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Public Health Scotland issues new nitazenes alert
A new nitazenes alert has been issued by Public Health Scotland’ s Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response( RADAR) early warning system. Aimed at people working and volunteering in drug services, emergency services, healthcare settings and‘ high-risk’ environments like hostels and prisons, the alert urges people to follow the correct harm reduction advice for opioids and polydrug use, and to‘ promote and provide’ naloxone.
Nitazenes are now being widely detected in all parts of Scotland in both community and custodial settings, the alert stresses, posing a‘ substantial risk of overdose, hospitalisation and death’. They were present in 6 per cent of all post-mortem toxicology samples testing positive for a controlled drug in the first quarter of this year, it states, as well as 4 per cent of emergency department samples taken as part of the PHS ASSIST project between February and May.
HOSPITALS are starting to decommission their stop smoking services as a result of budget uncertainty, according to data published by ASH. Services have already been decommissioned in six acute and two mental health trusts across three integrated care boards( ICBs), the charity states. The NHS has been rolling out dedicated stop smoking support for hospital patients and pregnant women since 2019, supporting more than 160,000 people in the last year alone and delivering‘ significant’ results, says ASH. However, the survey – conducted in partnership with Cancer Research UK – shows
The WEDINOS drug testing service has also detected nitazenes in more than 50 samples from ten Scottish NHS boards since 2022, it adds. While almost 60 per cent were in samples purchased as heroin, more than 20 per cent were purchased as oxycodone and 17 per cent were bought as benzodiazepines, usually diazepam.
While the signs and response actions for nitazenes are the same as any other opioid overdose, their increased strength means the overdose‘ may be more sudden and severe’, the alert points out, adding that Scotland’ s drug supply is‘ increasingly toxic and unpredictable’. PHS warned earlier this year of an increase in‘ sudden and rapid collapse overdoses’ requiring multiple doses of naloxone to reverse, with a‘ nitazene-type opioid’ linked to many( DDN, April, page 4).
Last month NHS Ayrshire & Arran became the latest
Funding uncertainty sees NHS tobacco services cut
cuts‘ abandoning’ vulnerable patients. More than 80 per cent of these‘ vital, lifesaving’ programmes are now facing uncertain futures as a result of budget fears, the charity adds.
The most recent ONS figures showed that the proportion of current smokers had fallen to its lowest level, at around 12 per cent of the adult population( DDN, October 2024, page 5), down from more than 80 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women when the NHS was launched in 1948. However, smoking is still estimated to cost the NHS around £ 1.8bn a year, with the health harms increasingly concentrated
Metonitazene and bromazolam in blue pill, purchased as diazepam, Glasgow, July 2024. Photo credit: WEDINOS, W053899
Scottish health board to issue its own nitazene warning, while the most recent RADAR quarterly report warned that suspected Scottish drug deaths in the period March to May were up 15 per cent on the previous quarter and naloxone administration incidents had increased by 45 per cent.
Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response( RADAR) alert: nitazenes at https:// www. publichealthscotland. scot /
‘ Tobacco treatment in the NHS... saves lives, cuts costs, and reduces inequalities.’
HAZEL CHEESEMAN
in the most disadvantaged populations.‘ Tobacco treatment in the NHS is one of the rare interventions that saves lives, cuts costs, and reduces inequalities – yet it’ s under threat just at the point when the NHS wants to“ shift to prevention”,’ said ASH chief executive Hazel Cheeseman. Survey at https:// ash. org. uk /
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