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There is growing international concern about substance use, and its impact on public, individual, and community wellbeing. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that in 2019 approximately 2.6 million deaths were attributed to alcohol consumption, and 600 000 deaths were attributed to psychoactive substances 1. Alcohol consumption has a causal role in 31 health conditions, including both noncommunicable diseases and injuries. In addition, the WHO reports that tobacco causes over 7 million deaths per year 2. The WHO Global alcohol action plan 2022–2030 has a target to achieve ‘by 2030, at least 20% relative reduction (in comparison with 2010) in the harmful use of alcohol’ and various international bodies have called for enhancing the prevention and treatment of alcohol and other substance use 3. Pharmacy as a profession continues to contribute to these targets. Pharmacists have an essential and evolving role in addressing substance use across a range of settings. One of the most well recognized roles is in harm reduction in community pharmacy—e.g. opioid substitution programmes 4, the supply of sterile injecting equipment and the provision of naloxone for the prevention of opioid overdose fatalities 5. The former two emerged in the 1980s onwards in response to the HIV crisis and recognition that HIV could be spread through the sharing of injecting equipment. Community pharmacy’s role in smoking cessation interventions is also well-known worldwide, and is evolving with vaporized nicotine products 6. Research has shown that a screening and brief intervention role is both possible and acceptable within the contexts of smoking cessation and risky alcohol consumption 6.
Sheridan et al. (Wed,) studied this question.