DS Daily - 24th May 2013

Letters to music festival organisers in 2013

Letters from minister highlight concerns about 'legal highs' (new psychoactive substances), illegal drugs and gases (such as nitrous oxide) | Home Office, UK

The War on Drugs: the Observer debate – as it happened

Live coverage of a panel discussion on drug laws with David Simon, writer of The Wire, documentary maker Eugene Jarecki, Rachel Seifert, the director of the documentary Cocaine Unwrapped and others at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. The debate was chaired by Observer editor John Mulholland | Guardian, UK

Study call after Jersey drug use changed 'dramatically'

Drug users in Jersey are turning to prescribed drugs and legal highs as patterns of use "change dramatically", an expert has said | BBC, UK

Legal high dangers highlighted across Scottish Borders

Police in the Borders are to stage a series of events to raise awareness of the harmful effects of the drugs known as legal highs | BBC, UK

Flesh-eating bug alert after deaths of two addicts in Lanarkshire

Health officials have issued an alert after the deaths of two injecting drug users who had contracted the flesh-eating bug necrotising fasciitis | BBC, UK

Alcohol Education Trust - newsletter for parents (PDF)

first edition of our newsletter for parents about drinking and kids….alcohol is something that our children will have to make decisions about, as 88% of adults drink here in the UK, and it’s all around us, in shops, cafes, bars, on TV and in our homes | AET, UK

Is tabloid outrage just getting more people into legal highs?

The British tabloid media has a love-hate relationship with legal highs. At the same rate that the drugs are being invented by the Chinese party chemists eager to make anxiety-inducing powders available over the internet (which is stupidly quickly), the media churns out a barrage of scare stories about overdoses and hospitalised students | Vice, UK

Welfare reforms: how their introduction will affect charities

The new universal credits and the personal independence payments could place greater demands on the voluntary sector | Guardian, UK

Uefa: New drug-testing plans and 10-match bans for racism

Uefa will retrospectively study 900 doping samples given since 2008 as it attempts to combat use of performance-enhancing drugs in European football | BBC, UK

Match of the Day: QPR's anti-smoking scheme - video

Match of the Day visits Premier League club Queens Park Rangers to learn more about a new scheme designed to prevent local youngsters from taking up smoking. The club's Health Stars initiative aims to promote better health and wellbeing in the local community | BBC, UK

Sharp exchanges between Martin and Gilmore over tobacco lobbying

Fianna Fáil leader desribes meeting with industry members as ‘disturbing’ | Irish Times, Ireland

"21st Century Drug Policy Reform: A Conversation with Gil Kerlikowske" video

Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will discuss the Obama Administration’s plans to support innovative alternatives to incarceration and policies that reduce drug use and its consequences | Urban Institute Events, USA

New L.A. law on medical marijuana shops faces hazy future

Voters approved a measure that would keep only 135 dispensaries — those operating before a failed moratorium in 2007 — open. But challenges await the law | LA Times, USA

Marijuana is drug most often linked to crime, study finds

Marijuana is the drug most often linked to crime in the United States, the U.S. drug czar said Thursday, dismissing calls for legalization as a “bumper-sticker approach” that should be avoided | McClatchy.com, USA

Critique 112: Relation of alcohol intake to risk of dying from cancer — 23 May 2013

There have been many papers relating alcohol intake to specific types of cancer. It is clear that heavy drinking is associated with an increase in the risk of most upper aero-digestive cancers (e.g., cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx), and even moderate drinking has been associated with a slight increase in the risk of breast cancer | Boston University School of Medicine, USA

Getting To Tomorrow: A Report on Canadian Drug Policy

The report documents the failing role that current federal drug policies play in supporting safety and health and draws attention to the acute need for an improved system of supports for people who use drugs including harm reduction | Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Canada