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The purpose of this paper is to outline the latest policy announcements by the UK Government and how they relate to people who have co-occurring mental health and substance use problems.

A rapid review was undertaken of policy, strategy and guidance.

All three publications are united by their ambition to improve the care and treatment for people who have developed problems with substances and their mental health. The challenge will be to realise these ambitions in an environment where financial and human resources are contracting.

It is important for clinicians, commissioners of treatment and researchers to be kept informed of policy development and how these initiatives will affect people with mental health and substance use problems.

Stigma reduction is an important public health challenge because of the large morbidity and mortality associated with some forms of substance use. Extreme stigma can lead to dehumanisation of target groups, who are ascribed with lesser humanity. The authors examined whether there was blatant and subtle dehumanisation of people who use heroin, and if these were associated with levels of support for non-discriminatory drug policy.

A cross-sectional online study using a UK convenience sample (n = 307 [75.2% female, mean age 28.6 ± 12.2 years]) was conducted. Participants completed assessments of blatant (Ascent of Humans [AoH] scale) and subtle (an emotion attribution task) dehumanisation and a bespoke measure assessing support for non-discriminatory drug policies. Other measures controlled for stigma towards people who use drugs (PWUD) and moral disgust.

There was greater blatant dehumanisation of people who used heroin compared to the general population and other potentially stigmatised reference groups, including people who use cannabis. The authors also found evidence of subtle dehumanisation, and people who used heroin were rated as being less likely to feel uniquely human emotions, less likely to feel positive emotions and more likely to feel negative emotions. Blatant dehumanisation was associated with significantly lower probability of support for non-discriminatory drug policy.

Dehumanisation may present significant challenges for stigma reduction initiatives and in fostering public support for drug policy and treatment. Denial of the humanity of this group could be used to justify discriminatory policies or relative deprioritisation of support services in funding decisions. Activities that seek to “rehumanise” PWUD, including social inclusion, and encouraging compassionate media representations that portray the lived experiences of substance use may be useful areas of future work.

This is the first study to investigate blatant and subtle dehumanisation of people who use heroin, and how this relates to public support for drug policy.

Controversy on this subject has now ranged over our past six numbers, and still the discussion continues, but with rather less urbanity on the part of some colleagues than might have been expected. In this further Symposium the contributors are Mr. B. A. Ower, Librarian, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa; Miss Freda F. Waldon, Librarian, Hamilton Public Library, Ontario; Mr. Eric Moon, Editor, Library Journal and lately Secretary and Director of the Newfoundland Public Library Services; Miss Dorothy McNaughton, Secretary to the Institute of Professional Librarians, Ontario Library Association; A Canadian Librarian; Mr. W. B. Paton, Honorary Secretary of the Library Association. From the nature of the comments and the theories presented, British, Canadian and American librarians who propose to be at the Montreal Conference will be enabled to follow every angle of the discussions.

Relatively little is known about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in later life, though the available evidence indicates that it is as prevalent as in childhood and youth. The current study was an on‐line questionnaire (of basic biographical information, general health, quality of life and score on the Autism Quotient [AQ] measure) of UK‐resident adults in their forties who had been diagnosed with ASD or suspected they had ASD. The findings indicated health and quality of life problems very significantly greater than the population norms, with strong indications that prototypical problems of younger people with ASD (such as social isolation and anxiety) persist throughout adult life, even in individuals in high‐income professions. Respondents who thought they had ASD were qualitatively identical to respondents with a formal diagnosis ‐ only the strength of symptoms differed. Scores on the AQ measure did not correlate with other symptoms. Although the study is of a relatively small number (N = 29) of people and there are limitations imposed by the study's design, the findings are robust, and indicate an urgent need to examine ASD in the older population using a larger, more demographically representative study.

The purpose of this paper is to examine recent trends in presentation to treatment where cannabis is identified as the primary drug.

Data is drawn from the recently published Public Health England report and supplemented with Home Office and European data.

The data shows a marked increase in presentations for cannabis treatment over recent years. The authors offer some potential explanations for this trend.

The authors need to improve our understanding of the type of cannabis that is available and how specifically it is used. In parallel there is a pressing need for an evaluation of evidence in relation to treatment for problematic cannabis users.

This paper highlights this recent trend in treatment presentations, offers some potential explanations and makes associated recommendations.