Drug habits see a 'major shift'
A record number of young people were treated for a drugs and alcohol problem last year. Counsellors in England alone saw 52,294 people aged 13-24, a rise of 12% in two years, according to data from the National Treatment Agency (NTA).

There's been a sharp drop in those addicted to drugs like heroin. Instead under-25s are now more likely to have a problem with a cocktail of 'party' drugs like cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy, often mixed with alcohol. The NTA say treatment services aimed at young adults need to change quickly to deal with what some are calling the biggest shift in drug habits in a generation.

Officials from the NTA say the overall rise in treatment over the last three years does not nece! ssarily mean a record number of young people are abusing drugs and alcohol. They claim at least part of the increase can be explained by the growth in treatment services. Young people picked up by the police are also more likely to be drug tested and referred to a treatment centre.

But the figures do show a major change in the kind of drugs young people are getting treated for. Drugs workers are seeing a dramatic shift away from heroin and crack use, the two 'problem drugs' typically linked to serious abuse. 18,597 people aged 13-24 were treated for an addiction to those two drugs last year, down 19% in just two years.

At the same time, more young people are having a problem with booze mixed with 'softer' party drugs, a phenomenon nicknamed ACCE (pronounced 'ace') by drug workers, short for Alcohol plus Cocaine, Cannabis and Ecstasy.

The number! of under-25s getting treatment for one or more of those drugs has gone up 44% from 21,744 in 2005/6 to 31,401 in 2007/8. Read more...

24% of adults 'risking health through alcohol'
Nearly a quarter of all adults are risking their health through hazardous drinking, according to official statistics released in August.

The NHS Information Service said it estimates that a third of men and a sixth of women are drinking at a level which puts them at risk of physical or psychological harm. Within that group are "harmful drinkers" – 6% of men and 2% of women who are likely to suffer damage such as liver disease or depression.

The latest figures, which are for 2007, ! also show a big rise in the numbers of people admitted to hospital for alcohol-related conditions, including injuries from falls or fights. In 2007-08 there were 863,300 admissions linked to drinking, which is a 69% rise since 2002-03 when there were around 510,200.

Deaths linked to drinking are also on the rise. In 2007, in England, there were 6,541 deaths directly related to alcohol, which is an increase of 19% since 2001. Most of the deaths (4,249) were from alcoholic liver disease.

"Today's figures clearly show that alcohol misuse is one of the most serious public health problems facing the UK," said Alcohol Concern chief executive, Don Shenker. "The dramatic increase in admissions caused by alcohol consumption is a warning that unless action is taken, we face an escalating public health crisis and increasing pressure on the doctors and nurses working in our hospitals. Read more...

Government To Ban ‘Legal Highs’
Three drugs that produce so-called "legal highs" are to be banned at the end of the year after at least two deaths were linked to their use, the home secretary has announced.

Alan Johnson will follow advice from government group the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, to outlaw GBL, a legal alternative to the class C drug GHB, the cannabis substitute Spice and the amphetamine alternative BZP.

Hester Stewart, a 21-year-old medical student, died after taking GBL, which can kill when combined with alcohol, in April.

Last year, Daniel Backhouse, a 22-year-old mortga! ge broker, suffered heart failure after mixing BZP with powdered ecstasy.

Johnson said the Home Office would launch a campaign next month to inform people about the risks associated with the drugs, including serious heart problems, vomiting, anxiety attacks, mood swings and seizures.

"There is a perception that many of the so called 'legal highs' are harmless," the home secretary said.

"However, in some cases people can be ingesting dangerous industrial fluids or smoking chemicals that can be even more harmful than cannabis." Read more...

Drug Poisoning Deaths at Eight Year High
Deaths relating to drug poisoning - incl! uding both legal and illegal drugs - have risen to their highest level since 2001, new figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal.

The ONS journal Health Statistics Quarterly, published in August, reports that there were a total of 2,928 drug poisoning deaths in 2008, up 11 per cent on 2007 and the highest figure since 2001.

Today’s figures show that 2,075 drug-related deaths were among men and 853 among women. Read more...

Drug users face treatment wait
Problems with waiting times for treating heroin users in Wales have been highlighted by an official report.

The review by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales! (HIW) was commissioned by social justice minister Dr Brian Gibbons and it makes 34 recommendations.

Waiting times are called a "significant barrier" to getting treatment in some parts of Wales, while there is also a lack of mental health support to users.

But Dr Gibbons said there had been a huge expansion in services.

The report recommends better systems to protect children and vulnerable adults and give information after reviews into drug-related deaths.

Some service premises were found to be inadequate, said the report, along with access to mental health support for substance abusers in many areas.

Among other recommendations are identifying better ways to access services and improve waiting times. Read more...

‘Getting Hammered: Young People and Alcohol and ‘Stoned Again? Working with Cannabis Users Courses:
DET will be holding more of our popular ‘Stoned Again?’ cannabis study days and ‘Getting Hammered’ courses in the Autumn and Winter of 2009. The courses will be led by Mr.Liam Watson.

The ‘Getting Hammered’ Young People and Alcohol course will be taking place in Bristol, Exeter, Taunton, Redruth in September, Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Southampton in November and Canterbury, London and Chelmsford in December 2009.

The ‘Stoned Again?’ cannabis course is being held in Liverpool, Manchester and Blackburn in December 2009.

If you would like to receive information about a courses near you, and a booking form, then please e-mail us at: office@drugstraining.com

Magistrates attack plans for 'alcohol asbos' to tackle drunken behaviour
A government policy to fine drunken troublemakers up to £2,500 under a new system of "alcohol asbos" introduced on 31st August has been rubbished by magistrates whose job it is to impose them.

The Home Office has announced that courts can now ban anyone aged 16 and over from drinking in certain pubs and bars and particular public areas and entering off-licences if they are regularly antisocial or commit crime while drunk. Offenders br! eaching the new "drinking banning orders", which last between two months and two years, will be fined. Anyone who is subject to an order will be referred to a "positive behaviour intervention course" to address their alcohol misuse, which will cost offenders up to £250 each.

But the Magistrates' Association, which represents 28,000 volunteer magistrates, said the orders duplicate existing legislation and are unlikely to help solve problems caused by drunkenness on Britain's streets.

"We are not convinced that DBOs will do very much more than the provisions magistrates already have at their disposal and we do not believe they answer our demands for more alcohol treatment courses," a spokeswoman for the Magistrates' Association said.

"In our view it is unlikely that those who could benefit from such an order would ! be sufficiently motivated and willing to pay for a DBO course." Read more...

Antidepressant use soars as the recession bites
Fears the recession is affecting the mental health of the nation appear to be borne out by new figures that show prescriptions of antidepressants are soaring.

Last year in England there were 2.1m more prescriptions of antidepressants than in 2007, leading to concerns that doctors are increasingly supplying the drugs as a "quick fix" without attempting to address the underlying cause of the problems. In total, 36m prescriptions were given out, an increase of 24% over the past five years.

"The increase in the number of people being p! rescribed antidepressants is deeply disturbing," said the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, Norman Lamb, who obtained the figures. "England has become a true Prozac nation."

Lamb said it appeared the economy was a major factor in the increase. "The figures raise serious concerns over the impact of the current recession on people's mental health," he said. "Ministers have acted far too slowly to ensure that support is put in place to help people through these difficult times."

The links between economic woes and depression are well documented. Victoria Walsh, campaigns and policy manager at mental health charity Rethink, said its information centres and telephone advice lines were reporting a surge in people experiencing problems as a result of financial difficulties. "We are seeing people coming in who have been high fliers and now find life witho! ut their jobs overwhelming," she said.

Politicians and experts working in the field of depression said it was important that alternative therapies should be made available to counter the increasing reliance on antidepressants at a time when people were at their most vulnerable. "Doctors want their patients to have effective, long-term help, and drugs must not be the only answer," Lamb said. "Urgent action is needed to ensure psychological therapies are available to those who need them." Read more...

Families to receive antidote to help drug users who overdose
Families of chaotic drug users are to be given an antidote to keep their relatives alive in the event of a heroin overdose in a pilot scheme la! unched in August.

The drug, naloxone, and training in how to use it, will be given to 950 families in 16 areas of the country, but could be rolled out eventually to a quarter of a million. Experts believe it could save hundreds of lives.

"It virtually instantaneously reverses the overdose," said Professor John Strang, the director of the national addiction centre, at King's Health Partners in London, one of the new academic health sciences centres. "For many years ambulance crews have had it. This is the logical next step."

Surveys of families have revealed that about a quarter have at some time been present when a relative or partner has accidentally overdosed. At the moment, all they can do is ring for an ambulance and hope it arrives in time.

Strang's team asked families whe! ther they would like to be taught how to deal with an overdose. "They virtually bit our hands off with enthusiasm," he said. "The results were so obvious you can't believe we haven't spotted this and introduced it years ago."

Naloxone is a non-toxic drug which has been available for years, meaning it is out of patent and therefore cheap. It would have to be used in enormous quantities to be harmful and does not cause dependency or induce euphoria.

The pilot is being rolled out by the government's National Treatment Agency for Substance Abuse (NTA). Read more...

Cocaine users 'risk getting Hep C'
People who snort drugs like cocaine are putting themselves at risk! of contracting Hepatitis C, health charities are warning.

Around 10,000 people get the virus every year in the UK, but many don't know they have it. You can only contract Hepatitis C if your blood comes into contact with infected blood but, if left untreated, it can potentially be fatal. People who share needles to take heroin or steroids are at the biggest risk. But studies have shown it is also possible to get Hepatitis C if you share bank notes or straws when snorting drugs. Read more...

Charity warns over child drinkers
Fewer children are drinking but those who do are consuming more than ever before, a charity has warned.

Alcohol Concern said the number of und! er-18s admitted to hospital has risen, and more have liver disease. The UK has some of the highest rates of alcohol consumption among young people in Europe, with only Ireland and Finland having more.

Alcohol Concern has called for the introduction of a minimum price per unit of alcohol to tackle the problem. The Scottish Government is proposing such a measure in an Alcohol Bill due later this year, while in England and Wales the focus is on tackling the sale of alcohol to underage drinkers as well as helping those with problems.

In July a 22-year-old became one of the youngest people in the country to die of liver disease, and those diagnosed are getting younger. The British Liver Trust says the UK will have the highest liver disease death rate in Europe within two years if things do not change.

More teenagers are getting help for drug and alc! ohol problems than ever before, according to the National Treatment Agency.

That is partly due to more services being made available, but there is real concern about the amounts of alcohol some young people are drinking. Read more...