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Contents
editor’s letter
ON THE COVER
Interesting times – DDN
reviews a truly seismic year
‘It’s our duty to do more... what are
we doing with these statistics?’
4
T
NEWS
Legal cannabis tax could be worth £1bn; government addresses prison crisis.
6
8
9
REVIEW OF THE YEAR
‘May you live in interesting times’, says the old Chinese curse. DDN reviews a
truly seismic year for world events, politics, and the drugs field.
A NAME NOT A NUMBER
Behind every drug-related death statistic is a life that could have been saved.
It’s our duty to do more, says Dr Judith Yates.
A PARTICIPANT’S VIEW
Lee Collingham shares highlights of the GPs’ conference on managing drug
and alcohol problems.
10 LETTERS AND COMMENT
Challenging the cuts; Scotland leads the way; engaging on dual diagnosis.
11 REVIEW
Mark Reid reviews Amy Liptrot’s book, The Outrun.
11 LEGAL EYE
‘Personal relations are affecting our CQC rating – can we challenge?’
Joanna Sharr answers your legal questions.
12 A PLACE TO CONNECT
‘Learn, share, connect and celebrate’, was the message from Addaction’s
conference on addiction and mental health. DDN reports.
14 POWER OF THE POSITIVE
Katalin Ujhelyi, Jerome Carson and Ioanna Melidou share results from a new
project to tackle dual diagnosis through increasing wellbeing.
16 LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND STATISTICS
Service user activism is the way to stop drug and alcohol services sliding
further down the list, says Martyn Cheesman.
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his year has held more political turbulence than most of us
can stomach. Alongside that, the ongoing onslaught on
budgets and growing demands on the sector have ramped up
the pressure with no easy way forward.
But we mustn’t be lost for words. At the recent Hit Hot Topics
conference (coverage next issue) American neuroscientist Professor
Carl Hart said ‘When there is injustice we need to take risks. When
Obama was in office, we went to sleep and claimed victories for
things that weren’t victories... You know the score with Trump. It’s
better to know the score than to hear pretty lies. Go to work.’
Dr Judith Yates’ article (page 8) demonstrates why it’s our duty to
do more. Heroin-related deaths have doubled – yet what are we
doing with these statistics? The work of DRD inquiry groups is being
stifled by financial cuts, but we know that the vast majority of drug
related deaths are of people who are not engaged in treatment –
and more than half of them have never been in services.
Simple inexpensive actions, says Dr Yates, can make all the
difference, and this is echoed in many moving stories at the
Addaction conference (page 12). But as Stephen Molloy warned,
talking about essential service user activism, ‘We’ve become the
deserving versus the undeserving... if we don’t challenge,
governments will carry on doing what they’re doing.’
I hope this festive season brings you comfort and joy – and that
2017 brings many more chances to make a difference.
Claire Brown, editor
Our next issue of DDN is out on Monday 6 February. Keep in touch at
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com and @DDNmagazine
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December 2016 | drinkanddrugsnews | 3