Many thanks to the Cross-Committee meeting members for having me along today representing Scottish Drugs Forum. You can view the session here if you missed it - scottishparliament.tv/meeting/crimin…

Join us from 10:00 this morning with Health, Social Care and Sport Committee and Social Justice and Social Security Committee when we’ll scrutinise measures to tackle Scotland’s drug deaths and drug harm. We’ll hear from Scottish Drugs Forum Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs NHS Tayside followed by Christina McKelvie and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Watch live here: ow.ly/Vfhf50Rpbua

Tonight Andrew McAuley delivered an absolutely fantastic professorial lecture Glasgow Caledonian University detailing his career, achievements and contributions to research in the area of injecting drug use. Brilliant work.

The risks of injecting drugs are escalating thanks to the arrival of synthetic opioids in Scotland - found in 18 deaths in the last 6 months of the latest data.

So for many Glasgow's safer injecting site – due to open in 'late summer' is long overdue. But will it be enough?

Great podcast on drug user organising with me & Wez from Scottish Drugs Forum. We explore harm reduction and recovery, look at practical issues like payments for peers, and I get to celebrate drug user activism from Afghanistan to Philippines to Nigeria. #PeerWorks

This has been a bit of a labour of love… but excited to publish this day-in-the-life podcast about Toronto’s Moss Park Consumption and Treatment Service next week.

We've started recruiting for the Safer Drug Consumption Facility

Want to find out more about the roles? We're holding recruitment sessions (in person & online) on 1 May 2024 where service leads will answer your questions.

Email [email protected] to book a place

Lovely to celebrate 20 years of this fantastic project with another inspiring group of trainee graduates.
And delighted to re-launch the project under the new name of SDF’s National Traineeship 🤩
Looking forward to welcoming this year’s trainees very soon!

Congratulations to all our AWTP/RWTP trainees graduating today!

We are proud of all your dedication, resilience and determination over the last 9 months.

#AWTP20 #NationalTraineeship

You can now register for the N8 conference on drug policing in Manchester on 2nd July. registrations.hg3conferences.co.uk/hg3/frontend/r…

Very sad to hear this news. Naomi Burke-Shyne is an inspiring leader, showing compassion, strength, resilience and determination. She has been an incredible support to me moving in to the CEO role with Scottish Drugs Forum and will be hugely missed. Wishing her all the best for the future ❤

This is a very important point - while witnessing & responding to overdose and coping with overdose deaths was hard, the lack of action by governments to scale-up services to address the crisis of preventable overdose deaths was also traumatizing workers. They felt abandoned.

An overlooked aspects of the drug toxicity overdose crisis has been the emotional impacts of overdose on front-line harm reduction workers. Our new paper in International Journal of Drug Policy explores the devastating toll from overdose on the wellbeing of workers, and strategies to support them 🧵

.Hillcrest has applied for Home Office licence to check illegal drugs for contaminants in Dundee.
Drugs & Alcohol Minister Christina McKelvie said the charity service, with Scottish Government support, will speed the response to emerging trends & reduce risk.

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📣 Booking is now open for our next in person event!

Trends in drug use and harms in Scotland - What’s happening; what next and what we can do

📅 Thursday 30th May
📍 Stirling

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We're saddened by Russell Newcombe's passing. He was key in Liverpool's harm reduction movement, advocating for normalization of drug use. His impact on policy reform was significant. Our thoughts are with Cheryl Newcombe-White, also a strong advocate of drug users' rights

RIP Russell. A true harm reduction pioneer.

There's still time to register for our Public Health
Drug Related Deaths Conference 2024 - taking place online Thursday 25th April. We have many great speakers planned more details here: ims.ljmu.ac.uk/DRDconference #DRDevent

31 March was International #DrugChecking Day, Scotland still lacks the drug checking services which would allow people to check what the drugs they have been sold actually contain. Our Living Experience work supports people who want their drugs checked.

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Excellent example of widespread availability of drug checking services in New Zealand - in 2023 NZ Drug Foundation tested 2602 samples at 98 clinics 👏🏼
Scotland would benefit from this approach