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SOUTH WEST STRATEGY
A pilot programme to help tackle hep C in the
South West has been launched by Addaction
Cornwall in partnership with the Hepatitis C
Trust and pharma company AbbVie. The project
includes staff training and peer-to-peer
education and buddying, and is designed to
reduce transmission rates and free up NHS
resources. ‘This is an exciting programme that
we hope will maximise the opportunity for
elimination of hepatitis C in the region and we
are confident that where the South West leads,
the rest of England will follow,’ said Hepatitis C
Trust chief executive Charles Gore.
THE WRITE STUFF
Adfam’s annual writing competition for those
affected by drug or alcohol use has been
announced, with a main prize of £150 and two
runner-up prizes of £100.
Adfam Voices 2014
is open until 31 October, and entries should be
no more than 500 words. ‘We are looking to
get a record number of entries this year so
please spread the word,’ says Adfam.
Details at www.adfam.org.uk
ADD ’EM APP
A free iOS app to allow people to calculate
alcohol units and calories has been launched
by Drinkaware. It also provides personalised
feedback as well as information on the health
benefits of reducing consumption.
More information at www.drinkaware.co.uk
PATIENT POWER
Treatment providers Delphi Medical have joined
with the Patients Know Best organisation to
give clients secure online access to their
health records. ‘A patient recovering from a
drug or alcohol addiction receives very
fragmented care because none of the agencies
dealing with them can access a single version
of that person’s medical record,’ said Adelphi
MD John Richmond. ‘Putting the patient in
control of their records solves this challenge at
the click of a mouse.’ Delphi plans to enhance
the project with training material and video
podcasts so that clients ‘can quickly and easily
understand why doctors are recommending
certain treatment plans and courses of action.’
www.delphimedical.co.uk
THEY CALL IT MADNESS
European Commission funding has been
announced for a research project on new
psychoactive substances led by the University
of Hertfordshire. EU-MADNESS (European-wide,
Monitoring, Analysis and knowledge
Dissemination on Novel/Emerging
pSychoactiveS) is a two-year project to monitor,
test and profile the types of substances
emerging in Europe along with their ‘associated
characteristics and potential harms’.
www.eumadness.eu
The rate of deaths linked to new psychoactive
substances could be ‘higher than heroin’ within two
years, according to a report from the Centre for Social
Justice (CSJ) think tank.
Hospital admissions related to new psychoactive
substances (NPS) rose by 56 per cent between 2009 and
2012, says
Ambitious for recovery
, while 97 people were
found dead with NPS in their system in 2012, up from
just 12 over the same period. ‘Based on current trends
NPS could be implicated in more deaths than heroin by
2016,’ it says.
The report calls for measures similar to those in place
in Ireland to make it easier for police and courts to close
‘head shops’ selling NPS. It also wants to see a
‘treatment tax’ added to the cost of alcohol to fund ‘a
new generation of treatment centres’ and states that
Public Health England and local councils ‘risk giving up
on many addicts’, with the treatment sector mainly
concerned with ‘managing’ people and the government’s
FRANK education programme ‘shamefully inadequate’.
‘Far too many’ people are prescribed opiate
substitutes, says the CSJ – which was set up eight years
ago by Iain Duncan Smith – ‘effectively replacing one
addiction’ with another. ‘The most effective way to
overcome addiction and eliminate its costs is to help
people to stop taking drugs and become fully abstinent,’
states the report. ‘Yet as the CSJ has long argued,
treatment services have continually failed to support
abstinence-based recovery. Despite warm words in its
2010 drug strategy
, this government has failed to create
the recovery revolution that it promised.’
A ‘treatment tax’ levy of 1p per unit could raise more
than £1bn for abstinence-based treatment over five years,
says the organisation, with the government urged to ‘look
at reducing welfare payments for claimants who continually
refuse to address their addiction’ once the additional
treatment centres are up and running. It also suggests
piloting a ‘welfare card’ scheme, where a proportion of
benefits would have to be spent on essentials such as food
and clothes. ‘This would apply to alcohol or drug addicts
with dependent children who refuse treatment and who
have not been in work for a year,’ it says.
‘Addiction rips into families, makes communities less
safe and entrenches poverty,’ said CSJ director Christian
Guy. ‘For years full recovery has been the preserve of the
wealthy – closed off to the poorest people and to those
with problems who need to rely on a public system. We
want to break this injustice wide open.’
Ambitious for recovery at
www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk
4 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| September 2014
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
News |
Round-up
NEWS IN BRIEF
Legal high deaths ‘could’
top heroin deaths, says CSJ
The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland fell by 9
per cent last year, according to figures from the Scottish
Government, with deaths among under-25s the lowest
since records began.
There were 526 drug-related deaths registered in
Scotland in 2013, 68 per cent of which were among people
aged 35 and over. The country recorded its highest ever
number of drug deaths in 2011 (
DDN
, September 2012, page
4) when 584 people died, and just three fewer the following
year (
DDN
, September 2103, page 5). Three quarters of the
2013 deaths were among men, and in more than 90 per cent
of cases people had taken more than one drug.
The hope was that the increases in deaths in previous
years had ‘now come to an end’, said community safety
minister Roseanna Cunningham. ‘These statistics are a
product of a long legacy of drug misuse among older
users. We are clear that one death is one too many, and
that’s why we are funding the Scottish Drugs Forum to
work with older users and why almost 4,000 naloxone kits
were issued through our prevention programme to people
at risk of overdose in 2012-13, potentially saving more
than 350 lives. We know we face a tough challenge, but
there are signs our approach is working. Drug taking in the
general adult population is falling, and far fewer young
people are taking drugs than ever before.’
The number of deaths where new psychoactive
substances (NPS) were present, however, rose from 47 in
2012 to 113, including 60 deaths where NPS were implicated
– albeit along with other substances in all but five of the
cases. The Scottish Government recently published its
New
psychoactive substances – evidence review
and has
committed to further research to address gaps in knowledge.
‘NPS may be cheaper than known illegal drugs and we
are aware of people using them across different age
ranges and social groups,’ said service delivery manager at
Edinburgh-based Crew 2000, Emma Crawshaw. ‘People
who haven’t used drugs before are at risk if they do not
have experience or credible information.’
As DDN went to press, ONS figures revealed that the
level of drug poisoning deaths – from both legal and illegal
drugs – in England and Wales was 2,995 in 2013, the
highest since 2001. Full details in October's issue.
Drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2013 at
www.gro-scotland.gov.uk
New psychoactive substances – evidence review at
www.scotland.gov.uk
Scots drug-related deaths
down from record highs