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NALOXONE TRIAL APPROVED
The Medical Research Council has approved
a pilot trial of naloxone – which can reverse
heroin overdose – in UK prisons. Injecting
drug users are more than seven times more
likely to overdose in the first weeks of release
from prison than at other times, and the N-
ALIVE trial will investigate the number of lives
that could be saved by giving naloxone to
prisoners with a history of heroin use on
release. A total of 56,000 participants will be
recruited from prisons in England for
randomised trials, with recruitment
scheduled to begin early next year.
‘DESIGNER’ DANGERS
The proliferation of ‘designer drugs’ is
escalating ‘out of control’, according to the
International Narcotics Control Board’s
(INCB) annual report. Manufacturing drugs by
slightly altering the molecular structure of
controlled substances means drug laws can
be circumvented, and INCB wants to see
governments use ‘generic scheduling’ to
control entire groups of substances, as the
UK government did by banning mephedrone
and its related compounds (
DDN
, 26 April
2010, page 4). ‘We urge governments to
adopt national control measures to prevent
the manufacture, trafficking in and abuse of
these substances,’ said INCB president
Hamid Ghodse.
Available at www.incb.org
FUNDING FEARS
A new briefing on Supporting People funding
has been produced by a group of 14
organisations, including DrugScope, Mind,
Crisis and Revolving Doors. The briefing
includes a set of questions for local
authorities as they ‘make difficult decisions’
about services. The organisations have
come together out of a common concern that
services are being put at risk.
Available at
www.drugscope.org.uk
FAMILY FINDINGS
A new discussion paper,
Family support in
times of economic hardship
, has been issued
by Adfam. Based on an online consultation
with family members and an expert seminar,
the document includes a list of
recommendations for services and policy
makers.
Available at www.adfam.org.uk
YOU’VE BEEN FRAMED
Framing the future
, an exhibition of art by
WDP clients will be shown at Putney Arts
Theatre from 8-19 March. ‘Tapping in to
creativity and enabling expression can help
to positively fill the void many people feel
when giving up drugs and alcohol,’ said WDP
chair Yasmin Batliwala.
4 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 7 March 2011
News in Brief
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Rates of alcohol-related hospital admissions are set to
increase to 1.5m a year by the end of the current
parliament if the government does not invest in alcohol
services, according to a new report from Alcohol Concern.
The total cost to the NHS would stand at £3.7bn, warns
Making alcohol health a priority
.
The number of alcohol-related admissions has
doubled to 1m since 2002, bringing the annual cost to
£2.7bn a year. ‘If the 100 per cent rate of increase
continues, it will waste billions of pounds’, warns the
report. A doubling of investment in alcohol services would
mean savings of £1.7bn a year for the NHS, it says.
Alcohol Concern wants to see alcohol health workers
in every hospital, GP practice and A&E unit, a move that
would save £3 for every pound invested, it says. Liver
disease is now the fifth most common cause of death in
England, and alcohol has become the second biggest risk
factor for cancer after smoking. ‘Whereas successful
action has been taken to reduce rates of smoking and
illegal drugs, successive governments have failed to act
decisively in treating the country's drink problem,’ said
chief executive Don Shenker. ‘With the prime minister
saying that NHS is becoming “increasingly unaffordable”
we can show how billions can be saved simply by
introducing alcohol health workers in hospitals to help
patients reduce their drinking.’
The charity is also calling for alcohol displays in
supermarkets to be confined to a single area, after its
research found discounted alcohol displayed on food
aisles, directly inside store entrances and at checkout
areas in a range of high street supermarkets. Examples
included ‘wine on sale next to soft drinks and fruit juice,
bottles of spirits alongside bread and tea, cans of cider
next to the hot chicken counter, and bottles of
champagne next to the milk,’ says
Out of the way? Alcohol
displays in supermarkets
, the result of a ‘snapshot survey’
of Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda.
The organisation also wants to see more effort on the
part of retailers to provide prominently-displayed alcohol
health warnings. ‘It's now common practice to sell wine
next to ready-meals for example, pushing the idea that a
relaxing meal should be accompanied by an alcoholic drink,’
said Mr Shenker. ‘Such practices promote alcohol as a
normal commodity, like any other type of food or drink. They
help to fuel a drinking culture in England where one in four
are already drinking at levels that are harming their health.’
Meanwhile, new guidance on how the NHS should
diagnose, assess and treat alcohol dependency has been
issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence (NICE). More than 1m people in England are
dependent on alcohol, yet just 6 per cent receive
treatment, says NICE. The World Health Organization’s
Global status report on alcohol and health
also calls for
more action from governments worldwide to address the
effects of harmful alcohol consumption. More than 6 per
cent of male deaths globally are alcohol-related, it says,
compared to just over 1 per cent of female deaths.
The report places the UK at number 16 in the in the
worldwide table of per capita amounts drunk by those
aged over 15, at 13.4 litres of pure alcohol per year, while
an article in the
Lancet
by leading doctors Professor Ian
Gilmore, Professor Chris Hawkey and Dr Nick Sheron
claims that unless the UK government takes strong action
to tackle alcohol misuse, up to 250,000 people could die
of alcohol-related causes over the next 20 years. Alcohol
industry body The Portman Group said the creation of
‘doomsday scenarios’ was not ‘in anyone’s best interests’.
Alcohol Concern reports at www.alcoholconcern.org.uk
WHO report at www.who.int
NICE guidance at www.nice.org.uk
Double alcohol investment
to save billions, says charity
News |
Round-up
Youth treatment yields major savings
The ‘immediate and long-term’
benefits of specialist drug and alcohol
treatment services for young people
are significantly greater than the costs
of providing them, according to a new
report published by the Department for
Education (DfE).
Specialist drug and alcohol services
for young people – a cost benefit analysis
estimates a ‘conservative’ benefit of
between £4.66 and £8.38 for every
pound spent.
DfE commissioned Frontier
Economics to carry out the analysis,
looking at both costs – the amount
spent in total and per person – and
benefits, measured as reductions in the
economic and social costs of drug and
alcohol misuse. Immediate crime and
NHS costs were measured alongside
longer term expenses associated with
young people becoming problematic
drug or alcohol users, with the report
estimating immediate crime costs at
just under £110m a year. Around
24,000 young people received specialist
drug and alcohol treatment in the UK
in 2008-09, mainly for alcohol or
cannabis misuse.
‘Heavy use of cannabis or alcohol
can lead to exclusion from school, family
breakdown and crime,’ said NTA chief
executive Paul Hayes. ‘For those
teenagers who seek help, substance
misuse is usually one of a range of
problems causing difficulties in their life,
which is why treatment services must
work with partners in youth services to
offer a range of support. This research
shows their efforts pay dividends for
society as well as benefiting individuals,
and underlines the importance of
maintaining investment at local as well
as national level.’ DrugScope said the
report made a ‘compelling and robust’
case for continued investment.
‘Not only will cuts in services have a
negative impact on vulnerable young
people, the research confirms that
greater costs are likely to be incurred in
terms of crime, unemployment and
poor health,’ said chief executive Martin
Barnes. ‘It is far easier to prevent young
people from developing problems at an
early stage that it is to treat adults with
addiction issues.’
Report available at education.gov.uk