Daily news - 16th December 2013

'Drug treatment - a potted history: Roughly 1966 to the present day'; a conference presentation (PDF)

A conference presentation by DrugScope Chief Executive Martin Barnes - text and power point slides: 'An understanding of the past is important in helping to inform an understanding of current policy and practice; how we got where we are today; but also whether lessons from the past have been fully learnt, particularly in terms of new structures and responsibilities, and also whether the sector can today avoid repeating simplistic and polarising positions: e.g., 'harm reduction' v 'abstinence' | DrugScope, UK

Education would allow users rational choice on 'legal highs' - video

We should be honest and allow people access to "safe intoxicants" like cannabis, former government drugs adviser Professor David Nutt tells Channel 4 News [Also includes Harry Shapiro from DrugScope] | Channel 4, UK

Why James Bond's drinking is a Dr No no

Team of researchers who tracked spy's alcohol consumption say he would have been at risk of liver disease and impotence [original research below] | Guardian, UK

Christmas 2013: Research - Were James Bond’s drinks shaken because of alcohol induced tremor?

All 14 James Bond books were read by two of the authors. Contemporaneous notes were taken detailing every alcoholic drink taken. Predefined alcohol unit levels were used to calculate consumption. Days when Bond was unable to consume alcohol (such as through incarceration) were noted | BMJ, UK

Stay-at-home drinking and socialising on the rise as Britons avoid paying premium of being served food or drink in pubs and bars

Going for a coffee is now the third most popular leisure outing beating attending a concert or hitting a night club, according to study | Independent, UK

Drug Strategy Annual Review 2013 – Reducing Demand

The government have produced their latest assessment of where things stand with the drug strategy and some of their priorities for the coming year | Mentor, UK

My daughter died from taking drugs

Martha Fernback was 15 when she died after taking what she thought was ecstasy. Next day, her mother – Anne-Marie Cockburn – began a raw and intimate diary, a unique chronicle of a mother's grief. By Joanna Moorhead | Guardian, UK

Norman Baker on legal highs: This trade has claimed too many lives

Writing exclusively for the Sunday People, Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker says he will review the current drug laws | Sunday People, UK

China arrests 1,300 people suspected of making and selling fake medicines

Authorities seize fake drugs and tonnes of raw materials as part of government crackdown | Guardian, UK

Transform launches new cannabis book as legal regulation becomes reality in Uruguay

On Tuesday, Transform launched its latest publication ‘How to Regulate Cannabis: A Practical Guide’, in the UK Houses of Parliament. The event fortuitously coincided with Uruguay passing legislation to make it the first country in the world to legally regulate the production, sale and possession of cannabis | Transform, UK

Newsnight : America's cannabis entrepreneurs - video

A year ago this week, marijuana was legalised in two of America's states. The change has meant not simply that authorities are turning a blind eye to those using it, but that many in Colorado and Washington are looking to this newfound freedom as a business opportunity to make a livelihood. Alastair Leithead reports | BBC, UK

Cannabis Café To Be Opened In Manchester By Drugs Campaigner Colin Davies

A drugs campaigner says he plans to open a cannabis café in Manchester in the new year. Colin Davies, who made a name for himself when he handed the unsuspecting Queen a posy of marijuana in 2000, says he will open The New Way Café on Tariff Street in January | Huffington Post, UK

This guy is charting London's drug use with a discarded baggie map

What do you do with your leftover drug paraphernalia? Unless you're one of those ambitious stoner hoarders who insists on keeping stems for pots of weed tea you'll never brew, chances are you throw everything away | Vice, UK

Review: 'Demons: our changing attitudes to alcohol, tobacco and drugs', By Virginia Berridge (Oxford University Press, £16.99)

A table published in the Lancet in 2007 ranked substances for harmfulness, and it made headlines when it placed alcohol ahead of crack cocaine and ketamine (“Special K”, to those who enjoy administering a horse tranquiliser on themselves). Tobacco was judged to be worse than cannabis, glue and solvents, LSD and ecstasy. Bar-room philosophers all over the land almost spilled their pints at the notion that they were hard-drug users | Independent, UK

Legalising Cannabis In Britain, Like Uruguay, 'Would Save Millions'

Recent reform victories are reshaping the landscape of the oldest debate in drug policy| Huffington Post, UK

James Delingpole: In defence of cocaine

If you can handle your drink, why should your self-control desert you with other drugs?| Spectator, UK

Colombian clubs' 'safe drugs' tests - video

A voluntary drug-testing service at some of Colombia's nightclubs is aiming to reduce the risk to revellers from impure substances. The free service, run by an NGO, uses a portable lab and chemicals to test samples of drugs for any "dangerous adulterants" | BBC, UK

Seattle marks first legal cannabis anniversary - video

Residents in Seattle, Washington, have held a public celebration, marking 12 months of legalised recreational cannabis use. The question of whether or not to relax drug laws is facing many countries, with Uruguay recently becoming the first country to legalise marijuana | BBC, UK

Tearing Down the Pop Edifice of Mexico’s Drug Culture

The most haunting scenes in Shaul Schwarz’s documentary about the drug war, “Narco Cultura,” do not come from inside the cars where someone has just been assassinated, nor from the morgue in Ciudad Juárez, where Mr. Schwarz spent dozens of hours capturing intimate details alongside forensic specialists... | Lens @ NY Times, USA

Broken Promises to Our Children: The 1998 State Settlement Report 15 Years Later

In 1998, states settled their lawsuits against the nation’s major tobacco companies to recover tobacco-related health care costs, with total payments estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years. Full report here | RWJF, USA

At The White House, Learning How Not To Talk About Addiction

We don’t refer to someone who has anorexia or bulimia as having a “food abuse” problem. We say they have an eating disorder. So why do we refer to someone who is addicted to alcohol or pain pills as having a “substance abuse” problem? | WBUR, USA

Smoke from E-Cigs Still Poses Some Second-Hand Risk

It’s not real tobacco smoke, but the emissions from electronic cigarettes can still contain harmful ingredients. A new study published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research shows that e-cigarettes generate enough nicotine emissions that they can be inhaled by those near a smoker. The researchers conducted two studies on three brands of e-cigarettes that investigated what the devices emitted into the surrounding air | TIME, USA