STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
The proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds who
have ever taken drugs has fallen from 29
per cent in 2001 to 17 per cent in 2011,
according to the NHS Information Centre.
Rates of last-year and last-month drug use
have also fallen, while the proportion who
have never drunk alcohol has risen from
39 per cent in 2003 to 55 per cent.
Meanwhile, according to the Home Office,
last-year use of any illicit drug among
adults has fallen from 11.1 per cent to 8.9
per cent between 1996 and 2011/12,
although this was ‘due in large part to a
notable decline in cannabis use’ with the
long-term trend in Class A use showing ‘no
statistically significant difference’.
Smoking, drinking and drug use among
young people in England at www.ic.nhs.uk;
Drug misuse declared: findings from the
2011/12 crime survey for England and
Wales at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/
REVOLUTIONARY TIMES
A report on countries that have adopted
some form of decriminalisation for drug
possession has been published by Release
to support its Drugs – it’s time for better laws
campaign (DDN, June 2011, page 4). The
aim was to look at existing research to
establish whether the adoption of
decriminalisation policies led to significant
increases in drug use – ‘the simple answer
is that it did not,’ says the charity. Further
reports into disproportionate policing and
prosecution of possession offences in the
UK and the associated costs will follow
later this year and in early 2013.
Available
at www.release.org.uk
SETTING STANDARDS
Coordinated, well-led interventions
involving all relevant community services
are necessary to
improve the
psychosocial development and wellbeing
of young people with substance misuse
problems, according to new practice
standards published by the Royal College
of Psychiatrists. The standards were
developed
in par tnership with
DrugScope, whose director of policy –
and DDN columnist – Marcus Roberts
was on the expert advisory panel.
Available at www.rcpsych.ac.uk
BEREAVEMENT CONFERENCE
The fourth DrugFAM annual Bereaved by
addiction conference takes place on 6
October in High Wycombe. DrugFAM was
established by Elizabeth Burton Phillips
following her son’s drug-related death
(DDN, October 2011, page 20).
To request
a place email bereavement@drugfam.co.uk
NHS Lanarkshire has issued a public health alert following
a confirmed case of anthrax in an injecting drug user, who
is described as being in a ‘critical but stable’ condition.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC) has also reported two new cases among injecting
drug users in Denmark and France, as well as three cases in
Germany.
The Lanarkshire case was confirmed late last month, with
the onset of the European cases thought to have been
between early June and early July. The anthrax outbreak of
2009-10 saw nearly 50 confirmed cases in Scotland – 13 of
them fatal – along with a further 72 ‘probable’ or ‘possible’
cases, and was the UK’s largest single ‘common source’
outbreak of anthrax in humans for 50 years (
DDN
, January,
page 6).
‘It is possible that heroin contaminated with anthrax may be
circulating in Lanarkshire and potentially other parts of
Scotland,’ said consultant in public health medicine at NHS
Lanarkshire, Dr David Cromie. ‘Clinicians and microbiologist
are on alert to the possibility of anthrax in heroin users who
present with appropriate signs and symptoms. Injecting drug
users known to Lanarkshire addiction services are being
contacted to raise their awareness.’
NHS Lanarkshire’s advice to drug users was to avoid all
heroin use, which it recognised ‘may be very difficult’ to
follow, he said. ‘Muscle-popping, skin-popping and injecting
when a vein has been missed are particularly dangerous.
Smoking heroin carries much less risk than injecting it. If there
is any pain or swelling around an injection site drug users
should seek urgent medical attention.’
An updated anthrax guide for frontline drug workers has
been produced by the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) and
Health Protection Scotland, along with anthrax alert
information for drug users.
SDF materials at www.sdf.org.uk
Risk assessment: anthrax cases among injecting drug
users Germany, June-July 2012 at www.ecdc.europa.eu
Interview with SDF chief executive David Liddell on page 18
4 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| August 2012
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Anthrax case in Scotland
News |
Round-up
NEWS IN
BRIEF
Eastern Europe bucks
declining HIV trend
The number of people worldwide who were newly infected with HIV fell by
100,000 between 2010 and 2011 to 2.5m, according to a report from the
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS).
This represents a 20 per cent reduction since 2001 and continues the
trend reported in 2010 that at least 56 countries have either stabilised or
achieved significant declines in their rates of new infection, says
Together
we will end Aids
.
However, there is ‘no sign’ that the epidemics in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia are slowing down, says the report. There are 1.5m people living
with HIV in Eastern Europe, with an estimated 170,000 new infections in
2011. The use of contaminated injecting equipment remains the main route
of transmission in this region, it states. In the Russian Federation, newly
reported HIV cases almost doubled between 2005 and 2010.
In the countries for which data was available – Armenia, Belarus,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and
Ukraine – injecting drug users living with HIV were less than half as likely
to be receiving HIV treatment as people who did not inject drugs, says
the document. Laws and policies that discriminate against drug users
and sex workers and lack of services to meet their needs are ‘important
barriers to increasing access to treatment’, it states.
Meanwhile, Harm Reduction International (HRI) has launched the 2012
edition of its
Global state of harm reduction
report, which points out that
almost one in three HIV infections outside of sub Saharan Africa is attributed
to unsafe injecting practices. Failure to address injecting drug use threatens
the global AIDS response, states HRI, with falling levels of donor support and
severe lack of coverage for services. The number of needle exchange
programmes in Russia fell from 70 in 2010 to six in 2012, it points out.
‘The reluctance of governments to fund an adequate response to HIV
and injecting drug use stands in stark contrast to the seemingly limitless
budgets for ineffective and punitive law enforcement responses,’ said
executive director Rick Lines. ‘Governments care more about fighting a
losing war on drugs than they do about winning the fight against HIV.’
Together we will end Aids at www.unaids.org
Global State of Harm Reduction at www.ihra.net
Scots give out
nearly 3,500
naloxone kits
There were 3,445 naloxone kits issued across
Scotland in 2011/12, according to figures from
ISD Scotland and NHS Scotland.
The opioid antagonist can temporarily reverse
the effects of an overdose to allowmore time for the
emergency services to arrive (see feature, page 8).
Scotland’s national naloxone programme –
the first in the world – is funded by the Scottish
Government, with a national coordinator based at
the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF), and includes
extensive training. Just over 2,700 of the ‘take
home’ kits were issued in the community, with
the remainder issued by prisons. Almost 90 per
cent of the community kits were given to people
at risk of overdose, with the rest issued to service
staff and friends and family, with the person’s
written consent. There has been some criticism of
the programme, with one MSP telling the BBC
that it gave drug users a ‘get out clause’.
‘Naloxone offers the chance to save a life, and
sends a clear message to individuals that their
lives matter,’ said community safety minister
Roseanna Cunningham. ‘It is not the solution to
drug-related deaths, but it is an important
intervention, within a range of available
treatment and support, which can help reduce
harm, encourage engagement with drug services
and support people towards recovery.’
National naloxone programme Scotland
monitoring report – naloxone kits issued in
2011/12 available at www.isdscotland.org
See page 18 for a profile of SDF chief executive
David Liddell