Treating benefit recipients badly Why threatening to cut benefits for those who refuse treatment is unworkable.…
Heroin abuse: breaking the cycle With rates of heroin addiction stubbornly high, there is still debate about how best to treat those hooked on the drug.…
How to help OTC drug abusersThe two articles in the most recent issue of The Pharmaceutical Journal about prescription drug abuse (2015;294:624 and 2015;294:627) missed an opportunity to provide pharmacists with practical tips in tackling prescription drug abuse. Community pharmacists face the prescription and over-the-counter…
UK bill to ban all new psychoactive substances New psychoactive substances are emerging more quickly than they can be outlawed, but a new UK bill is proposing a blanket solution.…
Tackling prescription drug abuse There are signs that strategies to address prescription drug abuse are starting to work but will an increase in illegal drug use be the payoff?…
The prescription opioid addiction and abuse epidemic: how it happened and what we can do about it Opioid painkillers are supposed to provide pain relief, but there is now a plethora of injuries and deaths because they have been heavily marketed and inappropriately prescribed.…
UK government plans to ban psychoactive drugs The UK government is introducing a bill that would bring a blanket ban on the production and supply of any drug that has a psychoactive effect. …
E-cigarettes are creating the next generation of addictsI note from The BMJ (2015;350:h2083) that e-cigarette use has tripled in middle and high school students in the United States from 2013 to 2014. This makes clear the intentions of the companies that market these products. More of the American school students now us…
Smokers who use e-cigarettes are less likely to quit Smokers who used e-cigarettes were less likely to have quit or reduced their cigarette consumption compared with those who had never used e-cigarettes, research suggests.…
Illicit drug overdose: managing emergency care With up to 253,000 deaths related to drug misuse globally, understanding how to identify and treat drug overdoses can save lives.…