DS Daily - 9th December 2010 |
Drug strategy 2010
A major change to government policy, the 2010 strategy sets out a fundamentally different approach to preventing drug use in our communities, and in supporting recovery from drug and alcohol dependence [Home Office, UK]
Drug strategy 2010 PDF
This is the 2010 drug strategy, 'Reducing demand, restricting supply, building recovery: supporting people to live a drug-free life' [Home Office, UK]
Impact assessment PDF
This document provides an overarching assessment of the impacts of the new drug strategy [Home Office, UK]
Equality screening document PDF
This document summarises the initial findings of the equality considerations for the new drug strategy [Home Office, UK]
Addaction responds to the Government's drug strategy
In many ways, the strategy mirrors existing working practices at Addaction, and across the treatment sector. It is rightly ambitious, and we are pleased to see it recognise that a number of approaches are needed to tackle the devastating impact that drugs and alcohol have on society - as well as increasing the focus on supporting people to recover from their addictions [Addaction, UK]
DrugScope responds to the publication of the 2010 drug strategy
The strategy gives a strong emphasis on supporting treatment and recovery. We welcome the content, tone and approach outlined in the strategy, particularly the need to build on progress achieved, putting individuals at the heart of recovery and working with a range of services, such as training, housing and wider health services [DrugScope, UK]
NTA response to publication of the drug strategy (2010)
As a keystone of the new Public Health England, the NTA looks forward to delivering on an ambitious new drug strategy firmly focussed on getting users into full recovery [National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, UK]
Drug strategy could put more people at risk
The 'one-size fits all' approach to drug use that informs this government strategy, is likely to result in more people being exposed to greater risks and not receiving the support that they actually need [Release, UK]
Turning Point Response to Drugs Strategy 2010
Turning Point has long promoted the need for recovery to be seen as a journey. Abstinence is of course the end goal but there are many paths that can be taken and this should be recognised by the drug treatment system [Turning Point, UK]
Drug policy
Getting the strategy right for the long term [UKDPC]
Drug strategy - Radio 5 interview
Interview with Martin Barnes, Chief Executive, DrugScope - Starts at about 1.41.10 and ends 1.48.00 [BBC iPlayer, UK]
Do drug users need punishment or pity?
On the one hand the document sets out a government approach that would "consistently enforce effective criminal sanctions to deter drug use" but simultaneously "offer every support for people to choose recovery as an achievable way out of dependency" - Mark Easton [BBC, UK]
Coalition shelves plans for 'abstinence-based' drug strategy
Coalition wants to pay drug treatment agencies 'by result' and while abstinence remains the goal its strategy falls short of demands by the Tory right [Guardian, UK]
Taking a recovery-based approach to drug policy
The government's new drug strategy focuses on the long-term recovery of users – and getting them back into their communities - Andrew Lansley [Guardian, UK]
Proposals for banning drugs are more draconian than they seem
Campaigners have spotted sub-clauses in the UK government's new bill that effectively remove respect for individual liberty when prohibiting particular drugs - Edwin Stratton, Drug Equality Alliance [Guardian, UK]
Teesside's prison drugs industry
The governor of Teesside's Holme House prison claims that criminals are deliberately getting sent to jail, so they can sell drugs to other inmates [BBC, UK]
ACMD
UK Drug Policy Commission statement on Government proposals
about the role and membership of the Advisory Council on the
Misuse of Drugs [UKDPC]
Harm Minimisation Platform for Stockton
A multidisciplinary team that includes a BBV nurse and harm minimisation workers, and an outreach service to provide appointments in the community, rather than in hospital settings [CRI, UK]
Ken Clarke's focus on mental health is bold and progressive
The bogeyman of the Tory right deserves credit for aiming to divert people with mental illness away from prison and the courts [Guardian, UK]
SMMGP Policy Update
November 2010 [SMMGP, UK]
Homeless support tender 'cost £1000 extra per day'
Council chiefs who put help for homeless people out to tender in a bid to save money ended up paying £1000 a day more for the same service, it has been claimed [Edinburgh Evening News, UK]
Young people and alcohol: influences on how they drink
The report identifies the influence of both existing cultural attitudes around alcohol, and new and emergent attitudes that separate younger drinkers' consumption from that of other age groups. Full report - summary [Joseph Rowntree Foundation, UK]
New legal ruling will see drink discounts continue
A landmark legal ruling has given pubs, nightclubs and social clubs the opportunity to continue offering discount drink promotions despite Government moves to outlaw them [The Herald, Scotland, UK]
Ban on bars selling cheap alcohol is overturned
Bars in Scotland can continue to offer discount drinks "promotions" despite tough new licensing laws, a court has ruled [The Scotsman, UK]
Minimum pricing policy could cost alcohol industry £1.2bn if rolled out across the UK
The Scottish Government’s favoured tool of minimum pricing to counter problem drinking would cost the alcohol industry as much as £1.2 billion a year if applied UK wide,according to research commissioned by Belhaven owner Greene King [The Herald, Scotland, UK]
First European conference on drug supply indicators - key conclusions
The main goal of the First European conference on drug supply indicators was to launch the work needed to establish a set of technically sound and sustainable indicators for monitoring drug markets, crime and supply reduction for Europe - PDF [EMCDDA]
Drugs strategy ‘seriously undermined’
Drugs groups have accused the Government of "seriously undermining" the National Drugs Strategy by slashing both the drugs and community development budgets [Irish Examiner]
Needle Exchange Comes of Age
Since 1990 the estimated number of I.V. needles swapped in the United States has more than tripled, to nearly 4 million annually ... It's the right moment, as a matter of policy and politics, for the United States to pronounce this syringe-exchange experiment a success and get on with implementing a program of delivering clean needles - and treatment - on demand [The Nation, USA]
Drug Addicts With Dirty Needles
In the United States. AIDS first struck primarily homosexual men. but today the virus appears to be spreading most rapidly among intravenous drug users [The Nation, USA]
Rockefeller's Drug Law: Playing Politics with Addiction
Considering the immense amount of research conducted in the United States on drug use, and the almost overwhelming weight of opinion to support the liberalization of drug laws, it is difficult to understand how such a repressive bill could have found backers [The Nation, USA]
Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome after Methadone or Buprenorphine Exposure
These results are consistent with the use of buprenorphine as an acceptable treatment for opioid dependence in pregnant women [NEJM, USA]
A Report of the Surgeon General
The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease [Surgeon General, USA]
New tobacco warnings from surgeon general
Surgeon General released a new report Thursday detailing for the first time how tobacco causes cancer, heart attacks and so many other ailments and why it is so addictive [Washington Post, USA]
Inside a drug smuggling tunnel on the US-Mexico border
The tunnel had its own lighting, ventilation and a system of tracks and trolleys for transporting drugs [BBC, UK]
Taxpayers to foot bill for smoking patches
Nicotine patches and other anti-smoking drugs will be subsidised by taxpayers as part of a federal government bid to help addicts kick the habit [The Age, Australia]
Punjab's drugs epidemic
Punjab has had a drugs problem for many years, but what the student says confirms the widespread fear that things there have recently become much worse [BBC, UK]