Budget: More Investment Needed | Could Antidepressants Treat Ice Addiction? | UK Pill Testing Study Shows Benefits
All the drug policy and related news from the past week in one place.
Hello!
Happy Friday and welcome to issue #40 of Drugs Wrap, a weekly compilation of the top stories in drug policy from across Australia and around the world.
It was federal budget week this week, which is like Christmas for economists, and saw Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announce one of the most liberal spending packages a Coalition government has ever proposed.
Big impacts here for healthcare and mental health as a tonne of new money has been made available to support those suffering the psychological fall out of the pandemic. Of course, announcement is one thing, and whether or not this new funding will be delivered, and to what degree it will affect change, is yet to be seen.
In other news, there’s some great research from The Loop that really backs up the need for pill testing, as those interacting with the service have been shown to alter their drug-taking in a safer way.
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You can also follow the Drugs Wrap Psychedelia playlist on Spotify for new ‘psychedelic’ music caught in the email filter.
Let’s get to it.
RACGP Welcomes Investment in Primary Healthcare – But More to be Done
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has welcomed many of the budget’s primary care measures but encouraged the Federal Government to go further in supporting quality GP patient services.
The Federal Budget includes:
· $1.8 billion in primary healthcare funding, including support for the continued role of general practice in COVID-19 vaccinations and news that GP respiratory clinics will now be delivering the Pfizer vaccine
· $204.6 million for the continuation of telehealth in general practice including new items for smoking cessation, reproductive health and drug and alcohol treatment.
RACGP President Dr Karen Price welcomed many of the primary care budget measures but said more investment was needed for broader general practice reform. Dr Price also said that Australia must not take a backwards step on telehealth.
‘I welcome the extension to telehealth services to the end of the year because it has been embraced by GPs and patients and proven to be a valuable complement to face-to-face care’.
‘The telehealth extension includes new Medicare items for reproductive health, smoking cessation, and drug and alcohol counselling’.
‘Helping people with alcohol and other drug concerns is core business for general practice and the new items will open up reproductive choices for women in rural and remote areas that were not previously available to them. No woman should miss out on reproductive health services and that is why the RACGP pushed so hard for these changes’.
Student’s Stark Warning After Drink Spiked With Date Rape Drug at Perth House Party
A Safety Bay teenager is warning others about the danger of date rape drugs after her drink was spiked with GHB at a house party in Doubleview. Shae Millington, 17, said she was dancing at the party in March when she suddenly became tired, sick and started hallucinating.
Blood tests confirmed Shae had been drugged with GHB – gamma-hydroxybutyrate – a drug common in the dance and party scene. It’s also known as a date rape drug because users might not notice it slipped into their drink. Overdose is a major risk with GHB.
In 2019, three deaths in the space of 24 hours in Perth were linked to overdoses of GHB, also known as ‘fantasy’. The deaths sparked urgent calls from authorities for Perth partygoers to be careful.
Curtin University’s National Drug Research Institute adjunct professor Nicole Lee said drink spiking often wasn’t reported and the most common drug used to spike drinks was alcohol, which hampered researchers’ efforts to understand how widespread it was.
Seven Arrested in Byron Bay Drugs Crackdown
Police have charged seven men after an operation targeting the alleged supply of cocaine in the Byron Bay area. A strike force was established in October last year to investigate drug supply in Byron Bay, Bangalow, and Mullumbimby.
Normally drug arrests are not a focus of the wrap, but I thought it was interesting that a special ‘strike force’ operation had been established to target drug supply in Byronshire. It would be good to know what prompted such a development - perhaps the continuing scrutiny of the region as it continues to attract international pandemic-refugee celebrities?
Officers raided four properties late last month including a business in Byron Bay as well as homes in Byron Bay, Bangalow and Mullumbimby.
Antidepressant Set for Australian Drug Ice Study
Australian researchers will receive almost $5 million to test the use of a common antidepressant to fight methamphetamine (ice) addiction. The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW will get $4.9 million from the federal government to conduct the study, which is testing the antidepressant mirtazapine for ice addiction treatment.
Some 340 participants will receive either the drug or a placebo for 12 weeks to determine if mirtazapine successfully suppresses ice cravings.
Mirtazapine is a low-cost drug already available on Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for those diagnosed with depression.
Lead researcher and UNSW Associate Professor Rebecca McKetin said no medications are currently approved in Australia for ice addiction.
‘We have evidence from two small trials in the US that mirtazapine can help people reduce their methamphetamine use’.
‘We want to find out whether mirtazapine can work in a real-world setting to treat methamphetamine use in Australia’.
Australia Needs Drug Testing and Opioid Blockers to Reduce Overdose Deaths
Op-ed from Vern White, Canadian Senator and International Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
‘Australia is obviously not immune to the problems faced by other nations when it comes to addictions and drug abuse. The rampant opioid problem worldwide has been gaining ground in Australia and combined with the continuing use and abuse of other drugs like crystal methamphetamine, or “ice”, has gained a firm foothold’.
‘Drug abuse has been growing across the country, perhaps even faster during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the ability to manage addictions has not grown. Fast and easy access to treatment is only possible for patients with approximately $30,000 available to pay for a private facility’.
‘If we want to reverse the growing trend of overdose deaths, naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of opioids, must be distributed to everyone who is interacting with those who are dying, including the police’.
Long-Lasting Medications May Improve Treatment Satisfaction in People With Opioid Use Disorder
A commentary from leaders at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the NIH, discusses a new study showing that an extended-release injection of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder, was preferred by patients compared to immediate-release buprenorphine, which must be taken orally every day.
Extended-release formulations of medications used to treat opioid use disorder may be a valuable tool to address the current opioid addiction crisis and reduce its associated mortality.
This Week in Weed
Italian Study Confirms Australia’s Cannabis Driving Laws are Rubbish
Revealed: The Studies That Show Medicinal Cannabis Could Solve the Opioid Addiction Crisis
SAS-B Approvals Down by a Third After March’s Record High
New GP Network Unveils Vision to Become the ‘Uber of the Cannabis Clinic World’
Around the World
America: Head Of Top Federal Drug Agency Says It’s Time To Consider Decriminalization
The head of a top federal drug agency is criticizing the ongoing policy of criminalizing people for drug use and is suggesting that the government should instead consider a policy of decriminalization.
Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), penned an essay for the journal Health Affairs titled ‘Addiction Should Be Treated, Not Penalised’. It lays out the case against incarcerating people over low-level drug offences and looking at the issue as a public health matter.
While it stops short of explicitly endorsing decriminalization, Volkow says that the current system leads to disproportionate enforcement against communities of colour and can actually increase the risk of overdose deaths.
In Aspen, the City Council briefly discussed the ‘therapeutic use of psychedelics’ on Monday, but decided the conversation involving psilocybin mushrooms was better suited for state government.
Experts from the Yale School of Medicine have published a new commentary urging the Biden administration to name, embrace, and implement harm reduction programmes as federal health policy to save American lives.
Public policy researchers in Baltimore have written that there is no statistically significant relationship between a state’s drug imprisonment rate and drug use or overdose deaths among its population. The data actually illustrates that arrest and incarceration escalate rather than reduce the risk of overdose and other harms.
Vancouver’s Advancing Drug Decriminalization Plan Sparks Controversies
British Columbia’s largest city is seeking an exemption from Health Canada that would effectively decriminalise the possession of illicit substances for personal use.
However, people who use drugs weren’t given a voice in Vancouver’s most recent step towards decriminalization, according to a coalition of harm reduction groups. The organizations also say that the proposed permitted quantities are too low, and they criticize the city for giving the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) too large of a say in creating the Vancouver model.
Guy Felicella has added to the ongoing conversation in Canada with an op-ed titled Drug Policy Inertia Has Been Driving Stigma and Overdoses for Decades
‘We’ve always known what policy changes are needed to keep people who use drugs safe. Drug users and others have repeatedly called for decriminalization and a regulated drug supply. We’re hearing a lot about these types of approaches now, but they’re not new ideas. They’ve simply never been implemented, and today we’re seeing the devastating and deadly results’.
Release of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel Boss Raises Fears of Revenge
The imminent release of one of the most senior figures of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel is resurrecting the prospect of a wave of revenge, including over the historic murder of his wife and children. 80-year-old Héctor Luis Palma Salazar, also known as El Güero Palma, may soon be free to walk the streets once again after an unexpected court decision acquitted him of organized crime charges.
Palma is still being held in custody pending a 40-day investigation, but should he be released after that time, many key figures from his past will be living in fear. Jailed since 1995, El Güero worked by El Chapo’s side in the 1990s, sharing the same personal vendettas and eventually doing jail time with Mexico’s most infamous drug lord.
NZ Govt to Take Hardline Stance in Review of Cannabis Amnesty
New Zealanders suffering from chronic illness, and who turn to cannabis to ease their suffering, will continue to be prosecuted as health officials look set to maintain a hard-line approach to their plight.
As the government set up the country’s legal medicinal cannabis framework in 2018, people with life-limiting conditions were given a criminal defence if found to be using illicit cannabis. But the amnesty did not extend to those with non-life-threatening, chronic conditions.
UK Drug Checking Service Influences Future Behaviour, First-Ever Follow Up Survey Reveals
More than 90% of participants who completed a follow-up survey to a drug checking service said the intervention influenced their subsequent behaviour, new research by the University of Liverpool reveals.
In the first published study of its kind, Professor Fiona Measham assessed 1,482 face-to-face brief interventions delivered at three English music festivals in 2017 and then invited participants to provide an email address for an anonymous follow-up survey three months later.
92.3% “strongly agreed” that they would use a drug-checking service again
92.3% “strongly agreed” that they would recommend friends do the same
92.1% said the drug-checking service impacted their subsequent drug taking behaviour
42.5% said they continued to talk more with friends and acquaintance about drug contents
38.6% said they had sought more information about drugs
VICE reported on the new study by writing that ‘the government line is still "just say no" – but research suggests that engaging with drug users could help to reduce harms. Who'd have thought it’.
Dr Robin Carhart-Harris has said that the legalisation of magic mushrooms for the treatment of depression would potentially cure the condition.
The Tab, the University of Manchester’s student publication, has revealed that Manchester Uni collects up to £146k in drugs fines, but spends only £1k on drugs education.
A research report by the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry and the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis has found that the UK CBD market is now worth almost £700 million.
In the Scottish elections last week, drug policy reform campaigner Peter Krykant secured a 2.5% vote share of 971, putting him just 36 votes behind the LibDem candidate. Krykant said that although he was ‘gutted’ he was ‘determined to get marginalised voices heard’, adding: ‘Bring on the council elections 2022’
Exploring Drug Supply, Associated Violence and Exploitation of Vulnerable Groups in Denmark
A new report provides an analysis of current drug supply models and the related violence and exploitation of vulnerable groups in Denmark. Recent years have seen a growth in criminals’ exploitation of vulnerable groups for drug-related crimes. This development appears to be driven by several structural factors, including increased drug market competition and a proliferation of more labour-intensive supply models.
More research is called for to understand the impact of digital developments in retail-level drug distribution on vulnerable individuals and to inform responses to reduce criminal exploitation.
Egyptian MPs Vote in Favour of a Law Dismissing State Employees Who Test Positive for Drugs
Egypt’s House of Representatives approved on Sunday new legislative amendments that would see state employees automatically dismissed if they tested positive for drugs. Parliament Speaker Hanafy El-Gebaly said the eight-article law would be put up for a final vote in a later session.
A report prepared by the House’s Labour Force Committee and the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee said the amendment of the Civil Service Law has become a necessity in order to ‘protect society from the dangers of keeping government employees who administer drugs in their jobs’.
Dubai Police ‘Rescue’ Man With Drug Addiction, Send Him to Rehabilitation Centre
Dubai Police have ‘rescued’ a young man who ‘fell into bad company’ along with a relative of his who died of a drug overdose. Colonel Abdullah Al Khayat, Director of Hemaya International Centre in Dubai Police, said the youngster, in his 20s, was attached to his relative in spite of knowing that he was a drug user.
The youth’s mother sought help from Dubai Police, who put him in a rehabilitation centre. Police did not slap criminal charges against him according to Article 43 of the Anti-Narcotics Law, which exempts drug users from criminal charges if they voluntarily approach the police for help or are reported by their family or friends.
The UN Drugs Debate Goes Virtual: Greater Inclusion but Common Divisions
A new analysis of the ‘progress’ made over the five years since the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs has once again highlighted the continued devastating impacts of drug control on health, human rights and development.
This damning reality stands in stark contrast with the self-congratulatory tone of the celebrations for the anniversary of the conventions that took place during CND itself.
The Psychedelic Selection
DoubleBlind Editor-in-Chief Shelby Hartman on Covering the World of Psychedelics
Psychedelics are Transforming the Way We Understand Depression and Its Treatment
SpeakEasy to Enter Psychedelics Sector with Narcotics Dealers Licence with a Focus on Psilocybin
MindMed Announces Project Angie, Targeting the Treatment of Pain with Psychedelics
The Never-Ending Trip: LSD Flashbacks and a Psychedelic Disorder That Can Last Forever
Hallucinogenic Compound Sensor Could Find New Drugs
The Psychedelic Revolution Is Coming. Psychiatry May Never Be the Same.
How This NHL Star’s Brain Trauma Led Him to Found a Psychedelics Startup
How a Psychedelic 12-Step Program Is Saving Lives
‘Shark Tank’ Host Kevin O’Leary: Psychedelic Drugs ‘Far Exceed’ Cannabis Investment Potential
Watch: Psychedelic Monopoly: Patenting & Ownership in the Psychedelic Space
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to elders past and present. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend, and I look forward to sharing all the latest with you next Friday.
Have a story you would like to share in next week’s wrap? Get in touch.
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