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Heroin deaths spark fears for Limerick city’s addicts

Contaminated heroin may have caused the deaths of twin brothers found dead yesterday in a rented Limerick apartment — and there are fears many more heroin users may have used a similar batch.

The mother of the men, named locally as Kevin and Peter Moran, became concerned after they had not made mobile phone contact for a number of days and was present when the grim discovery was made.
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Interview with Monica Barratt - The connections between drugs and the internet

Monica Barratt is a research fellow with the National Drug Research Institute  in Australia. We discuss  about the use of social   media  facilitating discussions on drug forums and the connections between drugs and the internet. The Interview also discusses the Silk Road which is underground  online marketplace for drug buyers and sellers . As is mentioned in the interview we are both on twitter @inef and @monicabarratt there are also a few drugs workers  and organisations who we connect with on twitter , these are a selection but there are many more

• @injectingadvice
• @stonetree_aus
• @MorelandHall
• @sharingneedles
• @LEAPAustralia
• @melodytreasure
• @MatSouthwell
• @HIT_org_uk

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Concern for addicts as Cork GP closes surgery

Hundreds of medical card patients on the northside of Cork City and its environs received letters from the HSE today informing them that their GP’s surgery has closed.

Dr David Murphy informed the HSE on Friday that he was closing his practice temporarily as he needed to take sick leave. A locum will not replace him at the Cathedral Road practice.
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The availability of Naloxone in a homeless primary healthcare service in Ireland

This is an interview with Janet Robinson from Safetynet, in the interview Janet talks about how the service operates and highlights the importance of providing Naloxone in the homeless services.

The medical profession “needs to wake up” and start doing many more HIV tests

The medical  profession “needs to wake up” and start doing many more HIV tests, a sexual health and HIV specialist has said. An inexpensive check could save the Irish health services €150 million in the process, he said.

Dr Colm O’Mahony, a HIV specialist from Dundalk who works with the Countess of Chester NHS Trust Hospital UK, said an estimated 1,500 HIV sufferers remain undiagnosed in Ireland.

Yet many doctors were reluctant to offer HIV tests to patients due to a perceived stigma among patients. “Doctors need to stop pussyfooting around and start doing the test, letting the patient know the test is being done but not singling it out as something unique and different,” he said.

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Interview with one of the authors from the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment Study

This is a interview with Carol Strike one of the principle authors of the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment Study which was released in April 2012. The interview focuses on the  six key points  of the report highlighting the different issues faced in Toronta and Ottawa, and  also responds to some of the critics of the report

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Interview with the Clinical Services Manager Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre

This is an interview with Jennifer Holmes Clinical Services Manager for  the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) The interview focuses on the work of the MISC and discusses the impact it has on the community in the area. The MISC recognises that drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition and that it is complex and difficult to treat and how the services works with the individual ensuring dignity and respect and the importance of Naloxone within the service. The interview also discusses the book In the eye of the Needle where some of the highs and lows of its first 30 months are revealed

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Afghanistan’s Opium Production on the Rise

Opium production will rise across Afghanistan in 2012, spreading to more parts of the country than it has in the last few years, according to a new annual assessment  from the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The report found that this year, only 15 provinces will be free from poppy production – down from 20 provinces in 2009 and 2010 — and indicated a ”strong association between insecurity, lack of agricultural assistance and opium cultivation.”

Traditionally, UNODC’s assessments are issued with a press release, but as The Guardian notes, this year’s was published on the UNODC’s website with no publicity.

“We are back in the situation we had in 2007-08,” UNODC country representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu told the paper. “The Taliban definitely get income from opium cultivation … but the lion’s share of the income still disappears here, into the hands of the big patrons of this country.”

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EMCDDA report presents latest evidence on heroin-assisted treatment for hard-to-treat opioid users

The prescription of substitution drugs, together with appropriate psychosocial support, is an integral part of today’s mainstream approach to treating heroin dependence. This has come about because over the last two decades, an increasing body of high-quality research has demonstrated the efficacy of using drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine to help stabilise and improve the health status of those dependent on illicit ‘street’ heroin. The weight of evidence has been sufficient to counterbalance legitimate concerns about the value of replacing one opioid drug with another. Most importantly, the development of good clinical practice and safeguards has ensured that any possible unintended negative consequences have been largely avoided. This is important for the prescription of medicines that themselves have considerable abuse potential.

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Prescription drug addiction: the treatment challenge

As misuse of prescription drugs increases, treating addiction to these drugs has become as crucial as preventing it. Yet best practice in this area remains elusive.  Last June, the UN fl agship World Drug Report 2011 launched by Ban Ki-moon outlined the scale of the problem— declining world markets for cocaine, heroin, and cannabis, almost entirely off set by increases in the misuse of prescription opioid drugs. Then, in November, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction annual report for 2011 painted a similar picture, showing that although drug misuse is fairly stable in Europe, there has been a striking increase in the misuse of synthetic opioid drugs.

But, as the most recent figures from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) showed in December, it is the USA that is the epicentre of the world’s problems with prescription drugs.

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