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AISLE HAVE A LARGE ONE
Displaying alcohol at the end of supermarket
aisles increases sales by up to 23 per cent for
beer, 34 per cent for wine and 46 per cent for
spirits, according to research by Cambridge and
East Anglia universities in partnership with MRC
Human Nutrition Research. The studies were
controlled for price, promotions and number of
display locations. ‘Although we often assume
price is the biggest factor in purchase choices,
end-of-aisle displays may play a far greater role,’
said study co-author Professor Theresa Marteau.
RECOVERY CASH
Capital funding worth £10m has been
distributed to ‘recovery-orientated’ drug and
alcohol services across England, Public Health
England (PHE) has announced. Almost 70
awards were made, with amounts ranging from
£3,500 to more than £870,000. ‘The
successful projects range from smaller schemes
such as those providing training opportunities to
people in recovery, to large-scale schemes such
as building new recovery centres,’ said PHE’s
director of alcohol and drugs, Rosanna
O’Connor. Among those receiving the money was
Weston-super-Mare-based Broadway Lodge,
which was awarded nearly £40,000 to upgrade
its detox unit (
DDN
, November 2013, page 16).
‘We’re extremely grateful to receive this money
from Public Health England and it will ensure a
better quality of service for all our patients,’ said
chief executive Brian Dudley.
RISKY BEHAVIOURS
Shifting trends in drug use among sections of
the gay and bisexual community are causing
‘significant’ harm to physical, mental and sexual
health, according to a new report from the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine.
The chemsex study
was
commissioned by the London boroughs of
Lambeth – which has the highest prevalence of
HIV in the UK – Southwark and Lewisham. ‘A
vulnerable section of society is using new drugs
in new ways that is putting them at serious
risk,’ said report author Dr Adam Bourne.
WORRYING WORDS
Although alcohol consumption per person
across the UK population has more than
doubled in the last half-century, the trend
‘masks a still more concerning underlying
pattern’, according to the latest report from the
chief medical officer, with an increase in the
proportion of the population abstaining from
alcohol meaning that ‘the increase in
consumption per non-abstainer’ is even higher.
The report also includes sections on prisoner
health and health and employment.
Annual
report of the chief medical officer at www.gov.uk.
The joint ministerial statement issued at the United
Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna
represents a capitulation to hardline states, according to
Harm Reduction International (HRI) and the STOPAIDS
network of organisations.
Governments from around the world were
represented at the commission, which aimed to find
ways forward in addressing world drug problems. The
joint ministerial statement highlighted ‘the importance
of health, prevention and treatment, including protection
against HIV’, said the UN, with United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC) executive director Yury
Fedotov stating that there was a need to strengthen the
public health focus and pursue a ‘comprehensive,
balanced, scientific, evidence-based approach, fully
consistent with human rights standards’.
According to HRI and STOPAIDS, however, the
ministerial statement’s failure to endorse harm
reduction approaches represented a ‘capitulation’ on the
part of progressive governments, with ‘lack of
coordination, leadership and transparency from the
Home Office, Foreign Office and DFID’ playing into the
hands of hardline countries like Russia. The statement
failed to acknowledge that the agreed international
target of a 50 per cent reduction in HIV among people
who inject drugs by 2015 would not be met, it said, and
also failed to condemn ‘even the most serious of human
rights abuses in relation to drug enforcement’, as no
agreement on the death penalty was reached.
‘The document is an embarrassment for any
government that adopts it,’ said HRI executive director
Rick Lines. ‘The UK and the EU as a group have not been
forceful enough and backed down on key issues to
preserve the “consensus” in Vienna. We are left looking
on in frustration as Russian-led efforts to push for
regressive language on HIV win through.’
Crime prevention minister Norman Baker, however,
said he was pleased that ‘we have managed to forge a
way ahead towards a global consensus on the need for a
modern, balanced and evidence-based approach to drugs
policy’. He also used the commission to call on other
countries to introduce bans on mephedrone, which was
banned and regulated as a class B drug in the UK in 2010
(
DDN
, 26 April 2010, page 4). ‘I would urge all countries
to take action against this dangerous drug so together
we can protect people and ultimately save lives,’ he said.
Joint ministerial statement at www.unodc.org
See news focus, page 6, and feature page 7
NEWS IN BRIEF
April 2014 |
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| 5
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Round-up
The proportion of drug-related deaths in Scotland among
people aged 45 and above increased from 14 per cent in
2011 to 26 per cent in 2012, according to the latest
figures from ISD Scotland.
The report provides further analysis of statistics
released last year detailing the country’s second-highest
number of drug deaths (
DDN
, September 2013, page 5).
Two thirds of the 581 drug-related deaths were in the 25-
44 age group, with nearly 60 per cent in the country’s
most deprived areas. Deaths in those aged under 25,
however, fell from 12 per cent to 8 per cent. As in
previous years, more than three quarters of those who
died were male, while more than a third were parents.
‘It is encouraging that fewer young people are dying
from drugs which is in keeping with wider statistics on
drug use in Scotland,’ said community safety minister
Roseanna Cunningham. ‘However, this report also
confirms that, in Scotland, we are dealing with an ageing
cohort of people with a long legacy of drug use and we
must continue to work together to ensure that this
vulnerable group, who have been using drugs for many
years and who experience other chronic medical
conditions, receive the appropriate care and support.’
The national drug related deaths database (Scotland)
report: analysis of deaths occurring in 2012 at
www.isdscotland.org
Increase in drug-related deaths for older Scots
UN drug statement ‘an
embarrassment’, say harm
reduction groups
‘We are left looking on in
frustration as Russian-
led efforts to push for
regressive language on
HIV win through.’
RICK LINES