Useful updates brought to you by people in long-term recovery, with the aim of helping you to help others achieve it also.

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Complimentary educational sessions by Nacoa, DrugFam, Al-Anon and Camino on 19 November, to coincide with National Alcohol Awareness Week.

A host of new smartphone apps are now available for people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Castle Craig made a list.

Public Health England figures show that 48% of injecting drug users are unaware of having hepatitis C, but rates of HIV in this group are claimed to be as low as 1%.

Areas with the most restrictive licensing policies had annual drink-related admissions 2% lower than otherwise expected, University of Bristol found.

Videos of Women’s Lives: short version and longer 9-minute version.

NICE is seeking to appoint expert members to its Public Health Advisory Committee to develop a new guideline on smoking cessation interventions and services. Apply by 3 December.

New booklet to support children and young people affected by a parent or carer’s alcohol or drug treatment is now available from the Children’s Society.

Located in Tamworth, Staffordshire, with a salary of £20,000-£30,000. Apply by 16 November.

Based in Hertfordshire, £14.50-£16.50 per hour. Apply by 8 December.

PHE and HCV Action showcase for good practice in the prevention, testing, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C, and identifying specific issues and potential solutions in the Brighton and wider Sussex area.

Faces & Voices of Recovery UK’s Annemarie Ward.

This year’s theme is: The EU Alcohol Strategy: Act Now!

The G1 Family Focus Support Group is being set up by Cecily Togher and Margaret Murphy, and supported by the Western Region Drugs Task Force.

Controversial plans to decriminalise drug use have been met with staunch opposition from both Fine Gael and sections of the Gardaí.

National Student Drug survey shows 82% of respondents tookillegal drugs at some stage in their lives – the same figure as those who smoked at least once.

Regular cannabis use independent of social context and an early onset of use (11-15 years) were correlates of cannabis dependence, Hamburg University found.

Latest issue of Drugnet Europe 92 covers recent conference, minimum quality standards for drug demand reduction interventions in the EU, new EMCDDA products and services and scientific paper award.

“While legalization has contributed to a growing number of pot smokers, the problem isn’t that you can go pick pot up at a store with a green leaf in the window; it’s that legalizing sends a message to the world that smoking pot is completely benign.”

How growing pot increases drought, drains electricity to power millions of homes and other environmental damage.  Also: “The landscape-scarring, energy-sucking, wildlife-killing reality of pot farming“.

“As a psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of addiction, I am struck by the stark contrast between addicted people using alcohol and other drugs actively and those who are in stable recovery,” writes Robert DuPont in the New York Times.

HIV infection amplified the already well-established association between acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and smoking and problematic alcohol use, the US Department of Veterans Affairs reported.

Alcohol abuse was associated with a 70% greater risk ofcongestive heart failure in adults and the link was especially strong among those under 60 years and those without high blood pressure, according to researchers who analyzed 858,187 patients in California.

Says he will bring the issue of drug abuse into the open if elected president.

New research in the journal Biology of Sex Differences.  Also:Women need different treatment from men for addiction, says McMaster University.

Slim adults with a ‘spare tyre’ of fat around their stomach have double the mortality risk than those who are overweight, the Mayo Clinic found.

Infographic from International Doctors for Healthier Drug Policies.