Interesting things about alcohol and other drugsDecember 2015Andrew Brown @andrewbrown365

Calls to the National Poisons Information Service about drug misuse that were classified as severe based on clinical features at the time of enquiry or follow up

Source: National Poisons Information Service Annual Report 2014/15

NB Clinicians are less likely to call the NPIS when dealing with exposures to substances with which they are familiar, such as opioids.

Branded products most commonly involved in telephone enquiries to NPIS and TOXBASE accesses

When enquiries on synthetic cannabinoids and branded products thought to contain these agents were combined, there was a 144% increase in telephone enquiry activity over the previous year.

TOXBASE accesses related to synthetic cannabinoids have increased by 151% in the last year.

Source: National Poisons Information Service Annual Report 2014/15

Drugs of misuse categories involved in telephone enquiries and TOXBASE accesses in 2014/15

Source: National Poisons Information Service Annual Report 2014/15

Number of recorded police incidents in Newcastle involving new psychoactive substances in 2014

Source: A Whole City Response to the Use of Novel PsychoactiveSubstances (NPS) by Young People in Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Crime types for which Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 is usedCommunications data is

used in the investigation of 90% of all serious crime. In 2013-14, the NCA report that interception played a critical role in investigations that resulted in:

Over 2,200 arrests;

Over 750 kg of heroin and 2,000 kg of cocaine seized;

Over 140 firearms seized; and

Over £20,000,000 seized.

Source: A Question of Trust Report of the Investigatory Powers Review

Kilos of cocaine and heroin seizures in England and Wales

Three quarters of cocaine (65%) and heroin (66%) seized in 2014/15 was in quantities under 1g.

3% of cocaine and 2% of heroin seized weighed more than 500g.

Source: Seizures of drugs in England and Wales, financial year ending 2015

Quantities of cannabis seized in England and Wales

Around one quarter (27%) of seizures of herbal cannabis were of quantities weighing less than 1 gram.

Around a half (49%) of seizures of cannabis resin made by the police forces were between 5 grams and 10 grams.

Almost half (48%) of seizures of cannabis plants were of quantities of five plants or fewer.

Source: Seizures of drugs in England and Wales, financial year ending 2015

People with substance misuse conditions and claiming benefits by whether they were accessing treatmentNB “An individual may

be undergoing both drugs and alcohol treatment and would appear in both figures, therefore to avoid double counting these individuals, totals can not be summed across drugs and alcohol treatment.”

Source: Working age benefit recipients in drug or alcohol treatment

Rates of Drugs-related Death Rates Soon After Hospital-discharge for People in the Treatment System in Scotland

For the cohort of over 98,000 drug treatment clients in Scotland, there is a high drugs-related death [DRD] risk in the 28 days after hospital-discharge. Length of hospital-stay had no effect on DRD-rate, discharge-diagnosis had an effect (as did reported misuse of alcohol) but neither was as discriminatory as the behavioral risk-factor of having ever injected.

Source: White SR, Bird SM, Merrall ELC, Hutchinson SJ (2015) Drugs-Related Death Soon after Hospital-Discharge among Drug Treatment Clients in Scotland: Record Linkage, Validation, and Investigation of Risk-Factors. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0141073. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141073http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0141073

Naloxone distributed in the community and in prisons in Scotland

“The percentage of all opioid-related deaths that occurred within four weeks of prison release fell steadily from 9.8% during 2006-10 (before the programme) to 3.1% in 2014. This substantial fall reflects both increasing total opiate-related deaths and falls in the relatively small number of deaths within four weeks of prison release.”

Source: National Naloxone Programme Scotland - Monitoring Report 2014/15

Number of take home naloxone kits supplied per year in Scotland

“A total of 7,376 THN kits were issued in Scotland in 2014/15, an increase of 14% on the previous year, bringing the cumulative number of kits issued since the start of the program (2011/12 to 2014/15) to 21,140.”

Source: National Naloxone Programme Scotland - Monitoring Report 2014/15

Reasons for resupplying take home naloxone kits in Scotland in 2014-15

Source: National Naloxone Programme Scotland - Monitoring Report 2014/15

For Scotland as a whole, supply of kits increased from 54 kits per 1,000 problem drug users (PDUs) in 2011/12 to 122 per 1,000 PDUs in 2014/15.

Recorded contacts by substance misuse teams using the Mental Health Minimum Dataset (MHMDS)

Source: Mental Health Bulletin, Annual Report From MHMDS Returns, England

Data taken from the appropriate national reference data tables in Mental Health Bulletin Annual Reports

Number of fixed-term recalls to prison by original offence, 2014

Source: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-09-08/9384/

Number of days between sentence or release and the first appointment withthe offender manager

Source: Transforming Rehabilitation - Early Implementation 3

“We’ve recently being doing the impact on victims. How it upsets the general public and people around me. I take notes and this helps me control my alcoholusage. It has helped me not to smoke cannabis. I’ve reduced my consumption of alcohol and cannabis since working with my OM [offender manager]”

Leading cause of DALYs and percentage change from 1990 to 2013 (Males)

Source: Global burden of disease England - infographic slide set

Share of total alcohol consumed by the 20% of the population who drink the most

Source: Health at a Glance - Alcohol (OECD)

“Alcohol consumption is highly concentrated, as the large majority of alcohol is drunk by the 20% of the population who drink the most, with some variation across countries.”

63%

Source: Health at a Glance - Alcohol (OECD)

Short-term outcomes for opiate and crack users accessing treatment in England (1 of 2)“Significant, and

substantive, improvements in most behavioural measures were recorded, and were achieved within a relatively short period of time following enrolment in treatment. The study demonstrates that these successful outcomes continued to be the norm for the English opiate- and/or crack-user treatment population, despite a doubling in the number of drug users treated, and changes in referral patterns and drug use profiles.”

Source: Short-term outcomes for opiate and crack users accessing treatment: the effects of criminal justice referral and crack use.

Short-term outcomes for opiate and crack users accessing treatment in England (2 of 2)

“The results observed here demonstrate that, in the face of marked changes in the English drug treatment population, the positive improvement in behavioural outcomes observed in previous studies has been sustained. Positive changes were observed in the short term but did not necessarily equate to abstention from all drug taking and offending behaviour.”

Source: Short-term outcomes for opiate and crack users accessing treatment: the effects of criminal justice referral and crack use.

Estimated number of people living with HIV (both diagnosed and undiagnosed) in the UK as a result of injecting drug use

“In 2014, an estimated 2,160 people who inject drugs were living with HIV in the UK (1,500 men and 650 women), of whom 11% were unaware of their HIV status. The estimated prevalence of HIV among this population in the UK was 2.2 per 1,000 aged 15-44 in 2014.”

Source: HIV in the UK – Situation Report 2015: Incidence, prevalence and prevention

Change in the number of breath tests carried out by police in England and Wales & the proportion that are positive

Source: Police powers and procedures England and Wales year ending 31 March 2015

Police carried out 607,000 breath tests in 2014, a fall of 10% compared with the 676,000 breath tests carried out in 2013. Eleven per cent of breath tests carried out in 2014 were positive or refused, up one percentage point on 2013.

Stop and search in England and Wales in 2014-15

Source: Police powers and procedures England and Wales year ending 31 March 2015

In the year ending March 2015, there were 541,000 stops and searches conducted by police in England and Wales, a fall of 40% compared with the previous year. Two in every three were on suspicion of drug possession or supply.

NB - Although the arrest rate can be used as an indicator for the effectiveness of stop and search, there are a number of other outcomes (such as drugs possession warnings, cautions etc.) that may be used by police when carrying out a stop and search which are not covered here.

The proportion of stop and searches carried out by police relating to suspicion of drug offences

Source: Police powers and procedures England and Wales year ending 31 March 2015

While the number of stop and searches carried out on suspicion of drug offences have halved since 2010/11, the proportion that they make of all stop and searches has risen by 9% points over the same period.

Proportion of stop and searches by police in England and Wales for suspected drug offences by ethnicity

It appears that BAME communities are over represented in the stop and search where drugs offences are suspected.

About 85% of the general population identify as White British or White Other.

Source: Police powers and procedures England and Wales year ending 31 March 2015

Mean dosage (mg) of MDMA taken per night of use

Source: how do we take drugs in 2015?

"The British still do binging and excess really well -- they don't do moderation," observes Dr. Winstock. "There's something around Britishness that equates more with better, and that's the dialogue that needs to change. More drugs does not equal a better night."

Reported purity of brown heroin in Europe in 2013

Source: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/data/stats2015#displayTable:PPP-77-0

Merseyside Annual Drug Intervention Programme report 2014/15Just over half of all

successful drug tests carried out in Merseyside in 2014/15 were positive (51.0%).Of the 4,923 positive tests the highest proportion was seen among those testing positive for opiates (51.8%) often in combination with cocaine (38.8%).

Source: Merseyside Annual DIP report 14/15

The proportion of high-risk people with substance misuse problems over 60 years of age that don’t receive the treatment that they require.

93%Source: Substance misuse in older people: an information guide, Royal College of Psychiatrists