This report describes global trends in imprisonment. It also seeks to place these trends in a wider context in order to draw policy recommendations.

Latest SMMGP Policy Update. Highlights include: • Alcohol and other drug use: The roles and capabilities of social workers • Prevention of drug and alcohol dependence briefing • New psychoactive substances resource pack/Project Neptune guidance • Drug driving legislation change • Peer support • Mortality among drug users in Europe • Naloxone PHE briefing

Analysis shows that the deaths of problem drug users are 'overwhelmingly premature and preventable'. - European monitoring centre for drugs and drug addiction

Authors findings corroborate previous suggestions of associations between the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids and the use of other licit and illicit substances. - Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy

This study examined outcomes over 42 months in the Clinical Trials Network 'Prescription Opioid Abuse Treatment Study' to see what, if any, improvements in abstinence from opioids was seen over a longer term.

The featured study documents the progress of patients prescribed heroin in the Netherlands four years after they first started treatment.

McGinty and colleagues (2015) used a vignette-based randomized experiment to address how different portrayals of persons with a mental health or substance use disorder can influence stigma-related outcomes in a number of domains.

A study by IMS Health, based on patient treatment journey of Hepatitis C virus, investigates the current state of real-world practice and the scale of inequalities to access.

This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2014. - Amnesty International

This review investigated research on prison prescribing programmes to establish whether the spread of HIV may be as reduced there as it is in the community. Drug and Alcohol Findings, UK

Project NEPTUNE (Novel Psycho Active Treatment: UK Network), have released guidance to improve clinical practice in the management of harms resulting from the use of club drugs and novel psychoactive substances.

This letter addresses illicit substances treated under the international drug control framework. Authors have designed a possible outline to be negotiated in 2019, based on the one adopted in 2009. A new public health approach to the international strategy on drugs has been added.

This review provides updated and expanded information regarding rates of problematic opioid use in chronic pain.

Mass treatment programs to cure the hepatitis C virus in developing countries are only feasible if the costs of treatment and laboratory diagnostics are low.' This article offers the minimum costs of direct-acting antiviral treatment and associated diagnostic monitoring.

A commentary on the effectiveness of harm reduction services and their cost-effectiveness with respect to HIV-related outcomes.

Scotland was the first country to adopt take-home naloxone as a funded public health policy. This paper summarises the background and monitoring required when assessing the impact on high-risk opiate-fatalities.

Infohep.org have published a series of hepatitis C treatment factsheets, including the newly published factsheet on Harvoni, which was approved in Europe in November 2014.

Adherence in treatment for hepatitis C is improved by clinicians who give clinical feedback and information that is personalised to patients' individual needs and lifestyle

This article explores some of concerns created among the human rights community by the expansion of compulsory drug detention centres, including the lack of consent for treatment and due process protections for compulsory detention, the lack of general healthcare and evidence based drug dependency treatment.

Investigating whether an integrated care protocol could increase the proportion of patients with chronic hepatitis C virual infection who receive antiviral treatment and achieve a sustained virologic response.

This paper analyses how restrictive law enforcement strategies are key drivers of the hepatitis C viral (HCV) epidemic among people who inject drugs and calls for enhanced HCV treatment settings.

Every day in the United States, 120 people die as a result of drug overdose'. This fact sheet from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reviews the problems and risk factors of prescription drug overdose.

This article explores how public health and criminal justice professionals can work synergistically to shift the legal environment away from one that exacerbates HIV risks to one that promotes safe and healthy communities.

Thousands of people die unnecessarily from opioid overdose every year. This event will examine why the life saving drug naloxone is still unavailable and inaccessible to so many all over the world even after Members at the 55th CND unanimously endorsed a resolution promoting evidence-based strategies to address opioid overdose.

An update from the EU Early Warning System. March 2015

In 1981, when acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was first observed among persons who inject drugs, almost all US states had laws criminalizing the possession and distribution of needles and syringes for injecting illicit drugs. We reviewed changes to these laws to permit ‘syringe exchanges’ and the provision of public funding for such programs.

An estimated 130–150 million people live with hepatitis C virus (HCV). A significant number of people with HCV will progress to chronic disease, hepatocellular carcinoma, and death. Approximately 80 million people live with chronic HCV infection, and in 2013 an estimated 700,000 people died from HCV. More than 80% of the HCV burden is in low and middle income countries.

This article explores the transmission of HIV including outbreaks and the efforts to prevent transmission within the prison setting.

‘Recovery’ has been an important concept in mental health services for nearly three decades (Scheyett, DeLuca, & Morgan, 2013) and is now an increasingly core feature of international addiction policy and practice.

Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are commonly used by chronic pain patients, despite limited evidence of any long-term benefits and concerns regarding adverse events and drug interactions, particularly in older patients.