DS Daily - 1st March 2013 |
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Drug related deaths in the UK (PDF)
Drug-related deaths reported by Coroners in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man; Police forces in Scotland; & the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency | np SAD, UK
Annual UK drug deaths fall seven per cent, with heroin-related deaths continuing to decline
Annual deaths related to heroin and morphine are continuing to drop significantly, falling from 41 per cent of total drug-related deaths in the UK in 2010 to 32 per cent in 2011. Meanwhile, deaths from ‘legal highs’ – some of which have now been banned – remained steady following a large increase in the previous year | St George's Hospital Medical School, UK
Health first: an evidence based drug strategy for the UK (PDF)
This report has been produced by an independent group of experts with no involvement from the alcohol industry. It has been written for everyone with an interest in promoting public health and community safety, at both national and local levels | Univ Stirling, UK
Call for UK-wide 50p per unit price
There should be a pan-UK strategy to combat problem drinking - including a 50p minimum price for a unit of alcohol, experts say | BBC, UK
Doctors: urgent action on alcohol needed
Coalition of health organisations outlines series of radical measures to reduce £55bn annual cost of alcohol misuse | Guardian, UK
Blackpool: the heart of England's drinking culture
Nigel Bunyan meets drinkers, police and health workers in the town with the highest alcohol-related death rate for men | Guardian, UK
Survey on availability of alcohol in the Highlands
A public survey has been launched into the availability of alcohol in the Highlands | BBC, UK
PM considers making cigarette packets display graphic images of disease
Cameron also examining ban on smoking in cars when children are present | BBC, UK
Kiwis on drugs: a blueprint for the future?
Want to know what the future for global drug control looks like? | BBC, UK
Standing up for a binge: There's another side to the coin in the drinking debate
Banish binge drinking altogether and good times will go with it | Independent, UK
Coronation Street pensioners in cannabis scandal
The ITV soap's Sylvia Goodwin and Dennis Tanner are set to score the drug from a dealer, before baking it into ''space cakes'' for them and their friends in a bid to beat the aches and pains of old age | TV3, UK
No system to report Gravesend schoolboy Ed Barry, 13, was injecting heroin, inquest told
There was no set procedure in place to report a 13-year-old was injecting heroin, an inquest jury has been told | KentOnline, UK
Man accused of beating heavily pregnant ex-fiancee to death was 'addicted to cheap supermarket alcohol and Guitar Hero'
A man accused of beating his heavily pregnant ex-fiancee and their unborn baby to death has described how he became addicted to cheap supermarket alcohol and the Guitar Hero computer game | Independent, UK
Brighton and Hove finally winning war on drug deaths
New figures show Brighton and Hove may finally be winning the war against drug deaths. The city is no longer the worst in the country for people dying from fatal overdoses. Siobhan Ryan and Bill Gardner talk to workers on the frontline about how more addicts are being pulled back from the brink | Argus, UK
It’s time to stand together to protect the best drug and alcohol treatment system in the world
At a recent conference I was asked to speak on what the biggest changes to the public sector for a generation felt like at the coal face for an organisation like Blenheim | Blenheim Project, UK
England behind Australia in drugs war
English cricket is lagging almost six years behind Australia in its approach to drug testing, it has emerged | Independent, UK
Parental discipline seen as 'major crime factor' in NI
A lack of parental discipline is viewed as one of the major causes of crime by people in Northern Ireland, according to government research. In the Perceptions of Crime survey, 60% of the 4,064 people surveyed cited it as a major factor with drugs at 71% and alcohol at 65% | BBC, UK
Female offender 'hostels' considered
The introduction of "secure hostels" for women offenders in England and Wales is being considered by ministers, the justice secretary has told MPs | BBC, UK
Drug policy profiles — Ireland
The national drug policy of Ireland comes under the spotlight in the second volume in the EMCDDA series of Drug policy profiles | EMCDDA, Portugal
Barriers and facilitators to hepatitis C treatment for people who inject drugs. A qualitative study
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant global public health problem. The burden of HCV infection is concentrated among people who inject drugs (PWID), with an estimated five million PWID living with chronic HCV in the European Region. Download the report here (PDF) | WHO, Switzerland
Wants to make heroin smoking legal
Health Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has proposed that the smoking of heroin should no longer be considered a criminal offence in Norway, in order to make drug addicts switch from injections to smoking the drug | Norway Post, Norway
Asia: Walking the ‘legal high’ wire
Once thought to be a largely Western problem, a report due to be released shortly by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that new psychoactive substances, so called “legal highs,” are now a global issue being fuelled by the Internet | Asian Correspondent, USA
Marijuana reform Hawaii and New Mexico say yes to decriminalizing marijuana
In a landmark decision in Hawaii, on Feb. 26, members of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee, enacted measures in line with numerous states on the mainland, to decriminalize marijuana use | Examiner, USA
Alcohol warning labels and ‘valuable label real estate’
There’s a legal requirement in Australia for all packaged alcohol to show the alcohol content of the beverage and the number of standard drinks. But there’s no need for the label to bear any information about the well-known health risks of consuming alcohol | Conversation, Australia
Explainer: foetal alcohol spectrum disorders
The debate about alcohol’s harms is seemingly endless: the role of alcohol in violence, unplanned sex, injury and motor vehicle accidents, the teen binge-drinking epidemic, the risks of cancer and liver disease from chronic alcohol use and raising the legal age for purchase have all been discussed | Conversation, Australia
Fear, stigma and prejudice limit pharmacy methadone delivery
Fear of the impact on existing customers is one of the key reasons that 60 per cent of community pharmacies in Australia do not provide opioid substitution treatment (OST) services, new research reveals. The study, published in Drug and Alcohol Review, found that pharmacists’ attitudes towards clients on OST were highly polarised | Pharmacy News, Australia
Phone tip-off led to nation's biggest drug haul
A single phone call to police from an anonymous source triggered a five-month investigation that netted Australia's largest recorded ice seizure - more than half a tonne, worth an estimated $438 million | Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Ice ice baby: record seizure won’t freeze crystal meth market
Yesterday’s record 585 kg crystal methamphetamine seizure made headlines, but then so do many others. Was this one big enough to deserve special attention? And what effect does a seizure like this have on a narcotics market anyway? | Conversation, Australia
VAADA Conference 2013 Broadening the Focus Presentations
Presentations now online | VAADA, Australia