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Breaking Free from Addiction Wolverhampton Drug Service User Lifestyle Magazine May - June 2012 Service Directory Service User Poems Hep C Trust Van Simple Recipe Interview with Steve USB Giveaway SUIT are giving away FREE 1GB USB Sticks pre loaded with a CV Template and Volunteer Application Breaking free Form to anyone who signs up to a Learn Direct from addiction Course through SUIT. Substance Magazine Editorial Group. This magazine is put together by Wolverhamp- ton Service User Involvement Team who hold weekly editorial group meetings to discuss its content, printing etc. If you would like to be part of the Team please call us on (01902) 328983 or text your details to 80809 starting your message with the word SUIT. Welcome to issue 29 of Substance magazine, Firstly i would like to say goodbye for now and good luck to Caroline our admin worker who has gone on maternity leave, and hello to Suzanne who is covering the post and who was a volunteer for us. Welcome to the team!! I hope you enjoy this issue of Substance magazine, we have included info on all of our activities, available to anyone ac- cessing Wolverhampton drug and alcohol treatment services, please come along and get involved. We were lucky enough in April to have the Hep C trust come down to Wolverhampton with their van to test people their and then, it was a great turn out (considering the weather), thanks to all our volunteers who helped out on the day, see page 8 for the full story. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this issue of the magazine, please continue to send us your work, the magazine wouldn't exist without it!! Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of this work, no responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any statement in it, can be accepted by the editor or by Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council Service User Involvement Team,2 What’s inside this edition Contents Page The latest news Pg 4-5 The Light– Poem Pg 6 Goodbye Letter Pg 7 Hepatitis C Van Pg 8 SUIT Activities Pg 9 Brains wired for addiction? Pg 10-11 Cannabis memory effects examined Pg 12-13 Solvents– The Low Down Pg 14 A page for you Pg 15-16 Easy recipe Pg 17 Russell Brand– More compassion Pg 18-19 It’s Time Pg 20 Time Out Pg 21 No more Cafe’s Pg 22-23 Local NA meetings Pg 24 Needle Exchange Pharmacies Pg 25 Local service Directory Pg 26-27 DON’T FORGET Anyone can contribute an article, poem, story, question etc. Send your stuff FREE to: SUIT, c/o WVSC, FREEPOST MID14051,3 Wolverhampton, WV2 4BR. News - News - News – News - News - News - News - News Mexxy’ banned under temporary drug order The ‘legal high’ methoxetamine – also known as MXE or mexxy – has become the first substance to be banned under a temporary class drug order (TCDO). TCDOs, which came into effect late last year (DDN, December 2011, page 4), give the home secretary power to ban any substance consid- ered potentially harmful for a period of 12 months, pending advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) on a permanent ban. Methoxetamine has been advertised on the internet since late 2010 as a ‘safe’ and legal alternative to ketamine, the effects of which it is said to mimic. According to advice from ACMD submitted to the home secretary, the chemical structure of methoxetamine closely resembles that of both ketamine and phencyclidine (PCP). The ACMD said that while there was very little information on the prevalence of methoxetamine use in the UK, there had been at least nine cases of analytically-confirmed acute methoxetamine toxicity in UK hospi- tals in the last six months. Although the drug is marketed as a ‘bladder- friendly’ version of ketamine – long-term use of which is associated with chronic bladder pathology – the chronic harms associated with the sub- stance remained unknown, said ACMD. People caught supplying, manufacturing or importing the drug will now face up to 14 years in prison. Crime minister Lord Henley said the ban showed that the UK was ‘leading the way in cracking down on new psy- choactive substances’. The home secretary has also informed the ACMD that a review of the lat- est evidence on ketamine itself is ‘now warranted’, as part of a letter set- ting out priorities for inclusion in the council’s 2012-13 work programme. ACMD last reviewed ketamine in 2004, which led to the drug’s classification as class C under Labour. 4 News - News - News – News - News - News - News - News Liver disease deaths in England up 25% Deaths from liver disease: implications for end of life care in England shows a 25 per cent increase in deaths from liver disease between 2001 and 2009, from just over 9,200 to more than 11,500. Around 90 per cent of people who die from liver disease are under 70, with the disease accounting for more than one in ten deaths of people in their 40s. Alcohol-related liver disease accounted for 37 per cent of all liver disease deaths – 30 per cent among women and 41 per cent among men. Just 28 per cent of alcohol-related liver disease deaths occurred in the least deprived areas, compared to 44 per cent in the most deprived. ‘The key drivers for increasing numbers of deaths from liver disease are all preventable, such as alcohol, obesity, hepatitis C and hepatitis B,’ said national clinical director for liver disease, professor Martin Lombard. ‘We must focus our efforts and tackle this problem sooner rather than later.’ People were also being diagnosed late in their condition, said British Liver Trust chief executive Andrew Langford, exposing the ‘inadequacies in our healthcare system in identifying patients early and the lack of will to invest in prevention strategies’. Farewell Dr Ryan More Compassion SUIT would like to say a massive Comedian and actor Russell Brand goodbye and good luck to Dr has told MPs taking drugs should George Ryan. Dr Ryan has been not be seen as a "criminal or judi- working with addiction services for cial matter" but a "health issue". 10 years, and over those years has Speaking at the Home Affairs gone out of his way to help and Select Committee inquiry into support service users in anyway pos- drugs policy he said: "We need to sible. change the laws in this country You will be sadly missed by the staff and have a more compassionate, and service users within Wolver- altruistic, loving attitude to the hampton drug treatment services. people with the disease of addiction." More on page 18!!! Good luck for the future!! 5 The Light You sit alone in a lonely place Not realising the time that you waste But the high it gets higher and higher Its hard to look away from the things you desire And when it all takes over you You don't even realise the things that you do no more Its just up for the score Yeah You wake up and you just want more, you just want more.............. But don't let the bad times bring you down You can be happy, you don't have to frown I look at the stars and I look at the lights and I look at the trees and I think about life Cause life is wide open and anything can Happen you might even meet the person who might even save your life By Dan Richards To listen to more of Daniels work just visit www.soundcloud.com/daniel-richards-guitar/the- light www.soundcloud.com/dannyrmusic 6 GOODBYE LETTER 5th March 2012 Mr Big Bud 101 Cloud Nine Road to nowhere Red Eye City WRO NGUN Dear Big Bud, I am writing this letter to say goodbye forever, as I have finally realised that I don’t need you in my life anymore, I used to use you to relieve myself from stress and get away from everyday life of bore- dom but now I have found coping strategies to help me deal with these feeling’s I have being without you. You have been in my life since I was 11 years old,14 whole years and you never gave me chance to live my life as a child, you made me grow up way too quick which led me to hang round with people at ages 18-20 while I was still a young child, you took over which then you led me to bigger/harder substances, you have messed with my head for too long and my memory is rubbish thanks to you, I used you while talking my GCSE’s and due to this I went on to try harder drugs, I never completed any GCSE’s at all, I even got offered £500 per exam I took, by my step dad, which was 9 altogether which is £4,500 you, along with other substances, cost me at the time because I was more interested in you, let alone all the money I have wasted on you, I would be able to buy me own house by now if it weren’t for you, I also have an unborn child to think about and if I continue to use you, you will become part of my child’s life and I can’t have that, you are not taking away her innocence too, which is what would happen if you I stayed with you.
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