/ Welcome to the fortnightly
Aberdeen City Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (ADP) E-Update

ISSUE: 4th February 2015
* FEATURE* LATEST NEWS * EVENTS * STUDY & TRAINING * VACANCIES * RESOURCES & PUBLICATIONS *
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the first ADP E-Update of 2015! We hope that everyone enjoyed a safe Christmas and New Year. The feature for this edition is the news that DA (Drugs Action) launched the new alcohol service, Alcohol Aberdeen, on 12th January 2015. This is an extremely important service as it is estimated that over 40% of people living in Aberdeen drink above the recommended weekly limits.You can find out more about this service at
If you are a service provider or charity, are involved with a local project/event, or simply have an interest in any particular subject that you’d like featured in the E-Update, then the ADP want to hear from you!We’d also like to conduct occasional brief interviews with people working in the sector locally, those who have been affected by substance misuse issues, family members or people in recovery. So get in touch and get some exposure in the E-Update, which goes out to a wide readership of professionals, service users and people in recovery.
Similarly, if you have any news items or events that you’d like included in the E-update please contact us. The deadline for items to be included is midday on the Tuesday before the E-update gets circulated on Wednesday fortnightly. The next issue is due out on Wednesday 18th February 2015.
The ADP commits non–recurring funds towards community project initiatives in line with both it’s alcohol and drug strategies, and in 2015 we hope to feature some of the excellent work that these projects do.
Your feedback is also very important - if you wish to make any comments about the E-update please contact Ian Reid - ADP Information Officer. Wherever possible we will incorporate any feedback to enhance the effectiveness of this E-update.
Should you wish to be removed from our circulation list please also contact Ian Reid - ADP Information Officer.
FINALLY!–Please follow Aberdeen City ADP onFacebookTwitterfor daily updates and news concerning alcohol & drug related topics!
Thanks for reading
The ADP Support Team
FEATURE
Launch of DA’s Alcohol Aberdeen

ADP members and Support Team staff recently attended the launch of the new DA alcohol service, Alcohol Aberdeen. Minister for Public Health Maureen Watt MSP was in attendance and opened the launch ceremony.
Aberdeen City Third Sector Provider DA (Drugs Action) is the new commissioned alcohol service working on behalf of NHS Grampian and Aberdeen City Council. Alcohol Aberdeen is a new 7 day service for people living in Aberdeen City who are concerned about their own or a loved one’s drinking.
The ADP has enjoyed a good working relationship with DA in their previous role as commissioned drugs service for Aberdeen City. DA will now provide a 7 day drug and alcohol service which will include one-to-one and group support for people with drug or alcohol issues. DA supports concerned family members, young people and children affected by someone else’s drug or alcohol use, and also provides a 7 day helpline service.
It is estimated that up to 10,000 people in Aberdeen are struggling to control their drinking, and this has a major impact on their physical and mental health and also on their family. With this in mind, support is available to family members also. The DA website contains information and advice on alcohol and other substances, as well as full details of Alcohol Aberdeen. You can also take a quiz to determine if you are drinking at harmful or possible dependent levels.
For more information please visit or call the 7 day DA Helpline on 01224 594700.
DA Alcohol Service Launch Press Release
DA Alcohol Leaflet
DA Alcohol Poster 1
DA Alcohol Poster 2
DA Alcohol Poster 3
LATEST NEWS
Scottish progress in achieving alcohol targets
Alcohol-related mortality and morbidity, and inequalities in these harms, are continuing to decline in Scotland, and on some measures are improving more quickly than in England & Wales.
This is the main conclusion of the fourth annual report that provides an update on the monitoring and evaluation of Scotland’s alcohol strategy. The report describes the legislation underpinning the alcohol strategy and the evaluation plan with its various studies. It includes the main findings from two studies published in 2014, one to assess the impact of increased investment in alcohol treatment and care services and the other to assess changes in knowledge and attitudes related to alcohol.
Academic research reveals Dry January leads to less drinking all year round
As the 2015 Dry January campaign launches, new academic research shows that participants who have completed Alcohol Concern’s behaviour change campaign are now drinking less, and also drinking in less harmful ways.
Evidence shows six months after completing a Dry January, participants are now not only drinking less frequently and drinking less per drinking day, but they’re also getting drunk less.
The research, compiled independently by the University of Sussex, comes after Alcohol Concern released figures in October which showing 9.6 million people in England are now drinking in excess of recommended daily limits.
Facts that might get your kids to think about their drinking
It’s no good just telling children that excess drinking is harmful to their health, you believe you’re untouchable as a kid, – wait for that familiar rolling of eyes, and ‘well you drink Mum, don’t you?’ Or if you don’t drink, it’s that ‘well, what would you understand about it?’ What’s proving far more effective is to focus on what could happen to them now, if things get out of hand and giving them the tools to get out of a tricky situation so that they know what to do if things go wrong.
Alcohol myths busted: can you tell fact from fiction?
Test your knowledge of alcohol-related risks and find out the facts about drinking.
There are so many stories around alcohol and drinking that it’s hard to know what to believe.
Being informed about the facts is the best way to make sure that you drink safely.
Take this test to see can you tell the fact from fiction when it comes to booze myths.
Please sign the petition to improve alcohol labelling
91% of the British public believe it’s important we know how alcohol can affect our health. If you agree that it’s time we had more information on the bottle, then you can sign our petition here.
Health warnings are now a familiar feature on cigarettes and tobacco products. Likewise you can find detailed nutritional labelling and ingredients on food products and soft drinks, to enable you, the customer, to make an informed choice about what you put into your body.
Despite their substantial impact on both health and nutrition, consumer information on alcohol products usually extends no further than letting you know the strength of the alcohol content. Currently there is no legal obligation for ingredients to be listed anywhere on the label.
One legal highs patient admitted to Ninewells Hospital nearly every day
More than 300 patients were admitted to Ninewells Hospital having taken legal highs in the space of a year, the Tele can reveal.
Figures released by NHS Tayside show 340 people were admitted to accident and emergency during 2013/14 and the number of patients who attended accident and emergency but were not admitted to hospital has almost doubled — from 32 in 2012/13 to 58 in 2013/14.
Hospital staff believe the increase is due to a combination of increased availability of legal highs and emergency services becoming more aware of which symptoms to look out for in patients.
Legal high drugs in Dundee are ‘like ones on Breaking Bad’
Traces of drugs which are similar to deadly methamphetamine have been found in so-called legal highs being used in the city, a Dundee substance misuse charity has warned.
Dave Barrie, service manager at Addaction, told the Tele some over-the-counter products may have very similar chemicals and effects to the class A drug featured in the hit US TV show Breaking Bad.
It is understood there has been a spike among recent screenings of legal high packages in Scotland of chemicals said to be as little as one carbon atom short of the highly dangerous substance.
Dave said: “We are starting to see a picture - and I must stress an early picture — there are some drugs in legal highs that are looking very similar to methamphetamine in structure and effect”.
Legal highs kill six in less than a year
Six people in the Capital died after taking so-called legal highs in less than a year, it has emerged.
Nearly 40 others were taken to A&E after taking the “party drugs”, while the mental health impact was so severe that more than 100 were admitted to the Royal Edinburgh’s toxins unit.
The shock statistics have fuelled fears that the city has a more acute problem with new psychoactive substances (NPS) than anywhere else in Scotland.
Age concern in largest ever study of heroin user deaths
Older users of opioids such as heroin are 27 times more likely to become a victim of homicide than the general population, a University of Manchester study of almost 200,000 users has found.
In the largest study of opioids users ever undertaken, the researchers used records of 198,247 people in England who had been involved in drug treatment or the criminal justice system between 2005 and 2009. The data recorded 3,974 deaths and their causes during this period. Opioid users were six times more likely to die prematurely than people in the general population. Almost one in ten of these deaths were due to suicide, more than four times the rate in the general population.
Third of Scots believe homelessness caused by drugs and alcohol
There is a huge difference between the perception of homeless people and the reality of their situation, a survey has found.
A third of Scots believe the main cause of homelessness is alcohol or drugs addiction, according to research from the Salvation Army.But the Ipsos Mori poll found 43% of residents at a homeless shelter are there because of a relationship break down.
Just 10% give drugs or alcohol as the reason for their situation.The charity says greater education is needed to change perceptions.Howard Russell from The Salvation Army, said: "One of the key hurdles we face is around people's attitudes.The Ipsos MORI research has revealed the general public believe alcohol and drugs are the root cause of homelessness when, according to the people in our services, it's actually relationship breakdowns”.
Alert: Dangerous Superman-branded ‘Ecstasy’ Pills Still Available
Public Health England (PHE) has issued a warning to people in the UK that Superman-branded pills being sold as ecstasy but containing the highly dangerous PMMA are still in circulation in Europe, and are urging drug users to be vigilant.
PHE received an alert from Spain on January 26 that pills containing high levels of PMMA (paramethoxymethamphetamine) had been discovered being sold in Madrid, suggesting availability across the continent has not significantly diminished despite the drugs' lethality.
The alert comes only shortly after the death of four people over the Christmas and New Year period in the UK who had taken Superman-branded pills containing PMMA.
Alert: Green Heineken ‘Ecstasy’ Pills warning
There is evidence that "Green Heineken" ecstasy pills are circulating in theAberdeen area.Self reports state that these pillsare "much stronger" and that they havelead to adverse, unexpected/unwanted reactions; e.g. violent sickness, severe hallucinations.
BLOGS, COMMENT & OPINION
Addicts Should Be Treated and Supported Into Recovery, Not Criminalised
In 2013, I called for a more honest debate about drug prohibition in an article that made headlines about how "police chief wants drugs legalised". My position is more complicated than that - and relates to how I think we can hit drug dealers where it hurts by helping - not criminalising - addicts.
I shape my arguments on drug reform under the following three headings: Money, Health, and Humanity.
Give addicts heroin, says top cop
Drug addicts should be given free heroin and not be regarded as criminals, one of the country’s most senior police officers said last night.
Mike Barton said addicts deserve support and police could not ‘arrest our way out of the problem’.
Durham's Chief Constable advocated giving registered addicts the drug and letting them take it under supervision in a ‘consumption room’.
It's important to have a drugs and alcohol policy in the workplace
It gives you a framework in which to operate supportively and appropriately, writes HR expert Gill Taylor.
More than a third of adults have taken a recreational drug at some point in their lives, and 28 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds have used a recreational drug in the past 12 months. In addition, nearly half of us are taking prescription drugs at any one time.
It becomes an HR issue when an occasional excess turns into a must-have fix that affects someone's work, breaches your charity's policies or health and safety rules or increases their sickness absence beyond reasonable levels.
Let’s face it, we need to introduce minimum pricing on alcohol, and legalise other drugs
If we can’t improve alcohol harms from rational minimum pricing then what other alternatives are there? One way would be to allow controlled and taxed access to other intoxicant drugs that are less harmful than alcohol such a cannabis and MDMA [ecstasy]. An argument can be made that a society that actively encourages the use of alcohol to provide tax income as the UK does has a moral (as well as utilitarian) obligation to allow its citizens access to other safer recreational drugs. These would also bring in tax revenue and because they are safer and less violence-inducing than alcohol would reduce the net cost to UK taxpayers.
Abstinence Counts and Counting Abstinence
"Counting abstinence is not just a wonderful tool for us all to demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment strategies in recovery-orientated systems of care. It is also a very effective tool in increasing abstinence among those attending treatment."
Scotland’s new Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISY) will for the first time gather data on how many people have ceased using alcohol or the drug that was the main problem they attended treatment for.
One small tick box for treatment providers is a giant leap for recovery journeys in a treatment setting in Scotland.
For daily links to drug and alcohol newsfollow Aberdeen City ADP on or visit
DrugScope Daily or DB Recovery Resources
EVENTS
Aberdeen in Recovery (Air) Hub
Don't forget that the Hub is now open again at The Foyer, Marywell Street, Aberdeen every Saturday from 10.00am-1.00pm.
The Hubis a Cafe for friends old and new to come together over a cuppa and a fine piece. A selection of teas, coffee, bacon rolls, butteries and pancakes is usually served. Everyone in, or interested in recovery from alcohol or drug misuse is welcome to socialise in a safe,friendly place or find out more about anything recovery related. We look forward to seeing our recovery community blossom and grow. See you soon!
Salvation Army Addictions Support Activities
2nd February – 25th May 2015
To assist those with drugs/alcohol issues move on with their lives and find meaningful employment.
It may not be possible to contact individuals to inform of cancellations so please call 01224 579370 to check if sessions are running.
No activities on 2ndMarch, Easter Monday 5thApril and 4th May 2015.
Central Aberdeenshire Alcohol, Drugs & BBV Forum
10thFebruary 2015 – 2.00pm at the Acorn Centre, Inverurie
The forum is a place for local people to come together to discuss local issues pertaining to alcohol and drug use. The Central Forum covers Formartine and Garioch and anyone living, working, studying or having an interest in alcohol and other drugs’ issues in these areas is welcome to come along.
For more information please contact Susan Weetman at or visit the Central Forum pages on the Aberdeenshire ADP website at
STUDY & TRAINING
Certificate of Higher Education
Drug and Alcohol Practice
The Certificate of Higher Education: Drug and Alcohol Practice is designed to introduce students to key concepts and ideas about drug and alcohol misuse. The programme will provide students with specialist knowledge and transferrable skills relevant to the addictions field. A major focus of the programme is the integration of theory into practice.
MSc/PG Dip/PG Cert
Drug and Alcohol Studies (full or part-time basis)
The MSc in Drug and Alcohol Studies is aimed at a wide range of people currently working with drug and alcohol issues in both specialist and generic settings, who wish to enhance and develop their knowledge and skills in the field of substance misuse. The programme will give students the opportunity to critically review theory and policy and critically reflect on implications for their practice in working with drug and alcohol problems.
Impact of Drug and Alcohol Problems on Children and Families
This University of Glasgow accredited course is being offered both as part of the Postgraduate Programme
in Drug and Alcohol Studies and as a stand alone Continuous Professional Development course.
The course aims are to:
• provide participants with critical analysis of the impact of problem drug and alcohol use on child and