Interesting data you may have missed from the world of alcohol and other drugs over the last month Part of a regular series.

1. Interesting things
about alcohol and
other drugs
December 2015
Andrew Brown @andrewbrown365

2. Calls to the National Poisons Information Service about
drug misuse that were classified as severe based on
clinical features at the time of enquiry or follow up
Source: National Poisons
Information ServiceAnnualReport
2014/15
NB Clinicians are less
likely to call the NPIS
when dealing with
exposures to substances
with which they are
familiar, such as opioids.

3. Branded products most commonly involved in
telephone enquiries to NPIS and TOXBASE accesses
When enquiries on
synthetic cannabinoids
and branded products
thought to contain these
agents were combined,
there was a 144%
increase in telephone
enquiry activity over the
previous year.
TOXBASE accesses
related to synthetic
cannabinoids have
increased by 151% in the
last year.
Source: National Poisons
Information ServiceAnnualReport
2014/15

4. Drugs of misuse categories involved in telephone
enquiries and TOXBASE accesses in 2014/15
Source: National Poisons
Information ServiceAnnualReport
2014/15

5. Number of recorded police incidents in
Newcastle involving new psychoactive
substances in 2014
Source: A Whole City Responseto
the Use of NovelPsychoactive
Substances (NPS)by Young Peoplein
Newcastle-upon-Tyne

6. Crime types for which Data Retention and
Investigatory Powers Act 2014 is used
Communications data is used
in the investigation of 90% of
all serious crime. In 2013-14,
the NCA report that
interception played a critical
role in investigations that
resulted in:
Over 2,200 arrests;
Over 750 kg of heroin
and 2,000 kg of
cocaine seized;
Over 140 firearms seized;
and
Over £20,000,000 seized.
Source: A Question of Trust
Report of the Investigatory
Powers Review

7. Kilos of cocaine and heroin seizures in
England and Wales
Three quarters of
cocaine (65%) and
heroin (66%) seized in
2014/15 was in
quantities under 1g.
3% of cocaine and 2% of
heroin seized weighed
more than 500g.
Source: Seizures of drugs in England
and Wales, financial year ending
2015

8. Quantities of cannabis seized in England
and Wales
Around one quarter (27%)
of seizures of herbal
cannabis were of quantities
weighing less than 1 gram.
Around a half (49%) of
seizures of cannabis resin
made by the police forces
were between 5 grams and
10 grams.
Almost half (48%) of
seizures of cannabis
plants were of quantities of
five plants or fewer.
Source: Seizures of drugs in England
and Wales, financial year ending
2015

9. People with substance misuse conditions
and claiming benefits by whether they
were accessing treatment
NB “An individual may be
undergoing both drugs
and alcohol treatment
and would appear in both
figures, therefore to
avoid double counting
these individuals, totals
can not be summed
across drugs and alcohol
treatment.”
Source: Working age benefit
recipientsin drug or alcohol
treatment

10. Rates of Drugs-related Death Rates Soon
After Hospital-discharge for People in the
Treatment System in Scotland
For the cohort of over 98,000
drug treatment clients in
Scotland, there is a high drugs-
related death [DRD] risk in the 28
days after hospital-discharge.
Length of hospital-stay had no
effect on DRD-rate, discharge-
diagnosis had an effect (as did
reported misuse of alcohol) but
neither was as discriminatory as
the behavioral risk-factor of
having ever injected.
Source: White SR, Bird SM,
Merrall ELC, Hutchinson SJ (2015)
Drugs-RelatedDeath Soonafter
Hospital-Dischargeamong Drug
Treatment Clients in Scotland:
Record Linkage,Validation,and
Investigationof Risk-Factors.
PLoS ONE 10(11):e0141073.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.014107
3
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/a
rticle?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal
.pone.0141073

11. Naloxone distributed in the community
and in prisons in Scotland
“The percentage of all
opioid-related deaths that
occurred within four
weeks of prison release
fell steadily from 9.8%
during 2006-10 (before
the programme) to 3.1% in
2014. This substantial fall
reflects both increasing
total opiate-related
deaths and falls in the
relatively small number of
deaths within four weeks
of prison release.”
Source: National Naloxone
Programme Scotland - Monitoring
Report 2014/15

12. Number of take home naloxone kits
supplied per year in Scotland
“A total of 7,376 THN
kits were issued in
Scotland in 2014/15, an
increase of 14% on the
previous year, bringing
the cumulative number of
kits issued since the start
of the program (2011/12
to 2014/15) to 21,140.”
Source: National Naloxone
Programme Scotland - Monitoring
Report 2014/15

13. Reasons for resupplying take home
naloxone kits in Scotland in 2014-15
Source: National Naloxone
Programme Scotland - Monitoring
Report 2014/15
For Scotland as a whole,
supply of kits increased
from 54 kits per 1,000
problem drug users
(PDUs) in 2011/12 to
122 per 1,000 PDUs in
2014/15.

14. Recorded contacts by substance misuse
teams using the Mental Health Minimum
Dataset (MHMDS)
Source: Mental Health Bulletin,
Annual Report From MHMDS
Returns, England
Data taken from the
appropriate national
reference data tables in
Mental Health Bulletin
Annual Reports

15. Number of fixed-term recalls to prison by
original offence, 2014
Source:
http://www.parliament.uk/busi
ness/publications/written-
questions-answers-
statements/written-
question/Commons/2015-09-
08/9384/

16. Number of days between sentence or
release and the first appointment with
the offender manager
Source: Transforming
Rehabilitation- Early
Implementation3
“We’ve recently being
doing the impact on
victims. How it upsets
the general public and
people around me. I
take notes and this
helps me control my
alcohol
usage. It has helped me
not to smoke cannabis.
I’ve reduced my
consumption of
alcohol and cannabis
since working with my
OM [offender
manager]”

17. Leading cause of DALYs and percentage
change from 1990 to 2013 (Males)
Source: Global burdenof disease
England - infographicslide set

18. Share of total alcohol consumed by the
20% of the population who drink the most
Source: Health at a Glance -
Alcohol(OECD)
“Alcohol
consumption is
highly
concentrated, as
the large majority
of alcohol is drunk
by the 20% of the
population who
drink the most,
with some
variation across
countries.”
63%
Source: Health at a Glance -
Alcohol(OECD)

19. Short-term outcomes for opiate and
crack users accessing treatment in
England (1 of 2)“Significant, and substantive,
improvements in most
behavioural measures were
recorded, and were achieved
within a relatively short period
of time following enrolment in
treatment. The study
demonstrates that these
successful outcomes continued
to be the norm for the English
opiate- and/or crack-user
treatment population, despite a
doubling in the number of drug
users treated, and changes in
referral patterns and drug use
profiles.”
Source: Short-term outcomes for
opiate and crack users accessing
treatment: the effects of criminal
justice referral and crack use.

20. Short-term outcomes for opiate and
crack users accessing treatment in
England (2 of 2)
“The results observed here
demonstrate that, in the face
of marked changes in the
English drug treatment
population, the positive
improvement in behavioural
outcomes observed in
previous studies has been
sustained. Positive changes
were observed in the short
term but did not necessarily
equate to abstention from all
drug taking and offending
behaviour.”
Source: Short-term outcomes for
opiate and crack users accessing
treatment: the effects of criminal
justice referral and crack use.

21. Estimated number of people living with
HIV (both diagnosed and undiagnosed) in
the UK as a result of injecting drug use“In 2014, an estimated
2,160 people who inject
drugs were living with
HIV in the UK (1,500
men and 650 women),
of whom 11% were
unaware of their HIV
status. The estimated
prevalence of HIV
among this population
in the UK was 2.2 per
1,000 aged 15-44 in
2014.”
Source: HIV in the UK – Situation
Report 2015: Incidence,
prevalence and prevention

22. Change in the number of breath tests
carried out by police in England and
Wales & the proportion that are positive
Source: Police powers and
proceduresEngland and Wales
year ending31 March 2015
Police carried out
607,000 breath
tests in 2014, a fall
of 10% compared
with the 676,000
breath tests carried
out in 2013.
Eleven per cent of
breath tests carried
out in 2014 were
positive or refused,
up one percentage
point on 2013.

23. Stop and search in England and Wales in
2014-15
Source: Police powers and
proceduresEngland and Wales
year ending31 March 2015
In the year ending
March 2015, there
were 541,000 stops
and searches
conducted by police in
England and Wales, a
fall of 40% compared
with the previous
year. Two in every
three were on
suspicion of drug
possession or supply.
NB - Although the arrest rate can be
used as an indicator for the
effectiveness of stop and search, there
are a number of other outcomes (such
as drugs possession warnings, cautions
etc.) that may be used by police when
carrying out a stop and search which
are not covered here.

24. The proportion of stop and searches carried
out by police relating to suspicion of drug
offences
Source: Police powers and
proceduresEngland and Wales
year ending31 March 2015
While the number
of stop and
searches carried
out on suspicion of
drug offences have
halved since
2010/11, the
proportion that
they make of all
stop and searches
has risen by 9%
points over the
same period.

25. Proportion of stop and searches by police
in England and Wales for suspected drug
offences by ethnicity
It appears that BAME communities are
over represented in the stop and search
where drugs offences are suspected.
About 85% of the general population
identify as White British or White Other.
Source: Police powers and
proceduresEngland and Wales
year ending31 March 2015

26. Mean dosage (mg) of MDMA taken per
night of use
Source: how do we take
drugs in 2015?
"The British still do binging
and excess really well --
they don't do moderation,"
observes Dr. Winstock.
"There's something around
Britishness that equates
more with better, and
that's the dialogue that
needs to change. More
drugs does not equal a
better night."

27. Reported purity of brown heroin in
Europe in 2013
Source:
http://www.emcdda.euro
pa.eu/data/stats2015#dis
playTable:PPP-77-0

28. Merseyside Annual Drug Intervention
Programme report 2014/15
Just over half of all
successful drug tests
carried out in Merseyside
in 2014/15 were positive
(51.0%).
Of the 4,923 positive
tests the highest
proportion was seen
among those testing
positive for opiates
(51.8%) often in
combination with cocaine
(38.8%).
Source: Merseyside Annual
DIP report 14/15

29. The proportion of high-
risk people with
substance misuse
problems over 60
years of age that don’t
receive the treatment
that they require.
93%
Source: Substance
misuse in older people:
an information guide,
Royal College of
Psychiatrists