Local authorities in England receive £267m boost for drug and alcohol treatment
At the end of 2021, the UK government announced its ‘From Harm to Hope’ initiative, a 10-year plan to cut alcohol and drug misuse-related crime and provide high-quality treatment and recovery programmes. Aiming to get as many people as possible treated, the government set out to increase the number of treatment facilities and the intensity
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UK to develop its first-ever alcohol misuse clinical treatment guidelines
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, a part of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), plans to develop clinical guidelines for alcohol misuse treatment. As the first-ever guidelines of this nature, this department is working with the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to get something viable on the table.
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Authorities investigating super-strength street drugs as fatal overdoses spike
In early October 2023, a coroner’s report linked super-strength street drugs to multiple overdoses and related deaths in Northern Ireland. These synthetic opioids are a combination of nitazenes, a painkiller so potent that it was never approved for medical purposes, and xylazine, a sedative. In July, the Public Health Agency (PHA) issued an alert
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Scottish drug statistics show decrease in drug-related deaths
Widely known for its unacceptably high drug-related death rates, Scotland’s latest statistics bring a slight ray of hope to the concerning status quo. The National Records of Scotland reported that 1,051 people died of drug misuse in 2022, constituting 279 fewer deaths than those recorded for the previous year. Dubbed the drug death capital
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