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ContEnts
‘Harm
reduction
is not the
preserve of one
community’
ON THE COVER
Harm reduction must rise again, p6
4 NEWS
Highest drug death toll – again; More research needed on medicinal cannabis.
6 AGENTS OF CHANGE
We urgently need to become activists once more, says Nick Wilson.
8 NEWS FOCUS: THANKS FOR SHARING
Data sharing is lagging dangerously behind in the battle to eliminate hep C.
10 A PRESCRIPTION FOR PAIN
Paul was prescribed OxyContin after an industrial injury. As he tells us, it was
the start of his problems.
11 POST-ITS FROM PRACTICE
Dr Steve Brinksman discusses his approach to prescribing opioid painkillers.
12 CRISIS POINT
Thoughts on how to reverse the appalling trend of drug-related deaths.
13 LETTERS & COMMENT
In her Clinical Eye column Ishbel Straker asks what we are doing to support
nurses’ health; more on the legalisation debate in letters.
13 MEDIA SAVVY
The news, and the skews, in the national media.
14 CASE DISMISSED
Why are improvements to custody-community transitions being ignored?
16 UPPING THEIR GAME
Claire Brown, editor
Keep in touch at www.drinkanddrugsnews.com and @DDNmagazine
The sixth annual Recovery Games were the best yet, says Stuart Green.
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S
eptember is a glorious opportunity to celebrate recovery
month and we’re delighted to hear about the activities
taking place all over the country. The Recovery Games in
Doncaster (page 16) sums up the spirit of events and we’re looking
forward to following what’s happening around the country.
But as we do so, let’s remember our common purpose. Harm
reduction is not the preserve of one community – it’s all of our
business and should be central to everything we do, whatever the
drug and whatever the treatment preference. Nick Wilson’s piece
(cover story, page 6) is a reminder that activism is essential, and
that includes the kind of community engagement that makes
recovery messages so visible and effective. The ‘culture of
acceptance and engagement’ should be the unifying force that
propels harm reduction to the heart of mainstream healthcare and
policy. We have plenty of evidence for this, right down to the
depressing year-on-year increase in drug-related deaths.
The evidence is particularly clear when looking at custody-
community transitions (page 14) – an area where small changes in
practice could make a vast difference to prisoners’ chances of
success. As Alex Stevens points out, there’s much that can be done
in the short term for a population ‘so highly vulnerable to health
problems’. Meanwhile, in this month’s News Focus (page 8) we look
at progress on hepatitis C and find some important messages on
data sharing if we are to meet NHS England’s ambitious
elimination target of 2025.
Cover by JellyPics
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September 2019 | drinkanddrugsnews | 3
Editor’s lEttEr