Really important study highlighting the limitations of nitazene testing strips as a harm reduction tool - very topical for Scotland at the moment. harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Our latest [open access] paper evaluated what happened to drug-related mortality risk among people with opioid dependence in Scotland during the Covid-19 pandemic. In short, they stabilised (at a very high level), and OAT remained highly protective. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In a sea of misleading articles and headlines today it falls to the Daily Record to provide some much needed perspective: www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...

Interesting article on the evolving issue of achieving optimal naloxone dosing. I also learned what the 'goldilocks principle' is - every day is a school day! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

BTW. If you’re a scientist and are feeling hollowed out, depressed, fried, frustrated, confused, and simply exhausted by everything, I understand you. You are perfectly sane and you are not alone.

This is a useful and thought provoking piece on so-called 'deaths of despair' by Shane Darke and colleagues onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Sad to hear of this. We had a lot of positive engagement with Christina last year in our work on stimulant use and building the case for provision of inhalation devices. Condolences to her family.

Proud to be have been awarded Fellowship status by @fphuk.bsky.social www.gcu.ac.uk/aboutgcu/uni...

Latest opioid dependence prevalence estimates for Scotland published today. publichealthscotland.scot/media/32049/...

Grateful to the staff and volunteers at Glasgow’s Thistle who told Today in Focus about their first few weeks in operation Inside the UK’s first drug consumption room – podcast www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

The recording of our webinar 'Polysubstance Use and Cocaine: Engaging and Supporting People' is now available to watch on our YouTube💻 You can also access the presentation slides in the video description. Thanks again to our speakers & everyone who attended on Wednesday. Watch now buff.ly/GTcaMLC

One of the more bizarre takes since the Glasgow Safer Consumption Facility opened is the number of outsiders pitching up and claiming the drug-related litter in Morrisons car park has accumulated since the facility opened - it's been accumulating for years and justifies the location of the service!

The long-awaited evaluation of Project ADDER is now out, and makes fascinating reading for all with a concern for illicit drug problems in England and Wales. A thread: 1/? ttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/project-adder-impact-evaluation/project-adder-impact-evaluation#key-findings

Looking forward to giving evidence this week (Wed 0930) at UK Parliament Scottish Affairs Committee Inquiry into Glasgow's Safer Drug Consumption Facility. In good company with @catrionamath.bsky.social @gwshorter.bsky.social and @vkatikireddi.bsky.social committees.parliament.uk/committee/13...

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

Surprised to see the Scottish Affairs Committee written evidence portal closing so early on deadline day - hopefully nobody been caught out! committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evi...

A reminder that the Thistle service was originally proposed on the back of an HIV outbreak among people who inject drugs in Glasgow in 2015 (!), and the strongest predictor of infection was Cocaine injecting. We still have limited treatment options for this group. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Want to know how Scotland is faring in its progress toward achieving HCV Elimination? Our latest annual report is out now: www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications...

📣 Abstract submission for our 2025 Annual Conference is now open! 📥 Email [email protected] with your submissions by 7th March 2025 Abstract guidelines: https://buff.ly/4gf7c5G Register for conference: https://buff.ly/41HrxN2 Details below⬇️

Encouraging start for Glasgow's new Safer Drug Consumption Facility with over 130 uses in its first week: www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/2487264...

🚨 New paper: ‘The implementation of safer drug consumption facilities in Scotland: a mixed methods needs assessment and feasibility study for the city of Edinburgh’ harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Media debate over the last week on the launch of Glasgow's drug consumption facility has been thoroughly depressing. Advocates & opponents consistently missing the main aim of the service (to reduce harm related to public injecting in the immediate area) and being dragged into a drug death debate.

Wishing all the service users and staff every success when the UK's first sanctioned safer drug consumption facility ('The Thistle') finally opens tomorrow in Glasgow. Privileged to be part of the team evaluating it.

This piece features footage of some of the public drug use sites we have been surveying in Glasgow City over the past 6 months as part of our baseline data collection for the Thistle evaluation. There are certainly no shortage of these sites within the vicinity of where the service is located.

Very fortunate to get a sneak peek of the Glasgow Safer Drug Consumption Facility ('The Thistle') today ahead of opening on Monday. Really interesting layout shaped by people with LLE. On a personal note, it was nice to see how much our evaluation of the HAT service next door influenced the design.

Starting off 2025 with a new publication! In this study we evaluated the 'WAND' initiative; a novel multi-component contingency management intervention aimed at enhancing harm reduction engagement among people who inject drugs www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Looking forward to sharing results from our EPHeSUS research programme and outlining our future plans at this event. Join us!

Comments from @niamhrelease.bsky.social @paulsweeney.bsky.social and I on this latest article covering the imminent safer drug consumption facility ('Thistle') in Glasgow... www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Science’s 2024 Breakthrough of the Year is lenacapavir, an injectable drug that demonstrated remarkable success at preventing HIV infection with one shot every 6 months. Learn more about this year's #BOTY and other big advances in science: scim.ag/3BrCtUn

Glasgow drug consumption room to open within weeks www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'Glasgow - Delivering the UK's first Drug Consumption Room' new Drugs Uncut episode out now🎙️ We were joined by Dr Saket Priyadarshi & Gillian Ferguson to discuss delivering the UK's first drug consumption room - the issues it will address; how it has been designed & delivered. buff.ly/3ZhLfMH

This finger wagging approach has got us nowhere, amazed to see it still gets air time. Changing the law will help but it's no magic bullet. Plenty devolved powers still not being implemented effectively. Ihttps://www.thenational.scot/politics/24780117.scotland-genuinely-hamstrung-drug-deaths-crisis/

This is still my favourite. I use it as part of a UG lecture on history of mass media PH campaigns, and every year I have to explain who Marc Bolan is and why this would have been a scoop endorsement at the time - kids today, bah!

My team at the University of Edinburgh are hiring a Senior Research Fellow to join us on our Wellcome funded 7 year project 'Discovering Liveability: Co-producing Alternatives to Suicide Prevention' #academicjob #suicide #suicideprevention #qualitative elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Our latest paper now available in HIV Medicine @bhiva.bsky.social examined mortality among people who inject drugs living with HIV in Scotland over a 20-year period and found increases over time, driven by a rise in drug-related deaths. OAT [again] was protective.

⭐BOOK LAUNCH⭐ Hear from the authors of 'Social Murder' - David Walsh & Gerry McCartney - and engage with expert discussion about the impact of austerity on life expectancy in the UK. An informative event that shouldn't be missed. See you there Monday 2nd December! Eventbrite link in bio 👀

I made one for 'types of paper in epidemiology and public health' #EpiSky

Disease prevalence in US states before & after vaccine introduction Graphic from Edward Tufte More graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d... 🧪

One more way of looking at just how bad Scotland's drug deaths crisis is - here's the drug misuse mortality rate for every local authority in the UK. Scottish authorities are in blue. Blackpool is a significant outlier compared to the rest of England (and Wales and NI), but not compared to Scotland

My first post on this new platform will be sharing our recent research into Suicide among people with opioid dependence. In short, risk is much higher than the general population (8 times higher), but rates have fallen over time and treatment is protective. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...