LETTERS AND COMMENT
NITAZENES
Eireenz | Dreamstime . com
‘ No guidance is given when employing a lived experience candidate . Might you have shared too much with a client ... Is it going to leave you being looked at as having crossed boundaries ? It ’ s not easy . ’
STAKES TOO HIGH ?
In response to Stacey Smith ’ s article , ‘ At your service ’ ( DDN , Dec / Jan , p20 ) lived experience is mentioned at interview but isn ’ t necessarily used by managers to delegate or consider any lived experience once in the role . I was told interviewers love it in the jobs I was going for , but I ’ m not sure I ’ ve noticed it being brought into roles to solve anything .
It might work better to be championed by someone with lived experience , sharing their journey and how to navigate things that are difficult in a corporate environment . But it can be extremely challenging working out how much lived experience you give .
No guidance is given when employing a lived experience candidate . Might you have shared too much with a client , which left you worrying ? Is it going to leave you being looked at as having crossed boundaries ? It ’ s not easy . Emma Lawlor , rough sleepers outreach worker ( on DDN Magazine LinkedIn )
PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
It ’ s great to expand on the complexities of drug use and problems (‘ A real impact ’, Kevin Ruddock , DDN , Dec / Jan , p16 ). But the narrative always seems to focus on the negatives of drug use , rather than the therapeutic use of drugs in a recreational context .
What about drug use which requires no support and has no cause other than people liking drugs and enjoying them without harm , as in most incidences of drug use ? I know that it is important to find root causes and treat addictions and problems – some of my work is in that field . I think it is important to add however that most people who use drugs have not got a dependence or any other sort of problem . They do it simply because they like it .
This vast majority seem to be ignored in these discussions . I appreciate Kevin using the term substance use , because the blanket term substance misuse is often used incorrectly . I don ’ t know anybody who misuses cannabis for example . They eat , drink , vape or smoke it . Misuse would be trying to use it as a hanglider , a visual aid or a doorstop . Midge Smith , medical cannabis patient and cannabis legalisation supporter , ( on DDN Magazine LinkedIn )
DDN welcomes all your comments . Please email the editor , claire @ cjwellings . com , join any of the conversations on our Facebook page and LinkedIn , or send letters to DDN , CJ Wellings Ltd , Romney House , School Road , Ashford , Kent TN27 0LT . Longer comments and letters may be edited for space or clarity .
/ ddnmagazine @ ddnmagazine www . drinkanddrugsnews . com
VITAL CLUES
The detective work on nitazenes is a vital tool in harm reduction , as DDN reports
WEDINOS was a network unlike any other , a monitoring system that reflected national drug markets , trends and threats , project manager Dean Acreman told the RCGP / AP conference .
Through examining consumer level samples since 2013 the system had identified drugs quickly and effectively , showing that many substances contained substitutions that people had no idea they were buying . Since attracting Welsh Government support , it had become integral to harm reduction in Wales over the past ten years and had analysed more than 45,000 samples .
More recently it had become a vital tool in tackling the nitazene crisis , with more than 250 samples profiled as containing nitazenes since April 2021 . ‘ We can turn around results very quickly ,’ said Acreman . ‘ Are you getting what you think you ’ re getting ?’ he added . For example , of 37 samples found to contain nitazenes , 29 of them were submitted as oxycodone .
The journey over the past few years reflected the ‘ changing face of nitazenes ’ as WEDINOS started to find them in heroin . ‘ We put out a leaflet and gave reassurance around using naloxone ,’ he said . The service had also played a key role in prison safety – HMP Parc reported spice deaths but the blank pieces of paper being sold were found to be laced with nitazenes . An information sheet for staff and easy-to-read document for prisoners swiftly followed .
With an expanding list of drugs found to include nitazenes , the ongoing challenge was ‘ how do we get the message out ?’ he said .
The UK was responsible for a third of all drug-related deaths in the EU in 2019 , said Dr Caroline Copeland , director of the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality . ‘ They ’ re glad we ’ ve left .’ She later added , ‘ There are many different answers to why they ’ re so much higher in the UK – maybe some countries may not test so well . Also , Scandinavian countries have much greater investment in healthcare .’
Her national programme involves using data to understand more about the pharmacoepidemiology of drug-related deaths . Coroners voluntarily send reports from England , Wales , Northern Ireland , the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man , amounting to 60,000 reports to date .
The high volume of detailed data , including demographics , meant ‘ we can do an awful lot of analysis ,’ she said . Data on 230 fatalities related to nitazenes between June 2023 and 2024 revealed large clusters around the Birmingham area and south coast of England .
She shared concerns that the situation could be ‘ even worse than we know ’ as testing threw up some ‘ weird things ’ that could indicate that deaths could be being missed – nitazenes had been detected in post-mortem urine but not in post-mortem blood ; drugs had been detected in post-mortem blood in quantities not usually associated with fatality . The service was working as fast as possible to find answers to questions that were a vital part of the picture .
More from the RCGP / AP conference in our March issue
WWW . DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS . COM FEBRUARY 2025 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • 21