Sexual health and drugs and alcohol are inexticably linked in terms of promotion, prevention, screening and treatment and therefore the service delivery comes under the remitt of the wider sexual health and harm reduction team. The benefits of this are inabling comprehensive and constistant sexual health and harm reduction programmes of work to be delivered city wide; increasing the skill base within an already established and respected team; and ensuring that work is approriatley targetted in line with relevant sexual health , alcohol and drug strategies nationally and locally.

For the purpose of this website both alcohol and drugs and harm reduction have their own sections for more targetted and specific information.

The team is part of the Sexual Health and Harm Reduction Team and has developed out of joint working between sexual health, drugs and alcohol as recommended in both the National Drugs Strategy and the Sexual Health Strategy. It is now largely recognised that risk taking behaviours increase when drugs and/or alcohol are used. Drug use is largely defined as either ‘problematic’ or ‘recreational’ although these terms are not always useful as they are subjective to the user and the current environment both culturally and legally. Drugs can be defined in different ways e.g.:

• Illicit drugs
• Prescribed drugs
• Over the counter drugs (legitimately bought in pharmacies and shops)

Within these groups, drugs can be further grouped into the following categories:

1. Depressants
2. Narcotic Analgesics
3. Stimulants
4. Hallucinogenic
5. Legal highs

Legal Highs:

Legal highs cover the variety of substances that mimic the effects of illegal drugs but can be bought legally in certain shops, over the Internet and at music festivals. Many of these drugs can cause health problems but are assumed safe because they are sold as ‘herbal’ or ‘natural’. The packagings for these products rarely display the ingredients, or side effects, and unlike prescription drugs, or over the counter medicines, they have not undergone rigorous clinical trials. Their current legal status is not fully clear, they may come under the law relating to medicines and thereby are legal to possess but not supply.

Marijuana/cannabis:

Marijuana or cannabis is a more difficult drug to categories due to its spectrum of effects. All drugs will vary according to the ‘set or setting’ in which they are taken, i.e. the mood of the user and the environment that they are in at the time of using the drug. Cannabis, however, can cause the user to experience stimulant or depressive effects, analgesic and, or, hallucinogenic effects regardless of set or setting.