grip of a serious heroin problem when SDF was set up, and he was one of the people calling for the establishment of needle exchanges. ‘There was a complete lack of […]
DDN March 2020
[…] by GPs. It’s taking us a long time to come back to that viewpoint but what might change the political mindset is the economic good sense of heroin assisted treatment (HAT, page 8). The savings represented by each person involved in the programme are significant and give an obvious direction. Hopefully the summits being held by […]
At Odds
[…] addict – it was a natural progression for me. A child full of pain and angst looking for a salve. That salvation would eventually be found in heroin. It may well seem a bizarre statement to refer to heroin as my salvation, yet that is what it is. For without the unique properties that […]
Dedication and inspiration
[…] south of Essex.’ Andy’s story began in Scotland in February 2018. ‘I spent six months in the Phoenix Scottish Residential,’ he says. ‘I came with a 27-year heroin habit – I’d been in jail and on the streets. When I came in I was angry, but CBT helped me look at myself. I was […]
Driving Change
[…] was no association with theft. We’ve gone from the prescription pad to the hand grenade.’ A high proportion of drug crime was driven by people who used heroin – ‘so the logic of using heroin-assisted treatment is that you take half of the market from organised crime, just like that.’ County lines were mainly […]
Review of the year 2020
[…] spectacularly divisive US presidential election also sees a ‘monumental victory’ for drug policy reform as Oregon votes in favour of decriminalising personal possession of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine. A year on from the launch of Middlesbrough’s heroin-assisted treatment pilot, clinical team lead Daniel Ahmed hails its ‘dramatic impact’, with 98 per cent […]
Aiming High
[…] just happened to be waiting in the street for a friend that was attending an appointment with our service. This person was street-homeless and had been using heroin and crack since the age of 14. Despite the strict guidelines in place to avoid transmission, the worker was able to safely organise an initial assessment, […]
Tsunami of Need
Phoenix Chief Exec Karen Biggs on the impact of COVID-19 on people who rely on drug and alcohol treatment services.
More questions than answers
[…] once they retire. This resistance is not only to legislative change; there is a reluctance to back service options for which there is supporting evidence, such as heroin assisted treatment (HAT) and drug consumption rooms (DCRs). HAT has a lengthy history in the UK; from the original ‘British System’, through the work of Dr John Marks […]
Scotland expands naloxone provision to community pharmacies
[…] seems to know that Scotland has an astonishing rate of drug-related deaths and that was before we saw this emerging trend of new synthetic opioids within the heroin supply,’ said Scottish Drugs Forum CEO Kirsten Horsburgh in August. ‘Alarm bells should be ringing all over government and all through the treatment and support services […]
Your letters
[…] reduction is? It is not only clean needles and medically assisted therapies, with the possibility of more low threshold services like safe injecting rooms and increased supervised heroin/morphine prescribing. How many people in recovery (from addiction and mental health issues), especially the ageing cohorts, need modest doses of different mood-altering substance to live reasonable […]
Redressing the Balance: How to Reduce Drug-Related Deaths.
[…] of where else in the health, or any other sector, would those aged between 40-49 years be classified as ‘old’? Others call for overdose prevention sites and heroin assisted treatment. Both are legitimate and evidenced-based suggestions, but they would require additional funding that is separate from the traditional local authority funding. We are now more frequently […]
Another record high for Scots drug deaths
[…] Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Ayrshire and Arran, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside. Almost 95 per cent of deaths were among people who’d taken more than one substance, with heroin and morphine implicated in more than half of the total, a higher rate than any previous year. Street benzodiazepines were implicated in 64 per cent of […]
Glasgow considers case for UK’s first consumption room
[…] consumption room, after the Glasgow City Joint Integration Board officially approved the development of a business case. A full business case for both a consumption room and heroin-assisted treatment will now be drawn up, and formally considered when the board meets in February. Any facility established in the city should also offer wraparound services […]
Safe Corner
[…] the smoking of cannabis or opium must be prevented – premises owners do not contravene the act by allowing the possession or injecting of controlled drugs like heroin or cocaine. Yet, based on statements from Sussex Police (a key stakeholder), the Home Office, and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the working group […]
Review of the year
[…] drug offenders in the Philippines by president Duterte. SEPTEMBER Hot on the heels of last month’s grim figures from Scotland, the ONS reveals that the number of heroin-related deaths in England and Wales has doubled in the space of four years, to more than 1,200. The highest number of deaths, for the third year […]
No time to lose
[…] funding’ – ‘we need to address pathways and functions across systems,’ he said. ‘I need to add that stigma is rife,’ commented detective chief inspector Jason Kew, heroin and crack action area coordinator for South East England. ‘I call on all of us to be leaders and change that narrative. Stigma kills.’ Lauren Tapp […]
DDN 2020 December/Jan
‘There are much-needed glimpses of hope’ Our news in this issue leads with the positive results of the heroin assisted treatment pilot in Middlesbrough – a scheme whose dramatic impact has resulted in funding to evaluate it, Armedand which will hopefully encourage further roll-out. These are the moments we must look for in a terribly difficult […]
Scots signal drug policy shift
[…] published it in 2008,’ she said. According to the Times, Campbell stated that a ‘public health response’ to problem drug use would require ‘safer injection rooms or heroin-assisted treatment’. While plans to launch the UK’s first consumption room in Glasgow were approved by city officials almost 18 months ago (DDN, November 2016, page 4) […]
Celebrating Recovery Month
[…] Scotland. Around the age of 17, I started using ecstasy and other party drugs on the weekends because my friends were doing it. I started experimenting with heroin when my relationship ended in the 2000’s and that was the beginning of my downward spiral. I constantly borrowed money from my parents, making excuses about […]
National News July/August 2016
[…] Meanwhile, the Glasgow City Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) has established a working group to look at opening a facility in that city, along with plans for heroin-assisted treatment. Glasgow has an estimated 500 vulnerable people who inject in public places and has seen increasing rates of HIV infection. A business case will be […]
Different perspectives
[…] key driver to strategy, alongside reducing crime and cost to the community. Birmingham officers were now saving lives through carrying nasal naloxone and their eight-point recommendations included heroin assisted treatment (HAT) and drug consumption rooms, alongside diverting people away from the criminal justice system. Liaising with schools and colleges was creating a new dialogue with young […]
‘Bold policies’ needed to tackle drug deaths crisis, says royal college
[…] college’s acting president, Professor Angela Thomas. ‘Our report proposes some key interventions which can be taken now including the introduction of a drugs consumption room, and a heroin assisted treatment programme in all major centres in Scotland. Decriminalising drug use should be considered in Scotland, and the college would urge the UK government and the Scottish […]
New campaign calls for national focus on preventing drug-related deaths
[…] included making sure people had fast access to, and were retained in, high quality treatment services, as well as provision of a wide range of therapies – including heroin-assisted treatment – and improved access to take-home naloxone. SDF is also launching a free e-learning course to coincide with the campaign, covering how to recognise an […]
Pharmacy staff save two lives after timely naloxone training
[…] drug and alcohol service, Likewise, pharmacy staff used naloxone to revive two people. Naloxone is a medication that temporarily reverses the effects of an overdose from opioids like heroin. When administered, it buys crucial time while waiting for the emergency services to arrive. Our new community service recently launched in Sheffield on 1 August offering […]
DDN April 2018
[…] (page 6). These are not isolated voices: the Royal Society for Public Health is among many organisations to back harm reduction initiatives such as consumption rooms and heroin-assisted treatment as a move towards evidence-based policy. Police officers were among the stakeholders to come together at a recent conference In Belfast on injecting drug use […]