blog

The smoke and mirrors of vaping

A new report about the tobacco harm reduction potential of safer nicotine products (SNP) such as e-cigarettes tries to clear the air of lies, propaganda and misinformation confusing smokers and politicians alike. By Harry Shapiro I have spent the last…

No REST for the vulnerable

The threatened closure of London’s only specialist support service for those battling tranquiliser dependency underlines the parlous state of UK healthcare for this patient group. By Harry Shapiro Based in north London, REST (Recovery Experience Sleeping Tablets and Tranquilisers) has…

Spice zombies and the return of the drug fiend

The current fashion for linking spice users to supernatural horrors is the latest chapter in the stigmatisation of high risk drug users. By Harry Shapiro I was preparing my presentation on spice for the recent HIT Hot Topics conference. I’d…

Mortality matters – but how much does it matter?

The unwelcome arrival of fentanyl onto the UK heroin market made this important Addaction conference even more timely. But hand-wringing is not enough. What needs to be done? By Harry Shapiro. The figures are not huge, about 3000 drug-related deaths…

Drug law reform and the three card trick

This year Addaction celebrates its 50th anniversary and to commemorate the event, they are holding a series of lectures, of which this, given by Professor David Nutt on why we should decriminalise personal possession of all drugs, is the first.…

When one door closes…

The Psychoactive Substances Act shut down many head shops and other retail outlets selling NPS. But the problem of Spice-type synthetic cannabinoids seems to be growing among the nation’s homeless and other vulnerable groups. Should the door now open on…

DAA not DOA

Thanks to new Direct-Acting Antiviral treatment (DAA), hepatitis c could be dead and buried. But before that day arrives, NHS rationing threatens  a death sentence for thousands of patients. A mixture of anger and optimism at the Addaction World Hepatitis…

The ENDS justifies the ends

You would think that a product with the potential to save a billion tobacco-related deaths this century without costing tax-payers a penny would be universally welcomed by governments and the global public health community. You’d be wrong. Startling revelations from…

A rogue by any other name

How useful is it to talk about rogue batches of drugs? By Harry Shapiro What do the following have in common? Green apple and rolex; red dragon; yellow grenade; superman; teddy bears and blue ninja turtles. Following well-publicised incidents over…

The depressing truth about antidepressants

By Harry Shapiro The brain has a whole fleet of chemical couriers called neurotransmitters (NTs) which it uses to send messages to different parts of the body. They are released across a synaptic gap to engage with receptors on the…