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Time for a chat
[…] came from. Drugbot is a free, confidential AI chatbot that can help to answer questions about drugs and respond to simple or more complex queries with accurate harm reduction advice. It’s the result of a partnership between Cranstoun and Substancy, which comes from our shared values and belief that people should have access to information […]
DDN Conference 2025: speakers
[…] since 2010. He chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drugs, Alcohol and Justice – a policy forum for providers and interested parliamentarians, with a focus on evidence-based harm reduction, treatment, and recovery. [/vc_column_text] [vc_custom_heading text=”Syncora/Acorn Recovery/Delphi” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:26|text_align:left|color:%23000000|line_height:2″ google_fonts=”font_family:Coustard%3Aregular%2C900|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”] [vc_column_text] The ketamine challenge: How can we tackle the rise in ketamine use and provide appropriate support […]
Get it out there
[…] new amendments have the potential to become the most significant moment in the battle against opioid-related deaths in the UK in recent years. WIDER ACCESS For years, harm reduction advocates have called for broader access to naloxone. The recent HMR amendments reflect not only these calls, but also the feedback received during recent public consultations […]
The world needs gender-specific tobacco harm reduction
BY NAFISAT DASOLA JIMOH Tobacco harm reduction (THR) is a transformative public health opportunity, saving people’s lives by offering safer alternatives to smoking for those who are unable or unwilling to quit nicotine. However, much THR dialogue has overlooked the specific challenges and needs of women – especially in regions of the world where cultural, […]
DDN’s double decade
[…] and violence,’ she said. Doorkeepers still keep serving people who are worse for wear… We laugh at drunk people for doing crazy things.’ (News item) Abstinence or harm reduction? Neil McKeganey, professor of drug misuse research at the University of Glasgow was involved in research – discussed here in his article – which the Scottish […]
An open goal
[…] the latest ONS figures, that’s now fallen to less than 12 per cent (DDN, October, page 5). A new briefing paper from the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) points out that not only will the proportion of adults who smoke likely have fallen to just over ten per cent next year, but the […]
Focus on harm reduction not ‘zero tolerance’, universities urged
Universities should be focusing on a harm-reduction approach to drug use among students rather than a ‘zero tolerance’ attitude, according to a report from Universities UK (UUK), a collective of more than 140 universities. Twelve per cent of students reported having taken a drug in the last year More than 4,000 students were surveyed […]
Pharmacy staff save two lives after timely naloxone training
[…] support to people experiencing issues around drug and alcohol use. Likewise is a partnership between national charity Humankind and Project 6. One aspect of this support is harm reduction, which includes equipping people who use drugs, their friends, loved ones and professionals with naloxone kits and training them to use the medication effectively in an […]
DDN Conference 2023 session two: Partner power
The day’s second session explored the countless benefits and opportunities of partnership working. ‘I’ve lost a lot of people who drug treatment doesn’t work for,’ harm reduction content creator at Cranstoun, Alistair Bryant, told delegates. ‘If you can get to any of our doors, you’re already halfway through what you need to do. I think it’s […]
Government announces ‘largest ever’ increase in treatment funding
[…] Chief executive of Change Grow Live, Mark Moody ‘We welcome the major step forward that this strategy signals for the long-term future of drug treatment and harm reduction. We back the strategy’s acknowledgment that addiction must be treated as a chronic health condition. This is a significant breakthrough for drug treatment and a critical […]
Recommend vaping to help people quit smoking, says NICE
[…] until 6 August at www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ng10086 Related articles (Features, August 2023): DDN visited the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw to hear about the challenges of mainstreaming tobacco harm reduction. (News, August 2023): 40 per cent of smokers in the UK think that vaping is ‘as or more risky’ compared to smoking up from 27% last year. (Features, […]
DDN060130
[…] www.alcoholconcern.org.uk News |Round-up www.drinkanddrugs.net 30 January 2006 | drinkanddrugsnews| 5 A rushed decision by the World Health Organisation to reschedule buprenorphine is being contested by the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA). WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) has included a ‘final decision’ on rescheduling the drug on the agenda of its meeting on 28-31 […]
A smack in the eye — Michael Linnell’s graphic harm reduction campaigns
Thirty years after Michael Linnell’s first graphic harm reduction campaigns burst onto the scene he recalls the outrage – and the results – that spurred him on In March 1985 I answered an advert in The Guardian. A small drugs charity called Lifeline was looking for an artist, and they gave the job to me. Over […]
Bucking the trend
Unlike in England, drug deaths in Wales have been falling since 2010 – a result that can be traced to Welsh public health policy and harm reduction practice, say Josie Smith and Chris Emmerson As previously reported in DDN (October, page 4), according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a total […]
Potent cannabinoid use
[…] Why are ‘risky’ and ‘unpleasant’ new versions of cannabis replacing the real thing? Adam Winstock shares findings from the Global Drug Survey. For the last decade much about harm reduction for cannabis was pretty straightforward. Nothing much had changed apart from the dominance of high potency herbal cannabis and its association with higher rates of paranoia, […]
Only 4 per cent of global drug users with HIV receiving anti-retrovirals
Just 4 per cent of the worldwide total of drug users living with HIV are receiving antiretroviral therapy, according to Harm Reduction International’s (HRI) latest Global state of harm reduction report, while just 8 per cent of the world’s injecting drug users are estimated to be able to access opioid substitution therapy. On a ‘global […]
Harm Reduction Information Hub for North Yorkshire
Launch of Drink Drug Hub website provides reliable harm reduction information for anyone in North Yorkshire. Not every person who drinks or uses drugs develops harmful patterns of use – but drink and drugs can cause lots of people lots of problems. By providing reliable and accurate information, we can help adults and young people […]
New ten-year drug and alcohol plan for Scotland
[…] bearing the brunt. WithYou recently published its manifesto for drug and alcohol services ahead of this May’s parliamentary elections, calling for a dedicated alcohol strategy, expansion of harm reduction, and ‘clear outcomes and accountability’ across all services. The fact the new plan was a joint government-COSLA initiative would ‘strengthen national and local partnership working so […]
Outside in
[…] to those they serve, making it impossible to understand their needs. ‘Nothing about us without us’ has long been a principle of the drug policy reform and harm reduction movements – and rightly so. In recent years, it has been good to see more agencies and institutions than before recognise this basic omission, and begin […]
Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction
Switching to safer nicotine products could be a life-saving intervention for millions of people currently using high-risk tobacco products like combustible cigarettes. Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) maps the global, regional and national availability and use of safer nicotine products, regulatory responses to them, and the public health potential of tobacco harm reduction […]
Doing it together
[…] with 4,859 deaths registered in 2021. This is the highest number since records began, and almost 50 per cent of those deaths involved an opiate. Without the harm reduction interventions of providers like Turning Point, the situation would be significantly worse, but we see that there is still a long way to go and that […]
DDN061106
[…] working in, and residents affected by the alcohol business to come up with new solutions.’ She invited anyone who wanted ‘to do something about the nuisance and harm that too much drinking causes,’ to get in touch. Suggestions from locals are invited by 8 November. Email Dan Farag at daniel.farag@publicinnovation.org.uk Locals have their say […]
DDN060424
[…] DRUGS PRACTITIONER (REF: TH 003) Salary:£24,708 - £28,221 (SCP 31-36) inclusive of Inner London Weighting and pro-rata 28 hrs The postholder will undertake targeted outreach and deliver harm reduction information, advice and referral to treatment services. This post is for a one-year fixed term contract and then subject to further review. TRAINING OFFICER (REF: TH […]
DDN2801
[…] developing a myster y shopper pro- gramme, based on members’ evidence. ‘Ser vices say that key workers spend an hour with each client – 20 minutes doing harm reduction, 20 minutes doing social development, this sor t of stuff,’ says Corfield. ‘But we keep hearing that clients are kept waiting for 55 minutes, seen for […]
Harm Reduction International
Harm Reduction International is a leading non-governmental organisation working to promote and expand support for harm reduction. DDN Magazine has produced several reports on their events that you can view here.
National forum for action
Delegates at the National Needle Exchange Forum’s annual conference heard inspiring examples of taking harm reduction to the next level. James Pierce reports. Photography by nigelbrunsdon.com More than 200 delegates from all over the UK returned to Birmingham for the National Needle Exchange Forum’s (NNEF) annual meeting in December. Perhaps the most important part of […]
Your letters
[…] Kent TN27 0LT From the letters page DDN October2019 Thorny issues I was happy to see a strapline on last month’s DDN that promotes the rebirth of harm reduction activism, though who knows where the money will come from for that. And then I turn the page and read the ‘Post-its from practice’. What has […]
Home Office gives go-ahead for pilot drug-testing scheme
[…] their drugs to Addaction’s service in Weston-super-Mare for the contents to be tested. The service is completely anonymous, with staff available to discuss support options and offer harm reduction advice. The pilot project will operate in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire, with additional support from drug testing service The Loop. The testing process takes […]
DDN December 2017
‘Disinvestment in harm reduction is deeply damaging’ As 2017 draws to a close we look back at a year of diminishing budgets and record drug-related deaths. While local authorities get to grips with cutting £85m from public health spending, the ACMD warned that slashing drug treatment budgets is a ‘catalyst for disaster’. Throughout the year […]
Across the great divide
[…] organisation called Stop Watch, which was trying to change the narrative around stop and search, including tackling the ‘massive disproportionality in relation to drugs’. Maria Phelan of Harm Reduction International (HRI) widened the view to the global state of harm reduction. While there had been progress on opioid substitution therapy (OST) in Monaco, Senegal and […]
Training and Development Directory, PDF Version
[…] lc o h ol, D ru gs & H arm R ed uctio n [P ra ctic e -B ase d ] P sy c h op harm aco lo gy & P hysio lo gy o f A ddic tio n [P ra ctic e -B ase d ] W ork in g […]
Letters and Comment from DDN’s December issue
[…] Kent TN24 8SG. Letters may be edited for space or clarity. Vital challenge Kaleidoscope was one of the original drug services in England, and a pioneer of harm reduction services, campaigning against long waiting lists by providing rapid access to treatment. Over time local authorities improved the services to their own drug using population and […]
Fedotov calls for ‘evidence-based’ practices
[…] said. The nine-day event saw 11 resolutions passed on issues including protecting young people from online sales of NPS and blocking ‘financial flows’ linked to drug trafficking. Harm Reduction International (HRI), meanwhile, used the CND to launch its ‘10 by 20’ campaign, which wants to see governments redirect 10 per cent of the money they […]
Lukewarm response to gambling white paper
[…] Everyone should be able to live in an environment that is free from gamification and advertising, particularly children.’ Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Royal College of Psychiatrists ‘People who suffer harm from gambling are not weak. They are not unwell because of any so-called vulnerability. They have been sold highly addictive products, designed and promoted to keep […]
MUP having little effect on dependent and harmful drinkers
A wide-ranging study has found ‘no clear evidence’ of changing alcohol consumption patterns among people drinking at harmful levels since the introduction of MUP, according to a report from Public Health Scotland (PHS). Some ‘economically vulnerable’ groups were also spending less on essentials like food and utilities and more on alcohol, the report adds. […]
26th March issue
[…] years, Daren Garratt told the National Drug Treatment Conference last week – a statement frequently reflected in our letters pages. It was interesting then to read Sara Moralioglu’s investigation of harm reduction in North America (page 8) – a story made all the more remarkable by the scale of progress – particularly in the United States, where the climate of incarceration […]
DDN 050321
[…] two, the Healthy Options Team (HOT), is par t of East London and City Mental Health NHS Trust and employs around 12 staff to provide low threshold, harm reduction ser vices such as needle exchange. The other organisation, KCA, is a non-statutor y ser vice employing about 200 staff across Kent, Medway and par ts […]
Poor relations
[…] to access rehabilitation for ketamine use. Castel also said that she’s had to be the one to initiate all her key-working sessions, and when she asked about harm reduction was told that ‘there isn’t really much harm reduction for ketamine’. She also had to educate her keyworker on the risk of bladder damage from regular […]
Heated tobacco products a ‘highly effective’ tobacco harm reduction tool
[…] to be highly effective at replacing cigarette smoking in countries with vaping restrictions, such as Japan, says a new briefing paper from the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR). The paper is intended as a primer on heated tobacco products, providing an overview of how they work and their reduced risk profile. Heated tobacco […]
Danish lessons
[…] in 2012. Reducing this high death rate has long been the aim of campaigning groups, including BrugerForening (Danish Drug Users Union) and Gadejuristen (Street Lawyers: slogan ‘hard-core harm reduction’). In 2004 Anders Fogh-Rasmussen’s Conservative-led government acted on its zero tolerance policy on drugs. Against police, Copenhagen City Council and others’ advice, the illegal but tolerated […]
Crafting a new approach
[…] training programme – it’s a revolutionary way of thinking about people who use drugs and addiction support, and it’s a dynamite model for implementing whole-family recovery and harm reduction interventions that are empowering, person centred, and family led. In my view, families matter and their love has power. They deserve to be at the front […]
Alcohol Change UK appoints new chair
The board of trustees at national alcohol harm reduction charity Alcohol Change UK has elected Mick Urwin as its new chair. Mick Urwin After more than two years serving on the board at Alcohol Change UK and taking a leading role in its various sub-committees, Urwin brings a wealth of understanding and experience across policing, […]
Caught in the act
[…] without a coherent path.’ Joined-up thinking Speaking of a coherent path, AAI and others have also been lobbying for the establishment of an Office for Alcohol Harm Reduction in the hope of creating that oft-cited but usually mythical thing, ‘joined-up government’ – on this issue at least. ‘We need people who have the time […]
Testing the limits
[…] illicit drugs. There must be swifter, more radical progress on drug checking if we want to reduce drug overdose deaths in the UK. Peter Furlong is national harm reduction lead at Change Grow Live; Chris Rintoul is innovation and harm reduction lead at Cranstoun; Iain ‘Buff’ Cameron is project manager, harm reduction services at Extern; […]
Scottish alcohol sales down 3 per cent since MUP
[…] it set out to do – a reduction in sales overall with a focus on the cheap high-strength alcohol, which is often drunk by people drinking at harmful levels,’ she said. ‘Further studies on MUP, including a final evaluation report, which is due next year, will examine how MUP has impacted on alcohol harms.’ […]
DDN Conference 2022 Programme
[…] exhibition ——- 2.30–5pm Session three (with tea/coffee available) PEER POWER Dynamic outreach: Medway Hope How partnership working between services and peers has delivered naloxone and other vital harm reduction interventions in the community and increased engagement with treatment services. A hand up: The Hepatitis C Trust Sharing how their peer-to-peer education (P2P) programme delivered by […]
UK rates fourth for humane drug policies worldwide
[…] 100 is a drug policy fail in anyone’s book,’ said Ann Fordham, executive director of the International Drug Policy Consortium The index, which has been developed by the Harm Reduction Consortium, is made up of 75 indicators across five main themes – criminal justice, extreme responses, health and harm reduction, access to internationally controlled medicines, and […]
Humankind sets out harm reduction minimum standards
[…] provision has been launched by Humankind. The standards support compliance with existing regulation and national guidance, and are designed to ‘ensure full and equitable reach of comprehensive harm reduction services to all who use substances’ and to tackle stigma. The standards cover issues like accessibility, confidentiality, safety and pathways to other services, and are part […]
Opening the Doors
[…] February 2019, page 16), raised many questions – why don’t we take notice of the evidence to stop ‘thoroughly preventable’ drug poisoning deaths with simple and cost-effective harm reduction measures such as naloxone? Why are we still discharging from hospital onto the street? Why are care pathways so fragmented? Why aren’t we creating routes out […]
Spread the word
[…] use in their own way to influence governments, donors, policy makers, the media and the general public. Support. Don’t Punish is part of the Community Action on Harm Reduction project (www.cahrproject.org), an ambitious, four-year project which aims to expand HIV and harm reduction services to more than 180,000 people who inject drugs in China, India, […]
TrainingDir_Spring2013
[…] clu des f a m ily p atte rn s, s y ste m ic t h eo ry a n d f a m ily m eetin gs Harm r e d u ctio n : In clu des s a fe r i n je ctin gbs m okin gbd rin kin g, B BV Se […]
TrainingDir_Spring2013
[…] clu des f a m ily p atte rn s, s y ste m ic t h eo ry a n d f a m ily m eetin gs Harm r e d u ctio n : In clu des s a fe r i n je ctin gbs m okin gbd rin kin g, B BV Se […]
DDN090209
[…] not always an easy colleague as he insisted at all times in trying to view things through the service user’s spectrum. He was an unapologetic advocate of harm reduction long before the concept became acceptable. Andy’s path into drug treatment work was not a conventional one. Andy was in almost at the beginning of Birmingham […]
DDN2906
[…] from the Welsh Assembly to set up a national office for Wales. Cardiff-based Alcohol Concern Wales/Cymru will run campaigns, lobby for changes in policy, raise funds for harm reduction projects and provide consultancy and training ser vices. ‘With 1,000 people dying each year in Wales due to alcohol misuse there is a need to both […]
DDN 050321
[…] two, the Healthy Options Team (HOT), is par t of East London and City Mental Health NHS Trust and employs around 12 staff to provide low threshold, harm reduction ser vices such as needle exchange. The other organisation, KCA, is a non-statutor y ser vice employing about 200 staff across Kent, Medway and par ts […]
Rising tide
[…] added that Release were submitting a full response. The review would be looking at drug harms – an opportunity, the meeting agreed, to provide strong evidence on harm reduction that should pave the way for legalisation. Evidence would include detail and working practice – such as in Switzerland – on heroin assisted treatment (HAT) and […]
DDN September 2017
‘As we celebrate recovery, let’s credit harm reduction’ As we enter ‘recovery month’ there’s no better time to reinforce harm reduction – the route to recovery, and the reason it’s sustainable. What works for one person won’t work for another and we need to open every door to better health. At a recent parliamentary group […]
Public health body backs festival drug testing
[…] has called for music festivals to provide drug safety testing facilities ‘as standard’, as the summer festival season gets underway. The organisation also wants to see the harm reduction measure implemented in city nightlife areas. The call follows concerns about increasing purity levels of club drugs, with tests ‘repeatedly’ reporting ecstasy pills containing 150g and […]
Damp Squib?
[…] Drug Policy, serves merely to sustain an ‘unacceptable and outdated legal status quo’. The document has been attacked for its failure to address capital punishment, sufficiently advocate harm reduction approaches or acknowledge the ongoing process of drug policy reform occurring across the world. It also talks about ‘a society free of drug abuse’, something that […]
Local news from the substance misuse field
Festival-goers offered harm reduction advice Swanswell team members were on hand to provide drug and alcohol advice at the Download Festival in Leicestershire last month. Working with North West Leicestershire District Council’s community safety team, the Swanswell staff offered harm reduction information and were available to answer questions about drug and alcohol use to anyone […]