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December 2013 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 23
Review of the year |
2013 in focus
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
JULY
The government’s response to its
alcohol strategy consultation finally
contains a firm statement that
minimum pricing ‘will not be taken
forward’ – and shelves plans to ban
multi-buy promotions for good
measure – while public health minister
Anna Soubry and IDHDP clinical
director Chris Ford debate whether
drugs should be a health or criminal
justice issue in
DDN
’s letters pages.
AUGUST
Scotland records its second-highest
number of drug deaths while a powerful
report from Release reveals that not only
are black people over six times more
likely to be stopped and searched for
drugs, they are more likely to be charged
if any are found and receive harsher
sentences than the white community.
Alcohol Concern chief executive Eric
Appleby, meanwhile, tells
DDN
that
members of the Alcohol Health Alliance
are more determined than ever to keep
minimum pricing at the forefront of
debate. ‘The government’s arguments
that there’s not enough evidence are
plainly just wrong, and the very obvious
sense that they’ve just bowed down to
the alcohol industry is only going to fire
people up more,’ he says.
SEPTEMBER
Public Health England hits back at a
Centre for Social Justice document that
depicts a treatment system full of
‘vested interests’, resistant to change
and ‘unambitious for recovery’, while a
UNAIDS report shows that many Eastern
European countries are still failing to
address the challenge of drug-related
HIV infections. Meanwhile, recovery
month is marked by bigger than ever
recovery walks as well as sporting
tournaments, conferences, art
exhibitions and much more.
OCTOBER
Just 3 per cent of people infected with
hepatitis C are treated each year,
despite it being curable, according to a
report from the Hepatitis C Trust. ‘Just
because you’re using drugs doesn’t
mean you don’t have the right to
treatment,’ the trust’s chief executive
Charles Gore tells
DDN
, while outreach
worker Philippe Bonnet describes his
fight to open a consumption room in
Birmingham, a city where more than
half of injecting drug users are infected
with the virus. Meanwhile, a
government reshuffle sees Norman
Baker controversially replace Jeremy
Browne as crime prevention minister,
‘the most eye-catching, head-
scratching ministerial appointment in
Westminster history’, says the
Independent
’s Matthew Norman.
NOVEMBER
As
DDN
celebrates its ninth anniversary,
Mat Southwell and Lana Durjava
describe how services can best engage
with the diverse and ill-served
population of ketamine users, while
Alex Boyt remains unconvinced by
recovery cheerleading. ‘For many, there
is something disturbing and
unattractive in trying to plaster
optimism over the struggles of the
often disadvantaged, traumatised and
neglected,’ he writes. The second
Adfam/
DDN
families event sees a day
of passionate debate in Birmingham
and delegates at DrugScope’s
conference discuss ways to make the
most of the new treatment and
commissioning landscape.
DECEMBER
As an era-defining year for the sector
draws to a close, plans are already well
under way for
Make it happen!
, the
seventh
DDN
user involvement
conference. Make sure you don’t miss it.
ame changer