The report of a national expert working group to investigate drug-related deaths in England.

The topic of prescribing opioids for chronic non cancer pain is going through troubled times.

An article on Naloxone written by Dr Judith Yates

If considered at all, addiction treatment research generally dismisses the impact of the therapist as ‘noise in the system’ to be eliminated in order to focus on the specific therapy.

Key messages including: Decriminalisation does not mean legalisation, decriminalisation removes criminal penalties for use/possession either by law.

This article explores some of the issues surrounding drug policy and prohibition in New Zealand, focusing on the legislation surrounding ‘legal highs,’ ‘party pills’ or new psychoactive substances.

Drug-related mortality is a complex phenomenon, which accounts for a considerable percentage of deaths among young people in many European countries. The EMCDDA, in collaboration with national experts, has defined an epidemiological indicator with two components at present: deaths directly caused by illegal drugs (drug-induced deaths) and mortality rates among problem drug users.

Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales from 1993 onwards, by cause of death, sex, age and substances involved in the death.

New psychoactive substances both disrupt and support how the illicit drug market functions, driving greater complexity into the drug problem.

The supply of ‘Take Home Naloxone’ was initiated in 2009 as a harm reduction tool used to prevent fatal opioid poisonings, and has since been implemented across all health boards in Wales.

On August 31 more people than ever before joined together and across the globe to remember people who have died or been injured as a result of overdose. The extraordinary outpouring of grief from around the world on our website and on our Facebook page showed that the campaign had successfully tapped into the silent suffering of thousands of people who face the stigma of overdose in their community.

Epidemiology, treatment and prevention

Statistics of drug-related deaths in 2015 and earlier years, broken down by age, sex, selected drugs reported, underlying cause of death and NHS Board and council areas

Update from the Euro-DEN Plus research group and the EMCDDA.

The HIV, TB & Human Rights in Southern and East Africa 2016 report examines the legal and regulatory framework for responding to HIV, AIDS and TB in countries in Southern and East Africa.

Harm reduction interventions such as needle and syringe programmes have had a significant impact in reducing new HIV infections and saving lives. Yet financial support is extremely fragile, and political leadership is dwindling.

Working towards its elimination as a major public health threat.

The objective of this study was to determine the potential of treatment as prevention for reducing HIV incidence among injecting drug users (IDU).

HIV, prisoners, and human rights.

A study found that among patients with HIV infection and substance use, patient navigation and financial incentives did not have a beneficial effect on suppressing HIV, compared to treatment as usual.

People experiencing homelessness are more likely to die than people of the same age, and even income status, who have stable housing.

Report of proceedings. International drug control is in a period of crisis and transition, with the ‘Vienna Consensus’ broken despite the veneer of agreement among states.

The aim of this research was to provide data on the extent and nature of stigma amongst the Scottish public towards people with and people who have recovered from drug dependence.

The latest UNAIDS data, covering 160 countries, demonstrate both the enormous gains already made and what can be achieved in the coming years through a Fast-Track approach.

Including Access to hepatitis C treatment: France, Ireland and India, Hepatitis C treatment rationing, global targets for the elimination of viral hepatitis and making hepatitis C diagnosis easier.

This paper describes some of these initiatives in an effort to enrich the body of evidence about what works and what does not.

This short report provides an overview of the current situation in terms of NPS use and harms across Europe and reviews the available health- and drug-related interventions in that area.

Written by Andrew Scheibe, MBChB, MPH, Dip HIV Man, Cape Town, South Africa.

The authors of the Special Issue on Drug Policy in MENA review the trends and challenges for the implementation of life-saving harm reduction services in the Middle-East and North Africa region.

A new report by UNAIDS reveals concerning trends in new HIV infections among adults.