Drug habits see a 'major shift'
A record amount of young individuals were treated for a drugs and alcohol problem this past year. Counsellors in England alone saw 52,294 people aged 13-24, an increase of 12% in 2 yrs, according to data from the National Treatment Agency (NTA).
There has been sharp drop in those dependent on drugs like heroin. Instead under-25s have become 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 targeted at young adults need to change quickly to manage what some are calling the greatest shift in drug habits in a generation.
Officials belonging to the NTA say the overall increase in treatment over the last 3 years does not Necessarily mean a record amount of young people are abusing drugs and alcohol. They're saying at least part of the rise can be explained by the growth in treatment services. Young adults picked up by the police may also be more likely to be drug tested and referred to a treatment centre.
However the figures do show a major switch in the type of drugs young adults are getting treated for. Drugs workers are seeing a dramatic shift away from heroin and crack use, both ‘problem drugs' typically associated with 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.
Simultaneously, more young adults are having an issue 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 amount! Of under-25s getting treatment for more than one 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, based on 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 including liver disease or depression.
The most recent figures, which are for 2007! Also show a large rise in the amounts of people admitted to hospital for alcohol-related conditions, including injuries from falls or fights. In 2007-08 there were 863,300 admissions associated with drinking, which is a 69% rise since 2002-03 when there have been around 510,200.
Deaths associated with drinking are also increasing. In 2007, in England, there were 6,541 deaths directly related to alcohol, and that is an increase of 19% since 2001. The majority of the deaths (4,249) were from alcoholic liver disease.
"Today's figures clearly show that alcohol misuse is among the most serious public health problems facing the UK," said Alcohol Concern chief executive, Don Shenker. "The dramatic rise in admissions brought on 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 by the end of the year after at least two deaths were associated with 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 substitute forth class C drug GHB, the cannabis substitute Spices well as the amphetamine alternative BZP.
Hester Stewart, a 21-year-old medical student, died after taking GBL, that may kill when coupled with alcohol, in April. This past year, Daniel Backhouse, a 22-year-old mortgage broker, suffered heart failure after mixing BZP with powdered ecstasy.
Johnson said the Home Office would launch a campaign next month to inform people concerning the risks associated with the drugs, including serious heart problems, vomiting, panic attacks, mood swings and seizures.
"There exists apperception that the majority of the so called 'legal highs' are harmless," the home secretary said."However, in some instances people can be ingesting dangerous industrial fluids or smoking chemicals that may be even more harmful than cannabis." Read more..
Drug Poisoning Deaths at Eight Year High
Deaths associated with drug poisoning - including 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 have been a total of 2,928 drug poisoning deaths in 2008, up 11 %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
Issues 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 classified as a "significant barrier" to getting treatment in some areas 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 safeguard children and vulnerable adults and provide information after reviews into drug-related deaths. Some service premises were discovered to be inadequate, said the report, together with access to mental health support for substance abusers in several areas. Among other recommendations are identifying possible ways to access services and improve waiting times. Read more...
Getting Hammered: Young adults and Alcohol and Stoned Again? Working together with Cannabis Users Courses:
DET is going to 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 adults and Alcohol course are going to 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 will be held in Liverpool, Manchester and Blackburn in December 2009.
If you would like to receive information regarding courses in your area, 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 as much as£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 are now able to 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 breaching the new "drinking banning orders", which last between two months and two years, will be fined. Anyone who is subject to an order is going to be referred to a "positive behaviour intervention course" to deal with their alcohol misuse that will cost offenders up to £250 each.
However the Magistrates' Association, which represents 28,000 volunteer magistrates, said the orders duplicate existing legislation and therefore are unlikely to help solve problems brought on by drunkenness on Britain's streets.
"We are really not convinced that DBOs will work very much more than the provisions magistrates currently have at their disposal so we do not believe they answer our demands for additional alcohol treatment courses," a spokeswoman for the Magistrates' Association said.
"In our view it’s unlikely that those who could take advantage of such an order would! Be sufficiently motivated and willing to fund a DBO course." Read more..
Antidepressant use soars as the recession bites
Fears the current recessions affecting the mental health of the nation seem to be borne out by new figures that show prescriptions of antidepressants are soaring.
This past year in England there have been2.1m more prescriptions of antidepressants compared to2007, leading to concerns that doctors are increasingly supplying the drugs as a "quick fix" without trying to address the underlying reason for the problems. In total, 36m prescriptions were given out, an increase of 24% within the last five years.
"The rise in the number of people being prescribed antidepressants is deeply disturbing," said the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, Norman Lamb, who obtained the figures. "England is now a true Prozac nation."
Lamb said it appeared the economy was a major element 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 way too slowly to ensure that support is put in position 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 without 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 maintain their relatives alive in the event of a heroin overdose in a pilot scheme Launched in August.
The drug, naloxone, and training in how to use it, will be provided to 950 families in 16 regions of the country, but could possibly be rolled out eventually to a quarter of a million. Experts believe it could save numerous 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 this time, all they are able to-do is ring for an ambulance and hope it arrives in time.
Strang's team asked families whether they would choose to be taught how to deal with an overdose. "They virtually bit our hands off with enthusiasm," he said. "The final results were so obvious you simply can’t believe we haven't spotted this and introduced it years ago."
Naloxone is a non-toxic drug that has-been readily available for years, meaning it's out of patent and for that reason cheap. It would need to be used in enormous quantities to become harmful and doesn’t cause dependency or induce euphoria.
The pilot will be rolled out by the government's National Treatment Agency for Substance Abuse (NTA). Read more.
Cocaine users 'risk getting Hep C'
Individuals who snort drugs like cocaine are putting themselves in danger! Of contracting Hepatitis C, health charities are warning.
Around 10,000 people obtain the virus each year in the United Kingdom, however, many have no idea they have it. You can only contract Hepatitis C if your blood comes into contact with infected blood but, if left untreated, it could potentially be fatal. Individuals who share needles to take heroin or steroids are at the largest risk. But research has shown it's also possible to get Hepatitis C should 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 amount found! Er-18s admitted to hospital has risen, and more have liver disease. The United Kingdom has some of the highest rates of alcohol consumption among young adults 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 this kind of 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 United Kingdom to die of liver disease, and those diagnosed are becoming younger. The British Liver Trust says Britain will have the highest liver disease death rate in Europe within 2 yrs if things don’t change.
More teenagers are getting help for drug and alcohol problems than ever before, according to the National Treatment Agency.
That is partly due to more services being provided, but there is real concern concerning the amounts of alcohol some young adults are drinking. | 
The question has been raised regarding pupils using hazard warning lights when being asked to check the indicators. I checked this with DSA technical Standards who replied: