Victorian Pill Testing Service | Confidential Drug Checking The Victorian Pill Testing Service is a free, legal and confidential health service that aims to reduce drug-related harm through substance analysis and personalised harm reduction advice.

Exciting news that the Victoria (Australia not Canada) Pill Testing Service has opened! www.vicpilltesting.org.au Have done festivals and now a fixed-site. Fantastic to see a Melbourne service opening. Along with the amazing @cantestcbr.bsky.social hopefully more Aus sites to come.

We have launched Test & Know, our fundraising campaign to help us expand our testing across the UK. We are asking for a donation of £12 - the cost of testing one substance in our mobile labs.

wearetheloop.org/test-and-know

@cranstoun.org .

It was organised by Cranstoun but had to close for the time being as not enough calls to justify it. Might need to re-open later in 2025 if Afghan heroin supply gets even more scanty and the harms from its replacement by unpredictable synthetic opioids ( “nitazenes” in the UK) increase.

I was part of the similar “BuddyUp” scheme which grew out of the Canadian model and ran in the U.K. until April this year. I agree it was used by very different people from those who might go to a drug consumption space. Often very private rather techy people who had WiFi and private space to use.

Drug Alert - Fake Ketamine - Cranstoun We are aware of multiple reports in recent days from people experiencing unusual and potentially dangerous effects after using what they thought was ketamine. There appear to be two batches in circula...

“ cranstoun.org/news/drug-al...

San Francisco limits access to drug-use supplies: Will it help, or make things even worse? The city will prohibit the distribution of safe drug use supplies, unless the outfits distributing them offer counseling services or connections to care.

"San Francisco will no longer allow the distribution of safe drug use supplies, including sterile syringes and smoking kits, unless the outfits distributing the supplies offer counseling services or connect recipients to services, the Mayor’s Office announced on Wed"
missionlocal.org/2025/04/san-...

clearingtheair.eu/en/post/nico... “Nicotine is NOT carcinogenic & does not cause heart disease” states leading cardiologist
Prof. Reuven Zimlichman, Director of the Institute for Quality in Medicine at the Israeli Medical Association. Tabloid fear-mongering articles. In the UK causes more harm.

@clivebates.bsky.social wrote open letter to Dr Maxime Boidin, Manchester Metropolitan University, highlighting flagrant dishonesty of many tobacco harm reduction opponents ignoring basic principles of scientific decency. Highly recommend reading this
clivebates.com/papers-and-l...

Musk is the culmination of a slow-moving corporate coup by the oligarch class that has been decades in the making. But that doesn't change the fact that this marks a new and unspeakably dangerous chapter.

“We created a division between #harmreduction and #recovery but we are on the same damn team!
Without the safety of harm reduction people don't live to find recovery with today's toxic drug supply.”
@guyfelicella.bsky.social CIAJ conference.
#DrugSky

Association of safer smoking supply distribution with participant encounters and naloxone distribution from syringe services programs: Findings from the National Survey of Syringe Services Programs in... In response to the recent and growing shift from injecting heroin to smoking fentanyl, an increasing number of syringe services programs (SSPs) in the…

Our new study found 44% of syringe services programs (SSPs) distributed safer smoking supplies in 2022. SSPs distributing supplies had more participant encounters and naloxone distribution. Safer smoking supplies are a key tool to connect people who use drugs to life-saving services.

US teen nicotine vaping dropped 70% over the past 5 years, to a 10-year low. Teen cigarette smoking "mysteriously" dropped 90%, to near zero, over the past decade. It's now at a 50-year low. Teen nicotine use is at an all-time low.

Why is moral panic over teen vaping at an all-time high?

Really important deabate James, I wrote a piece with Alex Aldridge - theconversation.com/drugs-resear...

It is hard to imagine a greater deterrent for seeking life saving care at a hospital for, say, an infection, than the possibility of being detained and shipped out to a jail cell in the name of “involuntary care.” Not to mention the deterrent to call 911 if someone you know is in medical distress.

Huge well done & thanks to everyone who has worked for over a decade to get here. I met Cllr Casey at a harm reduction conference really - such an inspiring team. Looking forward to working together to impact drug laws in the UK so more facilities can open & more lives can be saved. 💚

2/2

I keep being told Afghan heroin still available in UK, but looks like some people are dangerously experimenting with various nitazenes, just in case as threatened, a third Afghan harvest is missed this year, and heroin begins to get scarce.
Here are 3 worrying screen shots from WEDINOS website

YouTube video by SocialImpactFilms Drug Consumption Rooms: The Geneva Experience

Here’s another view of the Geneva DCR, d SF gown today on channel 4 news, as visited in 2013 by myself, my husband and Philippe Bonnet (17 mins). We thought at the time, it was common sense, though clearly not a silver bullet. UK Home Office disagreed. m.youtube.com/watch?v=iMTd...

UK’s first drug consumption room set to open in Glasgow In a few days, the UK’s first drug consumption room will open its doors in Glasgow. The centre, known as 'The Thistle’, will provide a clean place for people to inject drugs under medical supervision.

UK’s first drug consumption room set to open in Glasgow

www.channel4.com/news/uks-fir...

Spot on. It is at the end of the hour, on iPlayer .. I agree, changing schedules has not been found to reduce levels of use. But as you say there are other things we can and need to do to reduce harms. (Very well done for getting in a mention of the need for more drug checking)

I share our insights and learning from reviewing drug deaths in this blog from Pharmacy Together. We know the risks and need to share and inform folk to reduce drug harms. Pharmacy colleagues and beyond please use and share. @pharmacyinpractice.bsky.social

pharmacytogether.co.uk/reducing-ris...

Most smokers realise that smoking could shorten their life but not the impact of each cigarette they smoke.

The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life: 17 for men and 22 for women.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

UK's first drug consumption room to open this month in Glasgow The facility will allow people to take illegal drugs under medical supervision.

UK’s first official Safer Drug Consumption Facility, ‘The Thistle’, to finally open in Glasgow on 13th January
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#Aurora red alert… if you brave the cold the conditions for viewing are excellent

Image from NHS encouraging people to get tested now to help eliminate hepatitis C. 'The new NHS test-at-home service for hepatitis C is safe, discreet and easy to use. Order your free kit today.'

If you may be at risk of hepatitis C, you can now order a discreet at-home testing kit for free on the NHS.

Find out more here:

hepctest.nhs.uk/ref/ljw

#HepCantWait #GetTested #NoOneLeftBehind

"UK's first drug consumption room to open in Glasgow" - Located on Hunter Street in the city’s east end, the facility – known as the Thistle – will open on January 13 and operate between 9am and 9pm, 365 days a year - www.itv.com/news/2025-01...

US Surgeon General sounds alarm about link between alcohol and cancer | CNN The advisory “highlights alcohol use as a leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, contributing to nearly 100,000 cancer cases and about 20,000 cancer deaths each year.”

US Surgeon General warns alcohol is a "leading preventable cause of cancer," with risk of certain cancers increasing after one or fewer drinks per day

I'm appealing to colleagues and the organisations I work with to stop using X/Twitter. The platform now extracts profit by promoting a racist who hates modern Britain, incites violence and is in continued contempt of court. Continuing to use X is not compatible with our values.

The best thing about 2024?
#drugchecking went mainstream, including @theloopuk.bsky.social starting regular drug checking in the UK & The Loop AU starting regular drug checking in 3 Australian states.
Thanks, appreciation & admiration to the 1000s of Loop volunteers & supporters who contributed.

Understanding the Implications of the Taliban’s Opium Ban in Afghanistan The Taliban’s opium ban, coupled with Afghan farmers’ replacement of poppy largely with low-value wheat, is likely to worsen dissatisfaction and political tensions. The Taliban’s persistence in enforc...

Poppy fields were replaced by wheat in 2024. Now third year of the Taliban ban holding well in most areas. It has taken longer than expected for this to result in shortages of heroin in Europe, as landowners had big stocks of saved opium, but can this last much longer? www.usip.org/publications...