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Previous 'What's New' |
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What's New
Edition 26 - July 2011
Channel 4 to air live drug-taking
Channel 4 is planning to air live footage of people taking class A drugs and alcohol to show their effects on the body as part of a drive to "bring a sense of mischief" back to the broadcaster. Science series Drugs Live will take place under strict clinical conditions, with programme makers working "closely with leading research institutes from around the world to bring much-needed clarity to a social issue often mired in controversy or confusion", according to Channel 4. The series is due to air early next year.
"The issue of class A drugs is something that I think is incredibly important and an area of social policy that Channel 4 can be on the front foot about and provide some interesting and useful data," said Jay Hunt, Channel 4's chief creative officer. Hunt added you "can legally test class A drugs on an individual" but warned there were "huge duty of care and legal issues" surrounding the show. "It will involve people taking drugs in a clinical environment live on TV," she said. The broadcaster is billing the four-parter as a "radical new science series", which aims to examine "the claims and counterclaims made about the effects of recreational drugs by testing them on live television". "Under strict medical supervision and in a controlled clinical environment, individuals will be filmed as they use different substances. Their physical and psychological effects will be monitored, as will their social interaction with others as the drugs enter their systems," Channel 4 said.
Drugs Live is being made by independent producer Renegade Pictures, with Alan Hayling executive producing. "This subject is fraught with controversy and confusion – this series will provide viewers with unmediated access to a live drug trial. Viewers will be able to see for themselves the actual effects the drugs have in scientific detail. We will work closely with the leading research institutes from across the world. The aim is to bring new clarity to the facts of illegal drug use," said David Glover, specialist factual commissioning editor and the Channel 4 executive responsible for the show.
UK Drug Policy Commission's report Taking Drugs Seriously says current laws 'not fit for purpose'
The UK's "outdated" drug laws could be doing more harm than good and are failing to recognise that banning some "legal highs" may have negative consequences for public health, according to the leading independent panel set up to analyse drugs policy.
On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Misuse of Drugs Act, the UK Drug Policy Commission warns that the exponential rise in "legal highs" and the availability of substances over the internet is making current laws redundant. A damning report carried out for the commission by think tank Demos suggests that drug control legislation is no longer "fit for purpose" in the 21st century and should be replaced using consumer protection legislation. In the longer term, the report suggests, the government should introduce a harmful substances control act that would change how all psychoactive substances, including alcohol and tobacco, are controlled.
"Forty years ago, the Misuse of Drugs Act was passed in a world where new drugs came along every few years, not every few weeks," said Roger Howard, the chief executive of the commission. "The argument about whether to be tough or soft about drugs is increasingly redundant in the era of the internet and global trade; we have to think differently." The 149-page report, which has been welcomed by senior police officers, will be seen as a stern corrective to successive governments' thinking on drug control, which has heavily favoured prohibition. The coalition government has been reluctant to contemplate a radical shift in drugs policy, preferring a plan to subject new substances to temporary bans as and when they come to market. The report, Taking Drugs Seriously, suggests that the government and its advisers assess the potential benefits, as well as harmful effects, associated with some legal highs and recognises that their use could prevent people experimenting with more dangerous drugs. It points to research into drug tests on soldiers in the British army that showed that cocaine use fell by more than half between 2008 and 2009, when mephedrone or "meow meow" – a new legal high outlawed in 2010 – was becoming increasingly available.
Significantly, official data reveals that between 2008 and the first six months of 2009, cocaine-related deaths among the population as a whole fell 28%. "The Misuse of Drugs Act has passed its sell-by date," said Jonathan Birdwell, the report's co-author. "So-called 'legal highs' present an entirely new challenge that needs a more intelligent response. With the aim of being hardline towards all psychoactive substances, the government risks making it more, not less, dangerous for young people who want to experiment." There are now more than 600 substances controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act in the UK and the number looks set to increase. According to data presented to the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, an unprecedented 40 new substances were produced in the far east and sold in the UK in 2010. To combat the trend, the report suggests that the government consider controlling the supply of new psychoactive drugs through existing consumer protection legislation, rather than relying on regulations that appear to have little credibility in the eyes of young people. Legislation would limit the number of vendors who can supply controlled substances and compel them to demonstrate that their products meet certain standards or sell them with information on dosage levels and side effects. Civil and criminal sanctions could be brought against those who break the law. "It might be time to say that those who seek to sell new substances should have to prove their safety, rather than that the government should have to prove otherwise," Howard said. "Controlling new substances through trading standards legislation offers a new vehicle to achieve this." The report has been cautiously welcomed by police at a time when their budget is under strain. "Police forces and health professionals across England and Wales are only too aware of the problems that a wave of new drugs can bring," said Tim Hollis, the chief constable of Humberside police and the national lead on drugs for the Association of Chief Police Officers. "The idea of trading standards officers having a stronger role in controlling substances is one that is worthy of consideration."
A&E units failing underage drinkers, charity warns
Hospitals are failing underage drinkers by not giving them enough help to tackle their problems, the NHS is warned in a new report. Too many accident and emergency units simply help teenagers sober up and send them home without trying to change their behaviour, according to the charity Alcohol Concern.
An estimated 64,750 children as young as 11 attend hospital in England every year, of whom 36 a day are admitted for treatment, at a cost to the NHS of £19m. Responses by 128 A&E units to Freedom of Information Act requests from Alcohol Concern show that many offer little or no specialist support to teenagers who have come to harm due to drink. "We have found failings in the NHS's system [for dealing with such patients]," said Tom Smith, the group's youth alcohol spokesman. While 52% can refer young people to a specialist substance misuse service for under-18s, the other 48% cannot, which means "health staff are unable to direct young people in crisis to treatment, support or advice", the report says.
Although the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that NHS staff should refer young drinkers to such services, the report says that "too often A&E departments are failing to protect the welfare of vulnerable young people by not developing this measure". Almost three-quarters (73%) do not have an alcohol harm reduction strategy in place, while 76% do not employ someone specifically to tackle underage drinking. "Overall, only 12 departments (9%) appear to have in place comprehensive alcohol harm reduction interventions. This figure shrinks to only eight departments offering the same interventions to patients aged under 16 years", it concludes, describing the NHS's ability to offer such help as "patchy". Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, admitted more action was needed. "The amount of alcohol we consume is a society wide issue and the NHS can only be a sticking plaster for much more long term and ultimately more effective prevention measures. "Getting the response right requires co-ordination across different parts of public services and, Alcohol Concern's report clearly shows that, while some areas already have the necessary strategies and services in place, more needs to be done to make sure excessive drinking in the young does not become a long term, much more insidious, habit. A Department of Health spokeswoman added: "Alcohol misuse is a major public health issue that teenagers can be especially vulnerable to so we welcome this report that suggests how local A&E services might address acute harms arising from teenage alcohol misuse. "Of course underage people should not be drinking and the we are working across government with voluntary, private and community sectors on a range of initiatives to prevent alcohol misuse amongst young people."
‘GETTING HAMMERED’ YOUNG PEOPLE AND ALCOHOL TRAINING COURSES (OCTOBER 2011)
DET will be running our highly rated ‘Getting Hammered’ Young People and Alcohol course in YORK, LEEDS and MANCHESTER in October. The courses will be led by Mr. Liam Watson. If you would like to receive information about the courses, and a booking form, then please e-mail us at: office@drugstraining.com
Teenage ketamine problems rising, drug charities warn
Addiction charities are reporting a sharp rise in the number of young people who say they are worried about their use of ketamine. Addaction, one of the UK's largest charities helping people with drug problems, says it has seen a 68% increase in the last year in the number of inquiries from teenagers using ketamine, up from 151 to 254. The charity believes surge in the drugs popularity is down to people switching from mephedrone after it was made illegal in April last year. Laurie Yearley, who works with young people at an Addaction clinic in Buckinghamshire, said that last year he was seeing two or three people a week using ketamine as a "secondary drug". He is now seeing six or seven a week for whom it is their main drug.
"People started using ketamine because it was cheap, but then they went on to mephedrone, which was legal," Yearley said. "But when mephedrone was made illegal they went back to ketamine because they said it was like a milder form of mephedrone, which has pretty harsh side effects." Yearley said price was a major reason for ketamine's popularity. "It can cost as little as £6 a gram. If you split it between four people, that's less than a pint. Because it's class C – less than cannabis – there's a feeling among young people that it can't be that bad."
But Yearley said he was concerned that heavy ketamine users were trebling or even quadrupling their intake in barely a week to achieve the same effects. "A lot of youngsters are snorting the drug because they think they are down there with the big boys who are doing coke. Part of it is an image thing. But if you start using it a bit on Monday and on Tuesday, your tolerance disappears quickly and by Thursday you need to spend £10 to get the same effect and the following week it's £20." An anaesthetic that was used in Vietnam to sedate wounded troops, ketamine is still used to anaesthetise children. It is also used in veterinary circles as a horse anaesthetic. The drug is also a hallucinogen with users drawn to its "disassociative effects". Many claim it can give them a feeling of being detached from their bodies. But as it is an anaesthetic, experts warn it is dangerous when mixed with depressants, such as alcohol, combining to slow or shut down the central nervous system. Health workers report that users experience a range of physical side-effects including blood in their urine, as the drug crystallises in their bladders. Users also refer to "K-Cramps", described as "terrible period pains", and to terrifying comedowns.
Harry Shapiro, of Drugscope, said he was aware that agencies were reporting increased numbers of young people coming forward to say they were experiencing problems with the drug.
"Ketamine was considered a party drug because it emerged in the 90s, but it's not really when you consider the effects. Accounts suggest it's anything but a benign drug, with physical and psychological impacts. It's an anaesthetic, and people have had accidents while under its effect and not realised they were injured." Experts suggest it is too soon to confirm whether claims that its use is on the increase among young people indicate the start of a trend. According to the British Crime Survey, in 2007, 0.3% of 16-to 24-year-olds used ketamine within the last month, compared with 0.9% last year. But these numbers are extremely low and not considered statistically significant by experts. However, Yearley said it was definitely the case more youngsters were doing it. "I'd say it was split down the middle in terms of use, but young girls seemed to get messed up more on it," he said. Jane, who is 19 and has sought help from Addaction, said she was doing six or seven grams a day at one stage. "It's like mentally addictive when you've done it for some time; life is not normal unless you've sniffed a line of K."
Mentally ill have reduced life expectancy, study finds
People suffering from serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder can have a life expectancy 10 to 15 years lower than the UK average.
Researchers tracked the lives of more than 30,000 patients through the use of electronic medical records. They found that many were dying early from heart attack, stroke and cancer rather than suicide or violence. Mental health groups say vulnerable people need to be offered better care to prevent premature deaths. The research was carried out at the Biomedical Research Centre for mental health at the Maudsley Hospital in London and published in the online journal Plos One. The study examined life expectancy for people suffering from specific mental illnesses like schizophrenia, serious depression and bipolar disorder, or those being treated for substance misuse. Life expectancy across all the illnesses studied was well below the UK average of 77.4 years for men and 81.6 years for women. Those most affected were women with schizoaffective disorder - problems with mood or sometimes abnormal thoughts - whose average life expectancy was reduced by 17.5 years, and men with schizophrenia whose lives were shortened by about 14.6 years. The researchers believe a combination of factors - higher-risk lifestyles, long-term anti-psychotic drug use and social disadvantage - could be to blame.
Dr Rob Stewart, of the Biomedical Research Centre, said people with serious mental health conditions tended not to look after themselves as well. "These results show the enormous impact mental health conditions can have on general health and survival," he said. "The effects we see here are stronger than well-known risk factors like smoking, obesity or diabetes. "We need to improve the general health of people suffering from mental disorders by making sure they have access to healthcare of the same standard, quality and range as other people, and by developing effective screening programmes." Jane Harris, from the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said the physical health needs of people with mental illness had been ignored. "These grim statistics tell a depressingly familiar story. It is completely unacceptable that people with a mental illness are effectively living in the 1930s in terms of life expectancy. "Action must be taken; we cannot carry on tolerating the fact that people are dying from preventable illnesses, due to a health system which treats mental health patients as second class citizens." The joint chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, Professor Bob Grove, said urgent action was needed to implement the government's mental health strategy objective of improving the physical health of all people with mental health problems, and to address "the stark inequality in health as part of the NHS reform process".
‘COCAINE NATION’ TRAINING COURSES (SEPT - NOV 2011)
DET will be running our new one day ‘Cocaine Nation’ course in BIRMINGHAM, LEEDS, CARDIFF, BRISTOL, EXETER, SOUTHAMPTON AND LONDON throughout September – November 2011. The courses will be led by Mr. Liam Watson. If you would like to receive information about the courses, and a booking form, then please e-mail us at: office@drugstraining.com
Drug gangs moving on to internet, claims Manchester study
The police view of how gangs operate is "outdated and stereotypical", according to a study by the University of Manchester.
Researchers worked with six gangs for three years in an unnamed UK city. They claimed gangs are moving their drug-dealing off the streets and on to the internet and they urged police to update their approach. The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said it welcomed any new research into gang culture. The study by the University of Manchester research team is published in a book called Youth in Crisis. The team spoke to members of six gangs but, because of a commitment given to protect their identities, said it was unable to say in which city they operated.
One of the report's authors, Dr Judith Aldridge, said the modern policing of gangs was based on an outdated assumption that gangs were "territorial, street-based entities. Actually, the gangs we studied had greater mobility and fluidity than that: members resided in areas across the city and even beyond the city's boundaries," she said. The research also questioned the effectiveness of gang injunctions, dubbed "Gangbos", aimed at stopping gang members congregating in public places. Dr Aldridge claimed the policing of public areas was in fact driving gangs "towards a less conspicuous street orientation" and drug-dealing and other criminal activity were moving online. The view that gangs regularly fight turf wars to protect drug-dealing areas was also questioned in the report. Gang members "tended not to protect or guard territory and rarely fought over control of territories", the study found. Researcher Dr Junajo Medina added that police wrongly treated new spray-painting of gang names as evidence of gang activity. "We found no evidence that graffiti was symbolic of gang identity in any meaningful sense for young people actually in gangs."
Drinking over recommended limit 'raises cancer risk'
Drinking more than a pint of beer a day can substantially increase the risk of some cancers, research suggests.
The Europe-wide study of 363,988 people reported in the British Medical Journal found one in 10 of all cancers in men and one in 33 in women were caused by past or current alcohol intake. More than 18% of alcohol-related cancers in men and about 4% in women were linked to excessive drinking. The Department of Health said it was taking action to reduce drinking. Cancer charities say people should limit their drinking to lower the risk. The study calculated that in 2008 current and past drinking habits were responsible for about 13,000 cancer cases in the UK, out of a total of 304,000 cases. Previous research has shown a link between alcohol consumption and cancers of the oesophagus, liver, bowel and female breast. When alcohol is broken down by the body it produces a chemical which can damage DNA, increasing the chance of developing cancer.
The latest research found that individuals who drank more than two standard drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women were particularly at risk of alcohol-related cancers. A standard drink contains about 12g of alcohol, which is equivalent to a 125ml glass of wine or a half pint of beer.
Yet NHS guidelines are a little more relaxed, saying that men should drink no more than three to four units a day while women should not go above two to three units a day. Of the cancers known to be linked to alcohol, the researchers suggest that 40% to 98% occurred in people who drank more than the recommended maximum.The results were gathered as part of a study following 363,988 men and women in eight European countries aged between 35 and 70. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer study tracked their levels of drinking and how this affected their risk of cancer. Researchers then looked at figures on how much people drank in each country, including the UK, taken from the World Health Organization.
The study focused on France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Denmark and the UK. Madlen Schutze, lead researcher and study author, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition, said that many cancer cases could be avoided if alcohol consumption was limited. "And even more cancer cases would be prevented if people reduced their alcohol intake to below recommended guidelines or stopped drinking alcohol at all," she said.
Naloxone heroin overdose reversal kits trial expanded
A kit that has helped more than 50 drug users in Wales survive a heroin overdose will be given to more addicts.
The Take Home Naloxone Rescue Scheme was tested in Welsh prisons and areas with a high number of drug-related deaths and near fatal poisonings. Communities Minister Carl Sargeant has expanded the initiative across Wales. Clive Wolfendale, of north Wales drug and alcohol agency Cais, welcomed the announcement and said: "Without question, it has saved lives already." The Take Home Naloxone (THN) project was launched in August 2009, giving heroin users, their friends and carers a basic first aid training on how to handle an overdose. Individual users were given a kit to take home and use, if needed. In addition, to the prisons, the project was run in Cardiff and Swansea as well as areas of north Wales, and the south east valleys. Wales has around 20,000 problem drugs users, according to Welsh Government figures. The International Centre for Drugs Policy 102 illicit drugs-related deaths recorded in Wales in 2009, up from 61 in 2006. Naloxone is an opiate which reverses the effects of heroin overdoses. The kits aim to provide more time for an ambulance to be called and treatment to be given.
Welsh Government figures showed 684 Naloxone kits have been given out, with 51 being used to reverse an opiate overdose. Mr Wolfendale, who was acting chief constable of North Wales Police before taking over at charity Cais in 2009, said it had role to play in reducing the number of drug-related deaths in Wales. He said: "The benefits in terms of reversing potentially fatal situations has been known about for some time. "The pilot scheme is designed to give heroin users their own kits so they can self-administer in the event of a crisis situation. The feedback from users is 'so far, so good'. "Most drug users have a very difficult plight. They would not be doing it otherwise. But they are extremely attuned to their own body. "They know very quickly when something is going wrong." Naloxone has also been tested in Scotland, where it has attracted controversy with critics claiming it implies an acceptance of continuing drug use. Mr Wolfendale said: "What we are trying to do is get people off drugs and not perpetuate the situation. "The alternative is that they are found dead in bed or in a park or in the street. "They can, with the right support, live productive and happy lives and not be a burden on anybody. "That's much better than being on benefits and stealing to feed a drug habit and taking them through the criminal justice system and social exclusion. "Just condemning them to a life or death situation when a remedy is available is not defensible in any sort of society that Wales wants to be." A total of £55,000 has been set aside to ensure that Naloxone training and kits is available across Wales by December 2011.
Glass or two of wine a week 'could damage baby'
Pregnant women who drink as little as a glass of wine a week could be putting their babies at risk, according to new research which contracts recent studies indicating that an occasional tipple is harmless.
Researchers say there might be no safe limit for the amount of alcohol a pregnant woman can drink without endangering her unborn child, contradicting a study published last October. In the autumn academics at University College London concluded there was "no increase in developmental difficulties associated with light drinking during pregnancy", after looking at 11,000 five-year-olds. However, now researchers in Ireland have found evidence that women who drink up to five units a week, equivalent to two 175ml glasses of red wine, could be putting their children at risk of fetal alcohol syndrome. This can result in facial abnormalities, slow growth and learning disabilities. Alcohol passes from the mother through the placenta to the foetus, which cannot process the alcohol quickly and so is exposed to its effects for longer.
While it is well established that drinking large amounts in pregnancy can harm the baby, the question of whether light drinking has any adverse effect is still debated.
