ISSUP at the 60th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs
Earlier this week ISSUP attended the 60th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) at the Vienna International Centre.
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New Alcohol Awareness Website
The Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) has launched a new alcohol awareness website. ‘Ask About Alcohol’ provides information on health risks associated with drinking alcohol to enable people to manage their own health better. Furthermore...
Opioids Linked to Increase in Cocaine-Related Overdose Deaths
Heroin and synthetic opioids are propelling an upsurge of late in cocaine-related overdose deaths. This is according to a national survey carried out by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) amongst other drug...
Illuminating the Dark Web
The Economist reports that the drug trade is moving from the street to so-called online ‘cryptomarkets’, or secret virtual-shop-fronts.
Online markets currently facilitate a comparatively small amount of illegal drug sales. Nonetheless...
Alcohol Use Disorders Webinar
The Progress in Mind Resource Centre held a one-hour webinar on alcohol use disorders. The webinar was delivered by Wim van den Brink, Professor of Psychiatry and Addiction at the University of Amsterdam, and Steve Brinksman, GP and...
The Opiate Epidemic - Free Access Article Collection
Although the abuse of many substances has declined across the globe in recent years, the misuse of prescription and non-medical pharmaceutical opioids has significantly increased. The Taylor & Francis Group, which publishes peer-reviewed...
US Pediatricians Warn of Rising Risks to Youth from Loosening Marijuana Laws
New American Academy of Pediatrics report calls on doctors to help protect patients’ developing brains and bodies from the health harms of marijuana amid increased legalisation
The AAP urges pediatricians screen adolescents and preteens...
Thousands Die without Access to Alcohol Treatment
The BBC reports that almost 8,000 high-risk drinkers died from alcohol-related causes in Wales, UK between 2005 – 2014 without having received treatment for alcohol addiction. This is despite repeated hospital and A&E admissions for as much...
Plans for a Smoke-Free Finland Gather Pace
Finland plans to cut consumption of tobacco products - in any form – to less than 2% among adults by 2040. As is the case with many industrialised countries, Finland’s smoking rates have decreased in recent years as a result of various...
New Online Training for Practitioners, Peer Mentors and Service Managers
This new platform allows substance misuse, probation and prison services to upskill their workforces in a scalable and consistent way, and optimise their use of the digital behaviour change programme Breaking Free.
Service providers can...
Healthy Nightlife Toolbox - Resources for Creating Safer Nightlife Settings
The Healthy Nightlife Toolbox (HNT) is an international initiative that focuses on the reduction of harm from alcohol and drug use among young people.
The Healthy Nightlife Toolbox collects and provides information on evidence-based...
Free Resource for Evaluating Drug Prevention and Treatment Interventions
The Evaluation Instruments Bank (EIB) is an online database of freely available resources for evaluating drug prevention and treatment programmes and initiatives. You can search the archive by type of intervention (treatment or prevention)...
Treating Alcohol Addiction with Positive Relationships
A ‘therapeutic alliance’, or in other words, a positive and trusting relationship between counsellor and patient, could be the key to successful treatment of alcohol addiction, according to a new study. Patients who reported a more positive...
Healthier Alternatives and Natural Highs: The Success of the Icelandic Model
Over the past two decades, Iceland has seen teenage smoking, drinking and drug use dramatically decrease. This is partly because of state-funded initiatives which look to promote healthier alternatives, or ‘natural highs’, such as sport, family-orientated activities and cultural provisions.
Alcohol Switches the Brain into 'Starvation Mode'
Alcohol has a very high calorie content. Experts, therefore, have long been confused as to why people often eat more after having consumed alcoholic drinks. New scientific tests show spikes in electrical activity in the brains of mice when...
A Sip as a Kid, Alcohol Problems as an Adult?
Introducing children to alcohol by way of their parents allowing them sips or tasters of their own drinks is typically viewed as the presiding method used in European countries.
Published in the journal Psychological Medicine, a new...
Revealed: The Global Cost of Smoking
Smoking and its related harms cost the world more than $1 trillion and claim the lives of around 6 million people each year, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Cancer Institute.
$1 trillion...
Alcohol Advertising Linked to Youth Drinking
Health researchers worldwide have provided new evidence suggesting that alcohol advertising is often aggressive, reaching children, and is linked with youth drinking.
The Australian organisation, the National Alliance for Action on Alcohol...
Inside a Killer Drug Epidemic: A Look at America’s Opioid Crisis
The New York Times article traces the impact of America's opioid epidemic on Americans of all backgrounds throughout the country. Photos depict the human face of a tragedy that is taking too many lives.
Suicide and Substance Abuse
New research has found a significant link between suicide risk and simultaneous cocaine and alcohol consumption.
The study examined the drug-taking habits of 874 participants hospitalised for displaying suicidal tendencies, ranging from...